Changing the background pic in Visualizer

[ItsMeBobO]

Took some new pics of the front yard with the props. All I want to do is change out the picture but I am getting undesired results.

DevMike or someone.. How do I change the pic without scaling the props. They are exactly the shape I want. There is an aspect ratio check box, but either way all the props become deformed.

Basically the new bg picture is wider than the old as I want to include a larger view. But I do not want to change the props shapes.

[Aaron Maue]

BobO,

This doesn't directly answer your question, but can you edit the new pic to have the same dimensions (pixel width and height) as the old one? This might require inserting some "blank" space into the photo, if it has a different aspect ratio as the old one. Then, rename it to the same name as the old pic, save it to the same location as the old one (rename the old one as well, so as not to lose it). Visualizer would then use the new pic and not even know it had changed.

I haven actually tried this, so may not work, but thought it might be worth a try.

[ItsMeBobO]

Was trying that last night. Editing the .lee got me a medium good result. I guess I am stumped that a new picture of the same scale but including more of the yard would require the props to be stretched. How to get around?

[LOR Staff]

The size/shape of the fixtures is tied to the size of the simulation. That way when you resize the simulation, the fixtures resize the same way.

Since you are changing the size of the simulation, the Visualizer is going to change the size of the fixtures. Even if we kept the scale, the fixtures are going to be in the wrong spots.

You have 2 options:

1-Use the new stage size and manually resize each fixture/prop (using the corner handles)

2-When loading the new background, answer NO when it asks if you want to make the simulation the same size as the background. Then, change the new sizes to be the same as the old sizes. The fixtures will then have the same proportions, but will most likely be in the wrong spots.

You can edit the XML if you like. Change the background file name, and then set the EditorWidthTwips and EditorHeightTwips to the values of the new picture. You'll still have to move things around. Make sure you edit a BACKUP, since you are on your own if you edit the file by hand.

[ItsMeBobO]

Will send a request to the wishlist.

The two pictures were almost the same scale. 1 screen inch was 5 feet in the picture or something. But the new picture was wider to include more of the yard.

Changing the numbers to the those of the old one deformed the picture by changing its aspect ratio. Did not look acceptable plus the props which were not deformed, no longer matched the picture.

When using the new pictures numbers, the widening of the props was forced upon me. Resizing of the props does not handle matrix patterns well at all. When they are scaled, some of the rows and columns get shifted. This is another snag I didnt mention earlier. The shifting happens to all props when scaled but is most noticeable on props with repeating lines. I will make some pictures of it later.

To accomplish my task, I exported all 12 props. Then in a new .lee they were imported and were not deformed. I did have to place them in the proper location.