help with preview picture - help with preview picture

[charlie brown]

Can anyboby help with getting a preview picture? I created a new scene but I don't know how to get a preview picture of it? Do you Pause the sim and somehow copy and paste the picture? Thanks charlie ???

[Perry]

Pause the simulation at the golden moment.
Your Prt SCR key on your keybrd will save the screen to the system clipboard.
Use a Paint utility to paste the clipboard in to view the saved screen.
From the paint utility, clip out a region of the picture you want to use.
In the Paint utility resize the clipped region to 200 x 200
Save the clipped and resized region to JPG format with the same name as the Landscape or model you want to preview.

Additionally you must name the preview file with a "_prv" before the extension.
Example:
Mustang_prv.jpg

This must be done for the Simulator to view it as a preview.

Perry

[charlie brown]

Hi Perry, Thank you for the quick response. I'll give it a try.
Charlie

[charlie brown]

Hi Perry, I'm having trouble locating the system clipboard. I have windows XP. Can you tell me where to look? regards, charlie

[Perry]

The system clipboard is largely an unseen area of memory though you can get utilities to view what is in it.
When you press the PrtScr key on you keyboard, the screen is saved to it. Believe me. You just can't see it.
Now Run the Microsoft paint utility (usually on your start menu - Programs - Accessories), and from the Edit menu at the top, choose Paste.
The Paint program will copy the screen information from the Clipboard to MSPaint and you will be able to work with it from there. View, Modify, Save, whatever.
Most paint utilities will work this way.
The reason I suggested using another paint utility is because I don't believe that MSPaint will save it in .JPG format. (unless Microsoft changed something in the XP version).
Perhaps .BMP files are also acceptable but I haven't tried it. I don't know. I have just noted that all observable preview files are in .JPG format and so I followed suite. It's adviseable since essentially the same info takes less memory space.
There are some free paint utilities that will save in JPG format. Paintshop Pro trial version is one of them. But most people have something already resident on their machines that will do the trick.
Hope that helps.

Perry

[Ken Rusnok]

An excellent freeware program is available at irfanview.com.
It includes the very nice ability to reduce a large BMP file and then save it as a JPG. This has proved to be repeatedly useful at work in sending screen shots to my colleague in Denmark.