gr8designer Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 I'm one of those that started Chief awhile ago, last version was V10, then stopped because of a regular 9-5 job not using chief, and now am back again very excited about using Chief for architectural drawings! So, whatever I learned before, I have to relearn. So, here goes.... How does one insert text or a watermark, similar to the attached Chief drawing? Thanks for all your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 I think that is a job for Photoshop or a similar graphics editor using a special font. Maybe a PDF Editior could do it as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GerryT Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 You may want to do a search on this topic as it has been mentioned before. There is no way to watermark a plan in Chief. All of the posts on this topic just involve various methods to hide the watermark object, but any Chief user could eventually find and eliminate it. As Joe mentioned: I expect that Chief simply exported an image then watermarked it in Photoshop or Gimp. (See Youtube – Gimp is Free) You can create the watermark effect in Chief by importing a transparent image for the 2D plan part and then creating a stretched material for the 3D part. But anyone who has the plan could remove it. So no reason to do as Gimp or PDF protection is better route. There have been a few suggestions about adding password protected layers to permit this feature but were quickly “shot down” by Chief & others. So don’t expect anything. You may want to add your suggestion to Chief. – The squeaky wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 You can put some text, any size you want on layout page "0" and make it a very light shade of gray and it will show up on every page. There are a lot of photo editors for free online you can use like Picmonkey, my wife uses it all the time for her photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 BTW, I use the Nuance PDF Converter. It does have fairly extensive Watermark capabilities, including converting any image to a watermark that can be applied with whatever opacity you want. It's simply an overlay applied to the full area of your PDF. GIF's or PNG images with transparency work best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_Carrick Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 You can put some text, any size you want on layout page "0" and make it a very light shade of gray and it will show up on every page. Assuming that you print the layout to PDF, that will work just fine - it won't be removable by anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gr8designer Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 These are GREAT ideas and excellent tips! Thanks, everyone! I feel like giving you all a party! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LevisL Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 Bluebeam PDF and Adobe Acrobat both have a similar feature to what Joe uses. I use it all the time on Bluebeam. I tried Perry's method of putting text on page 0, but if you want to see through it like a true watermark, you have to put it on the back group (drawing order), but then any objects with a solid fill are above it and it doesn't look right. Until Chief gives us control over text opacity, it'll have to be a job for another program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 That's nice, it works ok for me b/c the reason for a watermark on my plan is to try to keep someone from copying it. I also don't use anything with a solid black color and print in grayscale, it seems to work good that way, but I understand everyone has their own thing going on, and the watermark might not show in every s.i. instance. I also place it (in front) very large almost a full sheet size so there is no question about what it is. Light gray (barely readable) color is the key Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glennw Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 I have used Perry's method on layout page zero using outline fonts - ie, not solid fonts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcapa1 Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Can you guys that use Layer 0, provide a graphic example of what yours looks like? I've had some issues with using this method when I send it to a printer, plus what lays over it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Ok, simple but it works for me. It's just regular text in the background. Print as grayscale of course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 One more important thing is ,go to preferences and check "Color off" to be grayscale. Then turn color off (button in toolbar) and everything prints to grayscale. You don't have to set all your lines to black. Don't use light colors that you want to show up good or they will be too light, those items should be on the darker side. You really have to play with it for yourself but once set its done forever.. This gives the plan a very nice contrast tone, walls are graytone also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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