Customizing the appearance of background images and movies

You can customize the appearance of a background image or movie by repositioning it in the viewport, by stretching or compressing it in the X- or Y-direction, and by adjusting its level of translucency. These customization options are available for both images and movies, but their settings are separate; for example, if you change the X-axis scale setting for background images, the same setting for background movies in the Visualization module remains unchanged.

Related Topics
Displaying a background image
Displaying and customizing a background movie

  1. From the main menu bar, select ViewImage/Movie Options.

    The Image/Movie Options dialog box appears with the Image tab selected by default. To customize background movies, click the Movie tab.

  2. Toggle Show image on the Image page or Show movie during animation on the Movie page to activate the customization options.

  3. Select one of the Position and scale options for your background image or movie:

    Fit to viewport

    This option positions the background image or movie in the center of the viewport and scales it to the Width or Height of the current viewport. In addition, you can select the Best option, which scales either the background movie in the direction that causes the lesser amount of deformation to the image.

    Auto-align

    This option enables you to align the background image or movie in one of nine positions in the viewport: its center, any of the four corners, or centered along any of the four edges. Expand the Alignment list, then select one of the options from the graphical depictions of alignment in the list.

    Manual

    This option enables you to reposition the background image at a location other than the center of the viewport. Click Manual, then enter in the Origin field the location at which you want to position the lower left corner of the background image.

  4. For Auto-align or Manual scaling, you can specify the amount of scaling along either axis. Specify the X scale or Y scale for the background image or movie. The default scale values are 1; increase the scale to stretch the image or movie along the selected axis, or decrease the value to compress it along the selected axis.

  5. Drag the Translucency slider to the percentage of translucency you want. This setting changes the translucency of the background image or movie and blends it with the displayed model. A value of 0.00 is transparent, and a value of 1.00 is opaque. By default, background images or movies and models are displayed with opaque translucency.

  6. Click OK to apply your changes and to close the Image/Movie Options dialog box.