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I have been using Autocad on my windows laptop for the past 4 years now. LAst month, i purchased the new iMac. I copied my old drawing template and plot styles etc over to my iMac. Heres the problem: When i plot / print a set of plans etc, the lineweights do not come out as clear as what they do on my old laptop. I dont really know how to clearly explain it, but the lineweights almost seem to come out too similar, however they are slightly different. I have gone over the line weights to see if they're all correct and the same as on my laptop, and they are. Im using, and always have been using my canon mx870 printer which is supported both by my laptop and the iMac. Any help would be greatly appreciated, because until then, ill have to carry on using my laptop PLEASE HELLLLLP!!!!!!!!!

Hi, I'm an Design student; when i go to plot and A3 like this (or other size) I allways get those 5mm extra space in the four sides after the drawing. How do I get rid of it? I always ask to plot it in a "Window" containing the drawing, usually they mark the "center the plot" option and "fit to paper". http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4959/j6a8.png This looks unprofissional because it messes with the real dimensions.

So I have this layout page with 4 viewports on it. all of them are set to print in legacy hidden. 3 of them print perfectly. t 4th one prints partially hidden, paritally wireframe. 3D objects in the faulty vport that are large print hidden, smaller objects are in wireframe. and medium objects can be partially see through. This is the weirdest error I have ever seen in autocad. anyone have any ideas? also. I tried copying the working vports. didnt work. If I make the faulty one smaller, only show half my image, it becomes all hidden. showing the full drawing screws it up. (maybe too much data for the video card?)

Problem: When I print to PDF from AutoCAD 2013, some text is plotted with extra lines. Some letters are double printed (see attached image). This happens on my coworkers' machines as well (they are running AutoCAD 2010). I have used: AutoCAD's internal DWG to PDF option Bluebleam PDF CutePDF Writer Adobe PDF It happens with both MTEXT and DTEXT. CTB file is consistent between the file and the plotter. I have not altered the pens, linetypes, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I have a model with many items, each needs to be plotted from several views. One option is to create a layout per view, which means a lot of layouts to manage. Is there another way? Where I can create a layout with several views so that plotting it will create multiple pages?

Using ACAD 2008, I am having an odd problem where when I print preview/plot this drawing with a viewport the result is a blank page but when I remove the viewport it plots fine. Any ideas? Thanks, Jim.

Hello folks, Background: During the process of drafting many lines overlap (e.g. construction lines, objects merging, etc) Because the overlapping lines have precisely the same properties, I don't feel the need to remove them. The issue begins when I go to plot. The overlapping lines do appear darker than lines without overlapping. This occurs a great deal in my work! My question is this: Is there a function that will (forgive my Photoshop lingo) merge/flatten these lines so that no more overlapping lines exist? Going in one at a time is tedious business! Thanks, George

I am trying to write a routine to load a new Plot Style Table, and then set a certain Plot Style Name to all layers. Here is the code I use to set the new Plot Style Table, and it works fine: (vla-put-StyleSheet (vla-get-ActiveLayout (vla-get-ActiveDocument (vlax-get-acad-object)) ) "BCR Plot Style.stb" ) My problem is that it seems like the Plot Style Names have to be "loaded" manually. When I run (dictsearch (namedobjdict) "ACAD_PLOTSTYLENAME") it *should* show me the new plot style names, but it doesn't, not until I've gone into the Layer Property Manager and changed a layer to each of the new Plot Style Names once. Please help!

We have our CTB files (as well as our pmp and pc3) files on the network. With 2008 thru 2012, we have edited our profiles to point to these. In 2013, one C3D PC sees them fine. A second C3D PC and a LT PC see the lone STB file and no CTB's. It appears the pmp and pc3 files are seen, however. I did locate a dialog box on LT that seems to be where you might choose between CTB and STB files, but we have it set to CTB and in there, you can select a default CTB file. And in that dialog box, the software sees our folder contents. Is these some toggle hidden in the interface that we need to flip for this to work? TIA

Hi all! I'm new to LISP--just started teaching myself yesterday--so I might have missed something obvious, but... I'm trying to write a routine that prints a PDF of a drawing to the same directory as the drawing itself, and that only prints the current layout sheet. The first half of that I have, thanks to the code examples posted by BIGAL and woodman78 here: http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?69132-Printing-LISP-Help... The second half--getting it to only print the current layout--is where I'm having trouble. Plotting every layout from the drawing is useful in some cases, but generally I just want the one I have selected at the time. This is what I'm using: (defun c:pdf () (setvar "cmddia" 0) (setvar "filedia" 0) (setq doc (vla-get-ActiveDocument (vlax-get-acad-object))) (vlax-for lay (vla-get-Layouts doc) (setq plottabs (cons (vla-get-name lay) plottabs)) ) (setq dwgname (getvar "dwgname")) (setq len (strlen dwgname)) (setq dwgname (substr dwgname 1 (- len 4))) (setq plottablist (acad_strlsort plotabs)) (setq len (length plottablist)) (setq x 0) (repeat len (setq name (nth x plottablist)) (princ name) (setq pdfname (strcat (getvar "dwgprefix") dwgname "-" name)) (if (/= name "Model") (progn (setvar "ctab" name) (command "-plot" "yes" "" "dwg to PDF" "ANSI full bleed B (11.00 x 17.00 Inches)" "inches" "landscape" "no" "extents" "fit" "center" "yes" "monochrome.ctb" "yes" "no" "no" "no" pdfName "n" "y" ) ) ) (setq x (+ x 1)) ) (setvar "cmddia" 1) (setvar "filedia" 1) (setq DWGNAME nil LEN nil NAME nil PLOTTABLIST nil) (princ) ) I've narrowed the issue down to the section here: (vlax-for lay (vla-get-Layouts doc) (setq plottabs (cons (vla-get-name lay) plottabs)) ) What would I use instead of vlax-for to get the name of just the current layout? Thanks

Can anyone help me with this - not sure if it a stamp plot item but I am trying to list all the x-references that are associated with a particular drawing on the plot sheet? If anyone can help I would be grateful. Thanks

First of all, I wanna say that I'm a beginner in every autocad world. so please make it easy for me I have my autocad 2012 for students since a year ago, it perform really well. there are no problem with it, but last day when I try to plot a drawing, suddenly my autocad freeze when the plot job progress window showed. I then forced quit the application and try it again. and it happen again, the autocad freeze again (my cursor turn into loading-mode). After that, I got frustrated and forced to quit the application again and begin to try to plot another file. Then I make a new drawing with a simple rectangle on it and try to plot it. but still the same. the auto cad get freezed again. I then frustrated again and uninstall my auto cad 2012 students and replace it with Autocad 2013. But the thing is still the same, I always got my autocad freeze when try to plot to PDF. what should I do? I need help! please! there's nothing wrong with my computer, because there's nothing wrong with the autocad since last day. Note: The last dwg file I plotted is an exported file from sketch up 8. My computer OS is macintosh Processor 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63) thank you and please help!

Hello, I'm using Sheet Set Manager in Autocad 2011. I'm using 'page setup override', and as plot area 'print extents'. So far, so good. Until someone forgets something outside the title block, and the extents feature is not good anymore (several people working in the same projects). So, I decide to use as plot area 'Layout' instead, typing the X & Y to determine the area to be plotted. Now, the setup "override" doesn't override. It’s using the drawing plot area from the drawing itself, which completely defeats the purpose. Am I missing something? I'd appreciate some help. please. Thanks in advance

I'm trying to modify some code I found here: http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?62876-Can-you-change-multiple-sheet-plot-settings-at-the-same-time&highlight=plot+multiple+layouts to my purposes, which is to plot all the layouts in the current drawing to my named printer. Without the setvar line, I get the right number of copies, but they are all of the same layout (whichever one I execute the lisp from). Adding the setvar line errors out the lisp. (The actual plot command was commented out so I don't keep wasting paper while debugging this code.) (defun c:qplotall (); Konica Bsize mostly mono all layouts. (vlax-for x (vla-get-Layouts (vla-get-ActiveDocument (vlax-get-acad-object) ) ) (command "setvar" "ctab" x) ; (command "-plot" "y" "" "KONICA monochrome" "11x17" "Inches" "landscape" "no" "Extents" "Fit" "Center" "y" "MOSTLY MONO LIGHT" "y" "y" "No" "No" "No" "No" "y") ) ) Can anyone shed some light for me? Thanks, Glen

Hello, I am working on a massive project with many x-refs. We are using an STB, along with layer states for line weights. We are plotting from a sheet file, where our, and consultants' drawings, are x-reffed in. If we apply the layer state in the SHEET file, we will need to know all layers of our consultants. If we apply the layer state in the MODEL file, we will need vis-retain set to 0, and therefore we will need to redefine all of the layers of the x-ref to print grey every time we plot. Is there a way to work around this? Can you apply plot styles around different sheets more efficiently? Can you set an STB to look at the prefix of layers (ie. every layer starting with XXX, or every layer from a certain x-ref) be a certain plot style (ie. 60% grey)? Thanks, robyn

Dear all, Hopefully someone can help me. I have been using until saturday Windows Vista and Autocad 2008, with out any problem, at least that windows vista was slowly. So I decide to upgrade my notebook and I add windows 7 - 64 bit and change my autocad to a 2010 version for this windows 7 as well. The acrobat is the 8 version. The problem is the following: I was able to work normally with this soft, but when I need to plot in PDF a drawing bigger than A0 page, it does not plot. If I add an A0 it works fine. Then I went to properties, change the page to a PostScript, and change paper size to 2100 mm in height and width, but anyway It still dont work. Is there anything I must set before ploting a bigger size page, with the new Autocad 2010 or with windows 7?? Thanks and looking forward to an answer!! All the best, Javier. Argentina. (sorry for my bad english)

I'm trying to plot a large poster (108" long) onto a 36" wide roll of paper. The image, texts, and leader plotted fine; the polylines and mtext did not. Everything shows up in the preview, but the two mentioned items don't actually get plotted onto the paper.

Couldn't find an existing thread for this ... Architect sent us a floor plan. I turned off layers we don't need, such as dimensions. Print preview doesn't show those layers. When the plan plots, though, the dimensions plot too. Has anyone seen this? Architect's drawing was originally done in Revit, if that helps.

I've edited the plot style table in the past to do things such as change yellow to print black. I've also successfully used it to select monochrome to print B&W. Currently it's not working. I can select a different plot style, apply it and see it look correct in paperspace. However, when I preview or print it, I still get yellow, printing yellow or if I try monochrome, it will still print in color. I make sure to click apply to layout and I've also tried restarting ACAD and neither seems to help. I've also tried using the page setup manager and it still prints differently than what I select. Is there some other variable I can turn on or off that I am not aware of?

Hi folks, my first post here.. so please bear with me. Firstly, I'm using ZWCAD which should be identical to AutoCAD but who knows... One of the layers is in red, but when I plot the file, all the lines are red (which is OK) and the text is black... what am I supposed to do to keep the text in red? The same happens when I export the CAD file to PDF Thanks for your answers!!

Hi, I recieve a number of drawings from outside the company. Not too suprissing they don't use that same printers, not to mention IT has a habit of changing print servers every couple of years. We have switched to using PC3 files which has helped some, but I'm still lef with a large set of legacy drawings that called for a physical printer. When AutoCAD start the print command for one of these drawings I get a message box that basicly says that the printer defined in the layout cannot be found and it is substituting the "None" printer. I don't know about you, but I would assume that if AutoCAD can't find the printer it's looking for that it should substitute something I can actually print to, you know... like a default printer?! Anyway... I have prgrammend a reactor to watch for the print command. When the plot cammand is called the LISP then checks the current plotdevice and comares it to a list specified in the LISP code. If a match is found then the rest of the code can be skipped, if no match then that means the currentplotdevice in the drawing is not one I use currently. If no match then the LISP overwrites the current plot device with a code defined "default", and then allow the plot command to continue. This eliminate the "error message" about not finding the plotter and substituting None printer. ;;; Check if the plotter last saved with the file is in a list of ;;; current devices. If it is not, change the plot device to a current ;;; device, If it is, leave things alone. ;;; (defun SwitchDefaultPrinter (/ Default ad OldPlotDevicee PlotDevices NonCurrentDevice) (setq Default "Black_Laser.pc3") ;Set default printer ;;create list of current plot devices (setq PlotDevices (list ;;Old System printers turned off ;;"\\\\bdn01ps001\\ccc_colorlaser" ;;"\\\\bdn01ps001\\color_laser" ;;"\\\\bdn01ps001\\drafting_lj8000" ;;"\\\\bdn01ps001\\drafting_plotter" ;;Current System printers turned off ;;"\\\\bdn01ps002\\ccc_colorlaser" ;;"\\\\bdn01ps002\\color_laser" ;;"\\\\bdn01ap010\\drafting_plotter" ;;"\\\\bdn01ps002\\ccc_upper_xerox_wc5755" ;;"\\\\bdn01ps002\\drafting_xerox_5550" ;Current PC3 Files "Black_Laser.pc3" "Color_Laser.pc3" "Drafting_Plotter.pc3" "DWG To PDF.pc3" ) ) (setq ad (vla-get-activedocument (vlax-get-acad-object))) ;;Set variable to hold reference to the active document (setq OldPlotDevice (GetActivePlotDevice ad)) ;;Set variable to hold reference to current plot device ;;comapre the old plot device to a list of current devices (if (= nil (vl-position OldPlotDevice PlotDevices)) (setq NonCurrentDevice 0) ;Device not found in list (setq NonCurrentDevice 1) ;Device found in list ) (if (= 0 NonCurrentDevice) ;if the current device is not in the current list of active devices. (progn (vla-put-ConfigName (vla-get-ActiveLayout ad) Default) ;;Change the plotter name to be used by the active layout (setq PrinterSwitched 1) ) ;;other wise leave it alone. ) (if (= nil (vl-position (vlax-get-property (vla-get-ActiveLayout ad) "StyleSheet") (GetPlotStyleTableNames ad) ) ) ;check the list of CTB files for the current requested CTB (vlax-put-property (vla-get-ActiveLayout ad) "StyleSheet" "Black_Laser.ctb" ;;Current CTB Not found, set CTB file to "Black_Laser.ctb" ) ;;Curerent CTB found, don't worry about it ) (if (= 1 PrinterSwitched) (progn (if (/= nil (vl-position "11x17" (GetCanonicalMediaNames ad))) ;;check list of paper sizes for 11X17 (vlax-put-property (vla-get-ActiveLayout ad) "CanonicalMediaName" "11x17" ;;11X17 found in the list of paper sizes, set paper size to 11x17 ) ;;11x17 is not in the list, don't worry about it ) (vlax-put-property (vla-get-ActiveLayout ad) "CenterPlot" -1 ) ;Set to center the plot on the paper (vlax-put-property (vla-get-ActiveLayout ad) "StandardScale" 0 ) ;Set to "Scale to Fit (vlax-put-property (vla-get-ActiveLayout ad) "PlotType" 1) ;Set to plot extents (vlax-put-property (vla-get-ActiveLayout ad) "PlotRotation" 1 ) ;Set to print Landscape ) ) (princ) ) (defun GetActivePlotDevice (ad) (vla-get-ConfigName (vla-get-ActiveLayout ad) ) ) (defun GetCanonicalMediaNames (ad) (vla-RefreshPlotDeviceInfo (vla-get-activelayout ad) ) (vlax-safearray->list (vlax-variant-value (vla-GetCanonicalMediaNames (vla-item (vla-get-layouts ad) "Model") ) ) ) ) (defun GetPlotStyleTableNames (ad) (vla-RefreshPlotDeviceInfo (vla-get-activelayout ad) ) (vlax-safearray->list (vlax-variant-value (vla-getplotstyletablenames (vla-item (vla-get-layouts ad) "Model") ) ) ) ) [\code] The problem is... this overwrite the currentplotdevice setting in the drawing. The boss doesn't like this. What I would like to be able to do is make this change, but when the plot command is finished, put back the old "currentplotdevice" so no real change to the cad file is made. I've got this by haveing the folling LISP run when the plot command is finished. [code] ;; Check to see if the printer was switched ;; If it was restore the old printer referenced in the file (if (= PrinterSwitched 1) (vla-put-ConfigName (vla-get-ActiveLayout ad) OldPlotDevice) ) [\code] The problem with this is that it always resets the "currentplotdevice" when the plot command is finished. If I press the "Apply to Layout" button in the plot dialog, I don't want the plot device changed after the plot command is finished. I haven't found a way for my reactor to "watch" for this button press. If I can "catch" this button press I can have the LISP change my variable 'PrinterSwitched' to "0" and this would skip the code to switch the currentplotdevice back, thus making things work the way I want. Sorry for the long post, but I hope I got all of the relevant info into it. Im running Windows 7 & AutoCAD 2012. Any advice and help is greatly appriciated. Thalon

Hi, Does anybody know where I can find PLOT lisp, especially PDF creators based on dwg-to-pdf plotter that can automatically detect page size and orientation and ascribe name to the pdf. For example to use a Mtext entity on a specific layer as filename to the default directory. Example: I have a 210x297 rectangle on "cadre" layer will automatically prompt Autocad that this is an A4 of portrait orientation and a 297x210 rectangle an A4 of landscape orientation. Hence the lisp scan the model or paperspace envoronment for such rectangle and create batch pdfs and use an Mtext contained within those rectangular frame as filename. Is this possible? Has anobody done some tryouts? Is so where can I find a similar lisp? Regards and Thanks, Nicolas.

I'm plotting a Township Dimension sheet that has links to corner tie sheets on each section corner. Ideally I'd like to plot this using the "DWG to PDF" plotter and have it saved as a PDF so when it's put on our website you can easily pull up each relevant tie sheet from the links. If I plot this as a .DWF file the hyperlinks work great. However, I highly doubt too many people can easily open DWF files so I'd like to keep it in a PDF format. Is there any way to plot to PDF using AutoCAD and keep the hyperlinks? I'm starting to think the only way to have hyperlinks in a PDF document is to create them manually using Adobe Acrobat (which would be A LOT of work). Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

The boss wanted a PDF plotted, but not at the scale on the page. There's probably a better way to do it, but I did this: a) insert into AutoCAD as xref b) scale up to actual size c) plot with desired scale Only one problem. The sheet came out blank. The PDF xref looks white on my black Model Space screen, although it looks black on my white preview screen. The reason I'm posting this is because I found a way to make it work. Instead of plotting to paper, plot to another PDF. That way you'll know if it turns out blank. The only way I could get it to show up was to use the Plot Option (wait for it) Plot Transparency Update: when I rotate the PDF xref before plotting, AutoCAD crashes. One of those mysteries.

I am trying to get the coordinates that is defined in the layout to plot using VBA. I am in model space. I think I need to use GetWindowToPlot but not sure how to do so. I am trying to start programming so things are going slow.