Keep the tracing image part of the project?

[Gone2TheDogs]

You decide to add a tracing image to a new project, save, and start from this point the next day. The next day comes and you open your project. No tracing image. not even a reference to one.

I'm a hobbyist so perhaps I'm just not savvy enough to know how to keep the tracing image relative to the project. If you use tracing images, do you have any tricks for this?


I see a thumbnail of the tracing paper. Oddly enough it is used as a thumbnail for the project file too. But, there is no way to reoload it!

Just my 2 cents: I think the whole project management system needs to be revamped. The one product that really does it right is Webuilder. You create a project and all folders and files stay relative to a project while it is the active one.



Thanks for any advice!

[synthsin75]

Tracing image isn't very flexible. I usually just import the image and set Fade Unselected Layers, lower it's opacity, etc..

[Greenlaw]

I agree with Wes. Just import the image as a layer. This gives you more flexibility in how to display your image for tracing (i.e., scaling, positioning, and transparency level.)

My preference it so set the transparency of the imported layer to 25-50%, and I may move this layer above or below the layer I'm drawing into, depending on how I need to view the image while drawing.

Here's a useful tip I recently learned (from Wes actually,):

One thing that previously bothered me about the above technique is that the tracing image became fully opaque whenever I panned or rotated the canvas, or as I was drawing. When I mentioned this in another thread several months ago, Wes pointed out that if I enable GPU Acceleration the layer's transparency stays in effect when navigating the workspace or drawing in it. (You can toggle GPU Acceleration from the Display Quality list in the bottom right corner of the Workspace.)

Normally, I like to leave GPU Acceleration disabled because certain masking setups display more accurately this way, but now I enable GPU Acceleration when I need to trace something, and when I'm done, I switch it back off.

Hope this helps.

[Gone2TheDogs]

Great tips!
Very much appreciated!!