PNG transparency not working

[doug shaffer]

Hello -

I am having trouble referencing PNG files with transparent backgrounds.

I used to do this often when using VW2013, but we upgraded to VW2014 and it is not working properly. Instead of the transparent areas of the PNG showing up as transparent, they come in as solid BLACK.

To explain our process, when working on old hand drawn buildings, we often scan the original drawings, convert the file to PNG then make all "white" areas of the PNG transparent. We then import (reference) these in to Vectorworks and are able to apply color fills "below" the PNG and the background fills will show through, but not cover up the black lines of the scan.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Doug

[barkest]

This is similar to the bug I just submitted with decals. The alpha channel on the png on a decal is ignored. Works fine on 2012

[PVA - Admin]

Send me any one of your PNGs that experiences this issue and I can have a look:

tech@vectorworks.net

Edited April 22, 2014 by JimW

[doug shaffer]

Hi, Jim -

I sent you the file earlier today. Have you had a chance to take a look at it?

Thanks -

Doug

[PVA - Admin]

Could you resend to tech@vectorworks.net and/or jwilson@vectorworks.net please? I did not receive it.

[PVA - Admin]

If I import your image, I get what you are seeing and a solid black fill appears.

However, the only way i know of to fix this, is to edit the original image (I used Photoshop but it shouldnt matter what you edit it with) and gave the image a pure white fill, then saved it again as a PNG.

If I then import it into Vectorworks, it appears with the solid white fill, but then I am able to set the bitmaps fill to None in the attributes palette and get the expected transparency.

I do not have an explanation for why it behaved differently in prior versions though, testing on both Mac and Windows here, in Vectorworks 2012, 2013 and 2014 I got a solid black background and had to correct it as described above.

I'll submit a feature request to see if Vectorworks can do this processing automatically to remove the need for a workaround.