hidden line drawing

[jessamy]

I am new to AutoCad 2008 and cannot seem to get the settings right (in either the camera named view or the viewport properties) in order to remove hidden lines from a 3D model and produce a good quality line drawing using my plot style pen settings.

 

Either all the lines plot in their screen colors (and seemingly random lineweights) or I can plot a wireframe with no hidden lines. Any clues?

[shift1313]

if the lines are hidden, why do you need to remove them

 

can you give me some insight as to the type of drawings you are working with? are we talking about plotting elevation terrain maps? certain types of objects? Do you need to plot in color or black/white?

[azzro10]

The easiest way to change from wireframe to hidden or any other style is to select the viewport n right click > shade plot > hidden

not sure about the lineweights n colours sounds like theres a prob with ur plot file, maybe a little more investigating is needed

[ReMark]

Colors: Try a monochrome plot.

 

Lineweights: You could set these within the drawing using Layer Manager. How are you handling lineweights currently?

[jessamy]

if the lines are hidden, why do you need to remove them

 

can you give me some insight as to the type of drawings you are working with? are we talking about plotting elevation terrain maps? certain types of objects? Do you need to plot in color or black/white?

 

I am working in a 3d model of a room (and courtyard outside) but I don't want to create a 'shaded' drawing. I would like to create a simple perspective b&w wireframe line drawing with all the hidden lines removed and the lineweights plotted according to the plot style - just like I used to do in AutoCad 2005! 2008 does offer a '3D hidden' option but it plots according to screeen colour and the lineweights come out very lumpy and inconsistent.

[ReMark]

I'll try to put this nicely...you're doing something wrong if a 3D Hidden plot prints out in screen colors and comes out lumpy and inconsistent. I just sent a 3D Hidden plot to our Designjet 500 color plotter using the monochrome.ctb and had no problem. Perhaps someone reset something in the .ctb file you're using? What is the make/model of the plotter/printer you're using?

 

I'm using 2009 but I can also get a good B&W plot of the same thing using 2007.

[jessamy]

I currently assign lineweights to screen colors. However, I did try changing the relevant layers to black and assigning a lineweight to the layer instead - no change to the plotted line quality however. When searching in AutoCad help i did stumble across a reference to plot styles not being used when in 'shade mode', and I believe 3D hidden is a shade mode.

 

I will try monochrome.ctb though

[jessamy]

Didn't work. The plot lines were still coloured and lumpy in monochrome.ctb. I would really love to know what your settings were on the plot you did - was it a named view? There seem to be 2 places to adjust 'view' settings - within the named view and within the properties of the viewport.

[ReMark]

I'm afraid that in some regards I am still old school when it comes to plotting, i.e. - assign lineweights based upon color. Magenta gets a .9mm setting while white gets a .3 mm setting. But I'm coming round to the advantages of setting lineweights within the drawings themselves it's just that sometimes I forget and fall back on old ways.

 

The plot I just did was done from model space not a layout and no viewports were used.

 

If you're plots are coming out in color rather than B&W even when a monochrome.ctb is used then there's something definitely wrong somewhere. If by "lumpy" you are referring to line thickness then I'd check the settings in the .ctb file.

 

You could try this. Create a new .ctb style called MyFineLine. Assign all layers the color black and make all line thicknesses equal to .015. Then make a plot using the setting Hidden. What happens?

[Cad64]

When searching in AutoCad help i did stumble across a reference to plot styles not being used when in 'shade mode', and I believe 3D hidden is a shade mode.

 

That's true. Shademode does override CTB.

So try this: I assume you are plotting from paperspace? Select your viewport and then, in the Properties palette, change the Shadeplot setting to Hidden.