Plotting in showing specify line with darker output asbuilt drawings

Hi All,

Need some help with this:

I am working on modifying a drawings to add on some pipe lines, which I would like to outline them.

- The orginal drawing has 2 x-ref drawings attached (which is the floor plan), I would like to make it very very light color as a blackground)

- Then I want to make my pipe line in a much darker line(so that I can outline on the drawing)

- The drawing will be print in mono black and white.

- The pipe I have already drew in Yellow color.

I am up to a point when I print out. I got background (x-refs) ok in light (however want lighter)

The pipe line I Do not know what to change to make it show darker on plotting

I have tried to make the pen# bigger like 30, but no different when print out.

Please help

Have you considered assigning a lineweight to the pipe that you want to stand out from the rest of the drawing or, if it is a polyline, assigning it a width?

I have tried changing the lineweight, but it's like just upscale the line (make it thicker). It doesn't help when plotting with the effect to outline my pipe lines.

I don't want thicker lines, but want darker lines which can show how my pipes go on top of the very light background of the floor plan.

Thanks again

the line is not p line, just normal lines

Are you using a plotstyle, and if so, what plotstyle are you using? Did you check the box "Plot Object Lineweights? If you don't check that off, and are using the monochrome.ctb plotstyle, it will plot all the lines at the same width. did you check the box "Plot with Plotstyles?

You say you are plotting in monochrome, yet mention colors, lighter, darker etc. Plotting monochrome only plots black. Line differential is only shown by how wide the lines are in monochrome. Note that a .30mm line is about half as wide as a sharp #2 pencil will draw.

If you are using a color dependent plotstyle that controls the lineweight of the plot in response to the color of the line, changing the lineweight in modelspace will not have any effect. The color of the line in modelspace will have to be changed to print a heavier line according to which color the plotstyle expects to see for heavier lines. You can check the lineweights in the plot style table editor. Most drafting shops will also have some indication in the layer names and/or layer descriptions as to whether the layer color produces light or heavier lines.

yes those boxes were checked by default , plot by plotstyle, object lineweights, .....

I am using acad.ctb for plotting.

The line weight setting seems only work on screen for line (lighter / darker) adjustment. But plotting is different. More line weight makes the line wide but not darker in ink, is that correct?

Any other method is to adjust the x-ref background lighter, might show the pipe lines better, how do you do that?

yes those boxes were checked by default , plot by plotstyle, object lineweights, .....

I am using acad.ctb for plotting.

The line weight setting seems only work on screen for line (lighter / darker) adjustment. But plotting is different. More line weight makes the line wide but not darker in ink, is that correct?

 

 

Any other method is to adjust the x-ref background lighter, might show the pipe lines better, how do you do that?

How are you plotting in monochrome? Are you by chance changing the plotter settings on the plotter control panel, or what? Is the plotter simply a monochrome plotter?

Can you adjust xref and/or layer transparency in your release of AutoCad?

You can't make the "ink" lighter or darker, only narrow, and wide.

My suggestion is to use different lineweights, controlled by layer, and use the monochrome.ctb plotstyle.

I have a template dwt file that I use for this type of plot. Each layer has a specific lineweight (width). So I draw objects that need heavy lines on the layers with the wider lineweight, of course. I use it for woodworking projects. Thus, the layers only need names relating to line weight, rather than some esoteric BIM reference.

You can also experiment with the screening plotstyles. They can print in highly differentiated line intensity. The lower the screening percentage number, the lighter, and more differentiated the lines will be, but they will still have to be width controlled by lineweight, and since the screening plotstyles plot in color, the lines must be drawn in blacks and grays to achieve high levels of differentiation. The exception to all this is the grayscale.ctb. It will plot a different shade of gray for each color in the drawing. the "scale" being the actual lightness or darkness of the colors used.

That's an interesting combination using the acad.ctb to plot in monochrome. Not one I would have thought of.

On second thought, try the grayscale.ctb plotstyle. It may very well be exactly what you are looking for. Be forewarned, the draw order and color of your objects will become very important when using grayscale. lighter lines will show through, that is will be plotted right on top of darker lines, and the opposite too, according to the draw order. And, the lighter the color in modelspace, the lighter it will be plotted. The plot can look peculiar in that some lines you thought will be in the background can turn out not to be.

That's an interesting combination using the acad.ctb to plot in monochrome. Not one I would have thought of.

I tried all, monochrome, grayscale, acad ctbs .....

Using acad.ctb I can get the closest I want (light x-ref background, ok dark on pipe lines)

grayscale .ctb shows all same darkness (both x-ref and pipe line same)

monochrome (x-ref + pipe lines both dark)

So I want to adjust base on acad ctb, can you please let me know how to adjust to have darker pipe show on plotting?

Or make the x-ref very light?

On second thought, try the grayscale.ctb plotstyle. It may very well be exactly what you are looking for. Be forewarned, the draw order and color of your objects will become very important when using grayscale. lighter lines will show through, that is will be plotted right on top of darker lines, and the opposite too, according to the draw order. And, the lighter the color in modelspace, the lighter it will be plotted. The plot can look peculiar in that some lines you thought will be in the background can turn out not to be.

I am getting close again using grayscale.ctb then I change the yellow color to black color for plotting only. Seems appear to paper I got darker and no need o adjust the line weight.. I am thinking this is closest I can get

how can I save this ctb setting for my future use?

I am getting close again using grayscale.ctb then I change the yellow color to black color for plotting only. Seems appear to paper I got darker and no need o adjust the line weight.. I am thinking this is closest I can get

how can I save this ctb setting for my future use?

I'd still like to know how you were plotting monochrome with the acad.ctb plot style.

I actually wanted to create a new ctb file to load up later to use instead of changing setting of current ctb. For example, now I change the setting of greyscale.ctb but I actually want a new file abc.ctb, so no mess up original file

I am using KPI 3000, it plots out monochrome automatically right? even acad.ctb is used

I actually wanted to create a new ctb file to load up later to use instead of changing setting of current ctb. For example, now I change the setting of greyscale.ctb but I actually want a new file abc.ctb, so no mess up original file

 

 

I am using KPI 3000, it plots out monochrome automatically right? even acad.ctb is used

Creating your own .ctb is exactly what you want. You can start with one of the OOTB .ctb's and use save as to create your own and make adjustments to it.

Using a .ctb that was designed to plot color with a non-color plotter is not the way to go.

The key here is to be familiar with your .ctb and assign appropriate colors to your layers/objects.

I am using KPI 3000, it plots out monochrome automatically right? even acad.ctb is used

Without that information up front, we sent you up a couple of dead end roads.

Now that we know you are working with a plotter printing in black only, the easiest way to get where you want to go may be playing with the colors, lineweights, and the grayscale.ctb. There's no need to modify that plotstyle for your purposes.

Rob is right, the plotsyles can be modified and Saved As new-name.ctb so you don't have to worry about trashing one of the default ones. If you have already modified a default ctb file, almost anyone with the same version as you can give you a copy of the original. The different versions probably don't even matter, the ctb files have been the same for a number of years, but I can't promise you an AutoCad LT plotstyle will work with full AutoCad, but it probably will. It is just that the primary default ctb files for Full and LT AutoCad have different names, acad.ctb, and acadlt.ctb.

Second ROBdraw & Dana method just create your own CTB start with Acad.ctb I would draw in lots of colours basicly just change the object colour in the CTB to be black and set a thickness very easy that way, color 32 bright orange plots .5 black ! Our colour.ctb is 1st 8 are black and 250-256 are greys rest are object colour. As a side we produce Tiffs I had to change all the line thickness's as a Tiff works with DPI so even thick lines were to thin. We have about 6 different CTB that we use. Look at the ISO colours first 1-8 in ACAD say with increasing thickness. Then try 12 22 32 etc

Sounds right. I will start creating my own .ctb and see how it goes

Thank you ROBdraw , Dana, Bigal , and all others help!. Really appreciate.