Textured plane in 3D Viewport?

Support Modeling
1

I want to put a guide-image on a plane in order to be able to see it in all directions while modelling -instead of having a standard background image that doesn’t work in other angles than directly facing the viewport. I have selected textured shading mode in viewport, assigned an image to a plane but it only appears if I render it -not in viewport. So is this possible?

2

In the Properties panel (shortcut N) under Display, set the shading to GLSL
Also look at the Images as Planes addon to easily add textured planes http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Add_Mesh/Planes_from_Images or add an empty and it its properties you can set it to display as an image

3

Thanks! GLSL + enable “Images to Planes” addon works well. I’ll keep in mind Sanctuary’s suggestion too.

4

Without using addons - add an Empty, in Properties dropdown for that set Image.

5

Update:
“Images to Planes” addon, incorrectly displays images in low resolution, blurry and aliased. Too bad for a precision blueprint.

Empties though, leave the image in its native resolution, thanks Richard Marklew and eppo for the suggestion!

6

BUG:
“Origin offset distance” in Empty Object Data displays only the first two decimals of the adjustment! Inadequate for precision image placement.

7

BUG #2:
Y component of “Origin offset distance” is NOT saved! After loading it resets to zero!

8

BUG #3:

It also resets arbitrary to zero in many cases, e.g when you change the resolution of an icosphere!

9

If you think those are bugs, you really should post them on the bug tracker :
http://projects.blender.org/tracker/?group_id=9
This way the developers will notice and may be able to fix them.

10

Image on Empty: See T-panel for precise Translation numbers. Hold Shift while adjusting position for a fine tuning.
y position (0.0023) saved, restored 3 out of 3 times. Supposedly saw one sudden jump to 0 once…
There’s possibility to lock transform on N-panel after set position. Could help.

11

This is quite strange. I have no resolution loss here using the addon and I can’t see how there could be one…