Difference between Drawing and Figure Tools

[automata]

This document was prepared in response to the Archicad-Talk question of when to use the Figure Tool rather than the Drawing Tool.

The Drawing and Figure tools are Archicad features that allow the user to deal with drawings and images. Even though those tools might sound similar, they can be used for different purposes. The following chart shows their usage differences.

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	Drawing Tool	Figure Tool
What it inserts	Archicad views (internal or external), external drawings (DWG, DXF, DWF, DGN, PDF, HPGL, PMK, PLT, EMF, WMF, images, etc.) Optionally, inserts a drawing title on Layouts only.	A subset of those things that the Drawing Tool can insert: photo/image files on Windows and Mac. On macOS X only, the Figure Tool can also place PDF (converted automatically to the bitmapped image by the tool)
The practical advantage over other tools?	Tool of choice in general	Can distort the image in x or y dimension if required to make image scale more accurately (although scaling is completely visual. macOS X can only display (auto-converted) PDF with transparent background.
Where it inserts	Archicad views can only be inserted onto a Layout; other drawings can be inserted into any model view or Layout	Any model view or Layout
How it inserts	Choice of a live link, or embedded copy	An embedded copy
Insertion via Tool	Click in model view or layout and the dialog appears to select the source	Open the button in the Figure Tool Settings dialog
Insertion via command	File > External Content > Place External Drawing	n/a
Drag and Drop in Layout	Default settings of Drawing Tool provide initial drawing settings and title for all non-image files	Any image-format file (jpeg, png, etc) will drop as a Figure
Drag and Drop in the plan, section, etc. (model views)	Default settings of Drawing Tool provide initial drawing settings for all non-image files (but, no title)	The default settings of Figure Tool provide initial image settings
PDF Insertion	Can choose which page of a multi-page PDF to insert	Only macOS X supports PDF insertion with the Figure Tool: only the first page of a multi-page PDF is inserted
Cropping	Can crop drawing/image to a polygon. (Actually creating a polygonal cropping viewport in which the drawing can be panned.)	n/a
Frame / Border	Optional drawing/image frame (border) with selected line style and pen around cropping polygon	n/a
Scalability	Drawings are scalable vectors if from a scalable source (vector PDF, dwg, Archicad view, etc)	Anything inserted is a non-scalable bitmap – if the image is enlarged, you will see pixelation
Scaling	Proportional scaling only. Note that for Archicad views, scaling should not typically be done with the tool, but by creating an appropriately scaled view	Proportional scaling only if the shift key is held; otherwise, images may be distorted in either the X or Y axis
Mirroring	n/a	Tool option
Background transparency	Not available for PDF. Checkbox to enable transparency for images and drawings.	Yes
Info on actual pixels in the image available in Tool?	No	Yes
Can you save content in different formats?	No	Yes
Can change the color of the content?	Yes	No
Scheduling	Content placed with the Drawing Tool is all itemized in the Drawing Manager. Only content placed on Layouts is listed in a drawing-based Project Index schedule though.	Images placed with the Figure Tool do not appear in any schedule.

  Thanks to David Maudlin and Link Ellis for their contributions.