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Ctb lineweight vs lineweight control on the ribbon


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Im embarrassed for asking such a noob question.

I used ctbs in school and I just got a job at a company that doesnt have standards nor ctbs.

 

Id like to create a ctb file for them, but I have a few noobs questions:

 

In terms of lineweights why would I create ctb to set lineweights when I could easily control the lineweights in my layers, in properties and on the ribbon????

 

If I enter a particular lineweight in the ctb for a certain color, wont it override my layer lineweights? If so whats the point of having you have options to select different lineweights in the layers and different lineweights in the ctb, it makes it more confusing.

 

What if I have many layers of 1 color with different lineweights, why would I want the ctb to control my lineweights????

 

Thanks

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If you set LW in layer manager to default and use the CTB or STB for LW then you can change to different CTB (or STB) files to give you different results. Think needing to plot to a smaller size drawing, or to a PDF or to a JPG. If you have the LW set in the layer manager then you have to change every layer to plot all the lines thinner or wider.

 

If the drawing is xrefed into another file it is easier to change the way the xref plots using just a CTB or STB. With well established standards this becomes really easy with STB although still do-able with CTB.

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The out of the box CTBs and STBs do not control lineweight, while it was necessary before version 2000 to set lineweights with a custom CTB they are no longer necessary. Setting lineweights in your template layers allows you to control them with Layer States and viewport overrides. I prefer using an unmodified STB like Autodesk-MONO.stb which allows me to set any object or layer to plot in color, black or nine shades of gray with any lineweight I want without having to remember what I assigned the base 256 colors to. Since it's unmodified I don't need to provide a plot style for someone else to plot it either. If you go with a custom CTB just use it to assign colors and use the layers in your templates to control the lineweights.

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One more thing create block entities byblock on layer 0, everything else bylayer and never on layer zero. Nothing on layer defpoints! So try not to use the Ribbon or Properties Palette to control anything but layers and you will always be able to modify everything easily with layer controls.

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Im embarrassed for asking such a noob question.

I used ctbs in school and I just got a job at a company that doesnt have standards nor ctbs.

 

Id like to create a ctb file for them, but I have a few noobs questions:

 

In terms of lineweights why would I create ctb to set lineweights when I could easily control the lineweights in my layers, in properties and on the ribbon????

 

If I enter a particular lineweight in the ctb for a certain color, wont it override my layer lineweights? If so whats the point of having you have options to select different lineweights in the layers and different lineweights in the ctb, it makes it more confusing.

 

What if I have many layers of 1 color with different lineweights, why would I want the ctb to control my lineweights????

 

Thanks

It sounds like schools are still teaching the archaic process of defining a lineweight for every color in a CTB. One could only hope this isn't the case....

 

The other replies are all great info. However, and this is merely my personal opinion: To get you started I would suggest simply using the "acad.ctb" default plot style. Every color is set to "By Object", which means you control the lineweight, line color and linetype all within the Layer Manager, which can thus be overridden by simply changing the entity properties with the Properties palette. This is by far the easiest and most versatile approach with CTB files. I use the "acad.ctb" file but I copied it, renamed it and made a few minor changes such as all the gray colors (Color 250 through Color 255) have varying Screening settings, with Color 255 to be 0% screening, which creates a mask. This is good for solid hatches. Also I set all Color to "Black" since my documentation never requires color. Occasionally I need use red for a "redline" look, but I use True Color (RGB value) for those few cases.

 

I will agree that STB is superior by the very nature of it's inherent functionality, but a bit more difficult to fully grasp. In reality, AutoCAD doesn't really need Plot Styles anymore, but they're here to stay. The need for Plot Styles was a thing of the past, and only the veteran AutoCAD users truly know what they were originally intended for. Everything can be done through Layer Manager nowadays. It's straight forward, easier, and doesn't restrict you to using defined colors as the means for the visual control of linework.

 

Again, this is only my $0.02. Take all the responses and go forward with what you think is right. :)

 

-TZ

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In summary…

In terms of lineweights why would I create ctb to set lineweights when I could easily control the lineweights in my layers, in properties and on the ribbon????

When I started doing AutoCAD 22 years ago that was the only way to do it, sad that there are a lot of offices still doing it that same way.

 

If I enter a particular lineweight in the ctb for a certain color, wont it override my layer lineweights? If so whats the point of having you have options to select different lineweights in the layers and different lineweights in the ctb, it makes it more confusing.
Use the Layer Manager to set up lineweights in your templates leave STB or CTB Plot Styles set to "Use object lineweight".

 

What if I have many layers of 1 color with different lineweights, why would I want the ctb to control my lineweights????
Easily done using a STB or a CTB, but if you wanted to plot some of those same color layers in color, some black, and the rest in a variety of grayscales you would have to use a STB. The difference between a CTB and a STB is that with a STB the Plot Style is a property you set to a Layer or object. This ability has only been around for 16 years, it may take time for it to catch on.
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