# man > ppmtoacad(1) > **TLDR:** Convert a PPM image to an AutoCAD database or slide. > - Convert a PPM image to an AutoCAD slide: `ppmtoacad {{path/to/file.ppm}} > {{path/to/file.acad}}` - Convert a PPM image to an AutoCAD binary database import file: `ppmtoacad {{-d|-dxb}} {{path/to/file.ppm}} > {{path/to/file.dxb}}` - Restrict the colors in the output to 8 RGB shades: `ppmtoacad -8 {{path/to/file.ppm}} > {{path/to/file.dxb}}` *Source: tldr-pages* --- [ppmtoacad(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ppmtoacad/1/markdown) General Commands Manual [ppmtoacad(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ppmtoacad/1/markdown) ## NAME ppmtoacad - convert portable pixmap to AutoCAD database or slide ## SYNOPSIS **ppmtoacad** [**-dxb**] [**-poly**] [**-background** _colour_] [**-white**] [**-aspect** _ratio_] [**-8**] [_ppmfile_] ## DESCRIPTION Reads a portable pixmap as input. Produces an AutoCAD® slide file or binary database import (.dxb) file as output. If no _ppmfile_ is specified, input is read from standard input. ## OPTIONS ### -dxb DXBIN command and, once loaded, becomes part of the AutoCAD geometrical database and can be viewed and edited like any other object. Each sequence of identical pixels be‐ comes a separate object in the database; this can result in very large AutoCAD drawing files. However, if you want to trace over a bitmap, it lets you zoom and pan around the bitmap as you wish. ### -poly -dxb Normally each row of pixels is represented by an AutoCAD line entity. If **-poly** is se‐ lected, the pixels are rendered as filled polygons. If the slide is viewed on a dis‐ play with higher resolution than the source pixmap, this will cause the pixels to ex‐ pand instead of appearing as discrete lines against the screen background colour. Re‐ grettably, this representation yields slide files which occupy more disc space and take longer to display. ### -background Most AutoCAD display drivers can be configured to use any available colour as the screen background. Some users perfer a black screen background, others white, while splinter groups advocate burnt ocher, tawny puce, and shocking grey. Discarding pix‐ els whose closest AutoCAD colour representation is equal to the background colour can substantially reduce the size of the AutoCAD database or slide file needed to repre‐ sent a bitmap. If no **-background** colour is specified, the screen background colour is assumed to be black. Any AutoCAD colour number may be specified as the screen back‐ ground; colour numbers are assumed to specify the hues defined in the standard AutoCAD 256 colour palette. ### -white a short-cut. Specifying **-white** is identical in effect to **-background** **7**. ### -aspect If the source pixmap had non-square pixels, the ratio of the pixel width to pixel height should be specified as _ratio_. The resulting slide or .dxb file will be cor‐ rected so that pixels on the AutoCAD screen will be square. For example, to correct an image made for a 320x200 VGA/MCGA screen, specify **-aspect** **0.8333**. ### -8 All flags can be abbreviated to their shortest unique prefix. ## BUGS AutoCAD has a fixed palette of 256 colours, distributed along the hue, lightness, and satura‐ tion axes. Pixmaps which contain many nearly-identical colours, or colours not closely ap‐ proximated by AutoCAD's palette, may be poorly rendered. **ppmtoacad** works best if the system displaying its output supports the full 256 colour AutoCAD palette. Monochrome, 8 colour, and 16 colour configurations will produce less than optimal results. When creating a .dxb file or a slide file with the **-poly** option, **ppmtoacad** finds both verti‐ cal and horizontal runs of identical pixels and consolidates them into rectangular regions to reduce the size of the output file. This is effective for images with large areas of con‐ stant colour but it's no substitute for true raster to vector conversion. In particular, thin diagonal lines are not optimised at all by this process. Output files can be huge. ## SEE ALSO AutoCAD Reference Manual: _Slide_ _File_ _Format_ and _Binary_ _Drawing_ _Interchange_ _(DXB)_ _Files_, [**ppm**(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ppm/5/markdown) ## AUTHOR John Walker Autodesk SA Avenue des Champs-Montants 14b CH-2074 MARIN Suisse/Schweiz/Svizzera/Svizra/Switzerland Usenet: Fax: 038/33 88 15 Voice: 038/33 76 33 Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, without any conditions or restrictions. This software is provided ``as is'' without express or implied warranty. AutoCAD and Autodesk are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. 10 October 1991 [ppmtoacad(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ppmtoacad/1/markdown)