Plotting Line Weights

[caddcop]

In all of my involvement with AutoCAD, we always plotted line thickness using colors. Now we have a series of projects in the pipeline for a client what has DWT files defined using weights.

 

I have used weights in that other CAD program and know exactly how they work. They represent a final plotted width ignoring plotting scale.

 

Can someone tell me do weights in AutoCAD also represent a final plotted width ignoring plotting scale?

 

And what happens if i plot a drawing using weights with a CTB? Does the color width trump a weight or does the thicker width always win?

 

This client is still supplying CTB files.

[ReMark]

Don't mix apples and oranges. If you are going to use a CTB and lineweights are assigned within the drawing via the Layer Properties Manager then under Plot Style Table Editor > Form View tab > Properties > Lineweight make sure it says Use object lineweight. We do and it works fine.

[caddcop]

OK, but can you also explain exactly how weights work in plotting.

 

For example, if I have two viewports with different scales, will two lines of the same weight plot the same width on paper? I'm going to attempt to answer my own question here: I created a file with 23 different lineweights and have them appear in two adjacent viewports at different scales and the thicknesses appear to maintain the width for both scales. If someone thinks this is not correct, please pipe up.

 

Just to add some reasons as to why I am confused:

 

The client supplied DWT files are have layers using lineweights. However, the client supplied CTB's are using color based lineweights. And in many cases, different layers are using the same colors but those different layers are using different lineweights.

 

So if I modify their CTB, I'm not following standards, but if I do not modify their CTB, my plots will be using different lineweights than their DWT files.

 

I'm hoping they expect you to modify the CTB files because they provide very few screened colors - a few 90's and a few 50's