Dynamic Blocks - Splined Quick Leader does not Plot Correctly

I created a dynamic block that uses splined quick leaders. The smoothly curved splined q-leaders look great on the screen and the dynamic block works great; however, when I print the drawing, all of the smooth splined leaders print as straight lines. Looks terrible and does not line up with other features on the drawing.

I tried printing to different plotters and DWF output. All plotters exhibit the same problem, indicating that the problem is probably not a printer driver.

Also, when I draw a q-leader in the field of the drawing that is not as part of a block, the spline prints great.

Is there a setting or variable that needs to be changed? Any suggestions how to fix the printing problem?

Happily I made seven drawings each have hundreds of these blocks before finding out that the printed drawing is DIFFERENT than the DWG. (Whatever happened to WYSISYG?) The dynamic blocks seem to be very useful, but also quirky and a bit frustrating.

Attached is a DWG of the block containing the splined q-leader. I am using AutoCAD 2006.

Thanks for any help.

Ray

SPLINED-Q-LEADER D-BLOCK2.dwg

It plots fine for me. What plotter/driver and plot settings are you using?

Thank you for checking for me. I thought this problem was going to be hopeless, and I am happy to hear that there should be a solution.

I plotted to an HP Dsignject T2300ps, an HP4000, and a DWF file; all with the same bad results. I will have to look into the drivers, as I am not certain how that works.

I appreciate you verifying that the problem is with me or myequipment drivers, or possibly a plotter setting and not with the AutoCAD program. When I find the fix, I will post it.

Thanks again,

Ray

Put a screenshot of your plot settings up and that can be checked out here.

Interestingly, I noticed that if the block is placed in model space adjusted for a scale such as 1/4"-1'-0", then the problem appears. When the block is in paperspace at 1:1 scale, the q-leader is smooth and it prints fine. Strange.

I am wondering if there is some scale setting involved with the q-leader? or if the splining problem is somehow involved with a model-space/paper-space setting?

Attached a screenshot of the plot settings, and two print-preview screenshots -one of the block in model space and the other in paper space.

Thanks for looking at this for me. I am getting happy that there might be a solution.

Betcha the scale factor is so small that the spline is showing as short straight lines. That's gotta be it. 1/4" = 1'-0" is 1/48th scale. So your block it 47 times smaller at that scale.

You may be able to fix that by going into TOOLS > OPTIONS > DISPLAY > Segments in a polyline curve, and/or Arc and Circle Smoothness. Make the numbers much higher.

Thanks for your reply. I think you may be onto something, but still not sure what the fix is.

Your suggestion prompted be to try placing a 1:1 symbol in modelspace and viewport it in paperspace at 1XP. At 1:1 in modelspace, the splined q-leader plots correctly in paperspace and is smooth. Then when I scale-up the symbol 4 times and I set the viewport to 1/4XP, the spline turns into straight lines on the plotted drawing. Note that the q-leader spline always appears correctly on the screen, but the problem only occurs during plotting.

To compound my confusion, when I place a conventional q-leader (i.e., not part of a block) right next to the q-leader that exists as part of the dynamic block, the conventional leader plots smoothly, while the block's q-leader plots with straight lines,

"Arc and circles smoothness" is set at 20000. "Segments in a polyline" is set at 16. I would expect these settings to be good, if the q-leader was formed using conventional polylines.

I am not show how AutoCAD handles q-leader entities, but even though they appear to be smooth like splined polylines, I have not be able to determine if there are any polyline variables or PEDIT settings that affect the q-leader. the q-leader seems to behave more like its own entity. I am not sure about that, but to me they appear to behave that way.

At this point, I will probably move the dynamic blocks to paperspace just before plotting (although I would prefer not to), so that the q-leaders are at 1:! and the printered drawing will look okay, and then I'll move them back after plotting. This workaround seems to defeat the purpose of modelspace/paperspace, but at least I feel like I can make the drawings look right in the end.

I appreciate your suggestions, and if you have any more, I am all ears. I blows my mind, though, that the q-leader splines look right on the screen, but print differently than they appear.

Thank you.

Ray

I am GUESSING it is in your plot settings. I see you have a custom ctb and the Shade Plot is grayed out. try plotting with a default ctb and see what happens.

Thank you for the suggestions. I tried changing whatever plt settings I could, but thre results are the same. You're right about the Shade Plot being suspect, but the viewport is set for "As Displayed," which I would assume to be correct, especially since the drawing is 2-D.

I will look into the plot style table (STB) to see if there is something there, or maybe a linetype settings, but the more I investigate, the more the problem seems to be related to the Q-Leader being part of a block drawn 1:1 and the scaled up to match the drawing scale. I tried modifying the leader's linetype scale, but there was no change. I tried exploding the block, and the exploded q-leader then plots correctly (attached image). I tried forming the block/q-leader at the full drawing scale and the block then plots correctly. The full-scale block also plots correctly when scaled down. But since the block will be inserted on backgrounds having different scales, this is not a practical option.

I am not sure why the q-leader vertices and spline scaling is affected by being part of a block, but it seems to be the case.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Ray

Progress (or lack thereof) so far.

I have determined that he problem is not a plotting problem. There must be an AutoCAD variable or setting that affects the splined-leader smoothness. The problem occurs for any plotter and the even the AutoCAD default CTB file. Anyway, here's what I have found.

Splined Qleader drawn 1:1 in papersace and inserted in modelspace scaled up 48x (1/4"=1-'-0")

• When the QLeader is part of a Block -> the spline plots incorrectly as straight lines.
  
• (note that if a splined Qleader is drawn 1:1 in paperspace and moved into modelspace at 48x (not part of a block) using the change-space command, -> the spline plots smoothly
  

Splined QLeader drawn scaled up 48X directly in modelspace and formed into a block at full size in modelspace

• When the Qleader is part of a block drawn at full-scale size in modelspace -> the QLeader plots correctly as a smooth curved line
  

Observation: The problem occurs from the following two actions:

1. Splined Qleader is part of a BLOCK

2. The original block was drawn at 1:1 and scaled up in modelspace.

• Is anyone aware of any variables that are associated with QLeader splines?
  
• Any ideas why putting the splined QLeader in a block would change its plotted appearance?
  
• I tried using the Burst command, but the QLeader arrowhead reverts to its original size and is too small to see. Is there an alternative to Burst?
  
• Any ideas for a workaround?
  

Thanks for you help.

Ray