Lineweight Plotting Problems in v.2005

[StaticElectricityMan]

I am having a problem getting lineweights to show up/show up properly in AutoCAD 2005. We are running AutoCAD 2005 in Windows XP and plotting on an HP 755CM Plotter.

I have set up my lineweights to be color dependent and gave the colors their equivalent office standardized widths. The problem is that none of the lineweights I've set up seem to be working. It is either an arbitrary lineweight or screened somehow or they are all the exact same lineweight.

I checked the Vector Graphics setting for the plotter and made sure that it wasn't set at 24bit; it is now set at 255 Virtual Pens. That seemed to clear up most of the problems after the next test plot but I had some paper rotation problems. I fixed the rotation problem, made sure my pen settings were still the same and that the Vector Graphics setting was still at 255 and plotted again and NOW everything plots out in exactly the same lineweight.

I'm sure all I'm doing is something simple, but can anyone suggest what may be the problem?

[StaticElectricityMan]

I still can't figure out what it is, any suggestions at all??

[hendie]

have you checked you are using the correct ctb file ?

[StaticElectricityMan]

Yes, I doublechecked to make sure I used the correct ctb file. I even created a new ctb file just to make sure I didn't mess something up along the way. In the Plot Style Table Editor, I have the following options set up:
Color-Use Object Color
Dither-Off
Grayscale-Off
Pen #-Automatic
Virtual Pen-# of color (i.e. red = virtual pen #1)
Screening-100
Linetype-Use object Linetype
Adaptive-On
Lineweight-Each color's lineweight...from .004"-.024"
Line End Style-Use object End Style
Line Join Style-Use object Join Style
Fill Style-Use object Fill Style

My Plot Dialog box is set up this way:
Printer/Plotter: is the 755CM but its a pc3 file cuz we load our paper funny and I had to set it up to rotate properly
Plot Style Table: the office ctb I set up from above
Display plot styles: currently unchecked, tho I've tried it both ways to no avail
Plot Options:
Plot Object Lineweights: grey and checked
Plot with Plot Styles: checked
Plot Paperspace Last: checked
Hide Paperspace Objects: unchecked

All of this is what's set up in the Layout Tab's Page Setup Manager. I double check it when I plot tho to make sure nothing has changed. Still no idea what's going on. Could it be the driver?? I had to reinstall the 755cm driver on this machine because it was originally set at 24bit.

[StaticElectricityMan]

OK, we tried plotting it in modelspace and we got lineweights. Only catch is, it took a RIDICULOUS amount of time for it to process and on top of that, we'd have to revert to doing all the dimensions, text, titleblocks, etc. back in modelspace and not paperspace. Meh.

[Bloodwig80]

try putting

Pen #- 7

which is black on ALL the pens. try that :P

[StaticElectricityMan]

Thanks, I tried that but still no go *sigh*. Makes all the pens look black in the preview tho :shock: I guess maybe I'll try to reinstall the driver and see if that does the trick :glare:

[Bloodwig80]

dimensions and text are usually done in model space anyways. for the most part.

[StaticElectricityMan]

OK, so now I've installed the "newer" driver from HP...the HP-GL/2 driver...and I can now at least SEE my lineweights in the plot preview but they still won't plot out. Also, I cannot change the plotter's vector graphics setting from 24 bit to 255 virtual pens when it's using the new driver. Any further help please?? For now I'm just printing it off on a computer station with 2004 on it, but even then some of the stuff is botchy.

[Bloodwig80]

what happens when you plot?

does it print but no lines show? does it not print anything at all? does it crash?

#5 needs data!

[StaticElectricityMan]

Nope, same thing as before...it plots everything with 1 lineweight. Tho I got it to stop printing greyscreened after a quick change. Only difference now is that I can at least SEE that the plot preview shows varying lineweights whereas before it didn't. It just refuses to print those lineweights :lol: