Stoofer Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Good morning folks, I have a query that is possibly more suited in another section of the forums but Ive always been rubbish at categorising a question... Nonetheless - I have a drawing on AutoCAD2007 of a large area with many different layers, linetypes, colours etc... Often we have to focus in on one area of this drawing, to indicate to other parties a specific area of the drawing. However, even though its not the main focus of the drawing, the area outwith still has to be shown on the drawing. Currently, we tend to draw a border round the area, and hatch outwith the boundary - however we have had a few complaints from others that the hatching blocks some of the other info on the drawing. Ideally, what I would like to do is draw the border/boundary as normal but instead of hatching outwith the area, I'd like to grey out/fade/watermark (whatever you want to call it) the area. Can AutoCAD alone do that or are we talking imaging software? Hopefully Ive explained that well enough, and thanks in advance for any help! Cheers, Stoofer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chulse Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 If I understand you correctly, I think you might have 2 options - Set the color of those objects to print "screened" so they show up as light grey lines (instead of black) using your ctb (or stb if that is what you use). Hatch the entire area using a solid hatch and set that to print screened very light so it does not hide any detail in the dwg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonehead411 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Not sure if this wil help but..... When I lay out a duct run, I'll xref the site plan into the drawing, then set all the xref layers to one of the light grey colours in the layer properties manager. Then I draw the ducting in, on top of the plan. It doesn't grey out specific areas, but it keeps the information there and the original drawing remains untouched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoofer Posted February 24, 2009 Author Share Posted February 24, 2009 Chulse seems to get the closest to what I would ideally like to have - and it was something I thought about as it used to be my old Photoshop trick for greying out parts of a drawing. The solution looks like it should be perfect but for some reason our plot style tab is locked - I'll keep investigating but any help on that issue would be muchly appreciated! Cheers to all, Stoof Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkent Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 ...The solution looks like it should be perfect but for some reason our plot style tab is locked ... Cheers to all, Stoof Can explain more about the "plot style tab is locked"? I am not sure where you are finding the tab you refer to. The solution Chulse offered is a good one, works great here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoofer Posted February 25, 2009 Author Share Posted February 25, 2009 Sorry that was a bit vague - when I go to the properties of the hatch, the option for changing 'plot style' is locked to 'by color' (ie no drop down). There has been previous issues with our plot settings so it could be a specific problem to us. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkent Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 Sorry that was a bit vague - when I go to the properties of the hatch, the option for changing 'plot style' is locked to 'by color' (ie no drop down). There has been previous issues with our plot settings so it could be a specific problem to us. Cheers The hatch needs to be on its own layer and unique color (for CTB) and then you adjust the plotting in the CTB for that pen color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoofer Posted March 4, 2009 Author Share Posted March 4, 2009 Hello again all, Just an update to the point above, company wasn't too keen on the whole screening thing so we've went down another route which is essentially hatching outwith the boundary in a faint pink colour and sending it behind the rest of the drawing. The problem though with this is because the rest of the drawing is done on model space, we cant send the hatch behind the drawing as we have to put the hatch on paper space. So my question - can you draw something on paper space and send it behind something drawn on model space? It may seem like a bit of a convoluted route to get to the same place but - well, I like a challenge! And if the answer is something really simple I will thank you enormously and then feel like a bit of a fool... Cheers for any help again! Stoof Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Why are you hatching a model space object in paper space? Seems a bit counter-productive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoofer Posted March 4, 2009 Author Share Posted March 4, 2009 The quick answer is because I'm inheriting a process halfway through and certain things are stuck in place.. The long answer, we require a hatch boundary to be placed 'on top' of a drawing so we can create a paper space drawing (with text boxes for info, signatories etc.) and take a print out from it without actually affecting the model space drawing. ie its like dropping a piece of tracing paper with a hatch boundary over the main drawing. Have I explained that well enough? It's getting late in the day for me here, I can't quite decide if thats jibberish or not!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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