hidden plot does not fill polylines or text

Hello all!

I have a problem with plotting 3D drawings. I have certain perameters I have to follow!

1. I have to use our company standard CTB files because our plots include 2D drawings that use color to define line thickness.

2. I have to use viewports, we use "carrier" sheets (paper space) to hold xrefs of all details, plans, etc...

3. I have to use Arial font and filled arrows.

The proceedure I use - I create 3D solids, then rotate them to the view I prefere (typically an isometric view), then I put text with arrows etc.. in. Once the Isometric (3D) is done I xref it into the model space of my "carrier" sheet. I then create a viewport and set it to plot "Legacy Hidden" as this allows me to plot the drawing to the correct line weights and so on using our CTB files.

The problem is that when I use the "Legacy Hidden" setting, all of the text, arrows, polylines and hatch are not filled. I have tried all of the other settings for plotting and they just do not do what I need - Hidden plots as a color image and on the black and white plotter is gray and not black, others give unsatisfactory results as well!

Is there a real solution for this? I have found a workaround but that won't cut it with our CAD committee, I am tring to get them to "allow" us to use 3D as a proper way to do isometrics and perspectives. This is my drawback!

One work around uses 2 viewports (one a copy of the other with the plot settings changed and the layers turned off/on then place one directly over the other to properly plot), the second is more reasonable but I have not tried it yet, it would involve creating a 3D drawing, then xrefing it into another drawing file that would contain the viewport and all of the text, polylines and so on).

Thaks for any help!

Matt

This may or may not help you out. I had the same problem & there only seems to be one work around. I am assuming that all of your dimensions are in model space. This thread shows a discussion about the same issue, if I am understanding you correctly:

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?24254-Dimensions-in-a-Hidden-View-Port

An alternate solution would be to use the SOLVIEW/SOLDRAW to create 2-D drawings, which would make it so that you would not need to use the legacy hidden for your viewports. There are quite a few discussions through out the forums about how to use the SOLVIEW/SOLDRAW, they can be a bit testy at times.

Another idea would be to create all of your dimensions in paperspace versus modelspace. There are a lot of debates on here on which one is better to do, but if you look into setting up your dimensions to an associative & annotative dimension styles you can still have one dimension style that will do everything that do everything that dimensioning in model space does for you.

Hope this helps.

Putting it on paper space is not really an option, unless you are talking about the xreferenced dwg containing the 3D model in it and then going to Paper Space in that same drawing, I will try that as it may solve some other items. I don't think P.S. xrefs in - I am going to try it out now!

3D models do not work in paperspace, you will be limited to a plan view only and will not be able to manipulate the drawing. So I am not suggesting that you put the XREF's there.

It sounds to me that you are possibly using the plot windows shadeplot setting to legacy hidden. I would suggest that you set your viewports to the legacy hidden instead of that.

There are two ways to set that:

1. From the command line:

Command: MVIEW

Specify corner of viewport or

[ON/OFF/Fit/Shadeplot/Lock/Object/Polygonal/Restore/LAyer/2/3/4] : H

Hidden line removal for plotting [ON/OFF]: ON

2. Select your viewport -> go to properties menu-> under the Misc section look for a line called 'shade plot' then set to legacy hidden.

Based on your response it almost sounds like the dimensions are in xref model its self. If that is the case it would be best to remove the dimensions from the model and place them instead into the drawing that has the XREF's in it.

nope, paper space doesn't xref in, putting the text on the carrier sheet is a no go! most definately!

the dims and text are in the 3D model dwg, that is going to be the only way I will be able to get the Committee to aprove 3D use, they won't allow text and so on that "belong" to a xref to be put into anything but that xref - "it defeats the purpose of using xrefs" the only work around that i have found that works anyway close to what I need it the 2 viewport method, it does work, it's just not ideal!

I noticed this issue when I upgraded from 2005 to 2008. 2005 did not have this issue at all.

To my knowledge there is not any other way to work around this, short of the other work around that i have listed in previous posts in this thread.

Other people may have suggestions, but I do not have any more. If there is a way to make this work I would be interested.

Is the 'committee' a group of auto cad users, or upper management that does not use autocad? Maybe the solution is to show them what they get for a finish product on your drawings as is. Show them the work around. If they do not care & wish to continue with the way that it is, then so be it.