By Prof. Jose R. Buitrago, assistant professor, University of Georgia School of Environmental Design

Fig. 17

Many landscape architects are recently discovering that is possible to import an Auto CAD drawing into Adobe Photoshop CS2 as a PDF file. This format enables the user to take full advantage of the rendering capabilities that Adobe Photoshop CS2 has to offer.

Ashley Calabria, assistant professor at University of Georgia?EUR??,,????'???s School of Environmental Design, in the Sept. 2004 LASN wrote the Technology column on Quick Keys: Rendering an AutoCAD drawing in Photoshop. She explained the basic process of how to turn an AutoCAD drawing into a PDF format, then importing it into Adobe Photoshop CS2. Professor Calabria, in a subsequent article, showed the readers the basic principles of a rendering technique called air brush. In continuing this exploration of rendering a CAD drawing in Photoshop, the following is to illustrate other rendering techniques possible in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

 

Fig. 10

Start by launching Adobe Photoshop CS2. Under File menu, select Open and browse until you find your Adobe PDF drawing, hit the OK button. The Import PDF pop menu window will open. There, on Select, choose Page, Thumbnail?EUR??,,????'??+Size Fit the page, Crop to?EUR??,,????'??+Bounding Box, Resolution to 300 dpi or larger, Mode to RGB, and Bit Depth to 16 bit. Hit OK. Your drawing should carry the same paper size dimensions of your CAD drawing. See figure number 10. If not, just under the top menu option Image, select Canvas Size, and match the canvas size to the size of your original drawing. Be aware that there always a small percentage distortion in changing the AutoCAD file into a PDF and then into Photoshop CS2. This is normal but should be almost not noticeable to the trained eye.

The imported PDF drawing should show in the layer menu as standard Layer 1. Depending on your Photoshop default setting, your background should be either white or transparent. Now you should be able to take full potential of the different rendering techniques available on Adobe Photoshop CS2: blue print, sepia print, water color, pastel, color pencil, black pencil, green/black board chalk rendering, Prismacolor markers, air brush, and many others. So let?EUR??,,????'???s get started

Fig. 12

The ?EUR??,,????'??ACME?EUR??,,????'?? Blue Print

This format is especially attractive to those in the field of engineering. It brings a feeling of nostalgia for that dated technology?EUR??,,????'??+the classic dark blue background color with high contrast white lines of the turn of the century ammonia-diazo print machines. Others might remember watching the classic cartoon character of Wiley Coyote chasing the Road Runner with his ACME plans and devices. This format is one of the simplest ones to accomplish if you follow these simple steps.

Fig. 18

First, under layers, create a new layer and label it background. Rename the PDF drawing layer to line drawing. This simple step allows us to quickly recognize where things are located. Next, make the background layer the active layer and turn off the line drawing layer. From the tool bar, click on ?EUR??,,????'??set background color.?EUR??,,????'?? This should launch the ?EUR??,,????'??color picker?EUR??,,????'?? window. Scroll up or down on the color bar to get the blue schemes tones and value. Select the blue color that resembles the background blue color of an old blue print, and then hit OK. See Fig. 12. Using the rectangular marquee tool, select the entire background layer. Select the bucket tool and select the blue color from the background color, and click inside the field previously selected with the rectangular marquee tool. Make sure the background layer is active. This action will fill the background layer with a solid tone of blue color. After completion, deselect the area. Remember that the background color layer is under the line drawing layer, so make sure that your layers order is correct, otherwise the line drawing might end underneath the solid field of blue.

You might also want to consider and experiment with the Gradient tool. This tool will allow you to create a fade out feel on the background. Use the gradient editor and experiment with several color schemes combinations such as a dark and light tone of blue and the circular gradient. See Fig. 17.

Now, turn the Line Drawing layer on and make it the active layer. To change the lines from black/grey color you must go to the top tool bar; under Image ?EUR??,,????'??? Adjustments ?EUR??,,????'??? Brightness/Contrast. In the Brightness/Contrast pop up window change both field bars to +100. This will make the lines pure white.

Fig. 19

In order to age the looks even further; try using the Dodge or Burn tools to create highlights or dark spots along the edges. Make sure the background layer is the active layer, and experiment with the style of brush, size, range and exposure parameters. Try using the ?EUR??,,????'??drippy water?EUR??,,????'?? brush from the wet media brush styles in combination with the Dodge tool to create the effect of wet storage damage. See Fig. 17.

Ones you reach the desired ?EUR??,,????'??old blue print?EUR??,,????'?? feel. Save the drawing as an active Adobe Photoshop drawing and also save a copy as the ?EUR??,,????'??final drawing.?EUR??,,????'?? The last one is the copy that you need to flatten all layers to create one simple drawing. The first one you keep as a back up copy, in case that further revisions are needed. It?EUR??,,????'???s is extremely suggested that you print your drawing using Adobe PDF as well. This will turn the drawing into an easy format to print, plus reduce the file size considerably. See Fig. 18.