Wish List: Toggle Color or B&W Plot in Layer Manager

I have cases where I want to plot certain layers in color and others in
black and white. Using the current incarnation of plot or color styles is
cumbersome because Autocad only allows one style table to apply to all
layers. What would be very useful would be a toggle for plotting in color or
B&W for each layer.

 

Keep wishing. I would think this would be a very limited use but could
easily be handled with some custom programming. One could fairly easily
write a program that would allow you to select layer names to plot as black
and then tag them in the XData for the layer. Then another routine that
fires from the reactor before plotting could scan through the layers and
change them to Color7 and store the old color in the XData. Then after
plotting restore the original colors. With a dialog box maybe 4 or 5 hours
work and you might want to check out www.cadvault.com if nobody else has
already programed it.

--
Rodney McManamy
President
CADzation
-------------------------

-------------------------
518 South Route 31 Suite 200
McHenry, IL 60050
www.cadzation.com
Providing Industrial Strength
PDF & DWF Solutions to the
Global CAD Marketplace.

 

How would you go about creating a drawing that allows you to plot some
layers in B&W and others in color, with multiple lineweights for both? If
you intend to use a new plot style table, what would you do if you have to
alternate plots between B&W and color printers?

 

Lineweights also. Now you're asking for even more. If you need different
lineweights then you should probably look at using an stb (style dependant
table) and create a style for each layer. Then you can select everything on
the layer and apply the style to it. Then in the stb for the ones you need
B&W you set the color there. Then if you have to alternate between a color
plot and a combined color and B&W then you just select a different stb file
at plot time.

--
Rodney McManamy
President
CADzation
-------------------------

-------------------------
518 South Route 31 Suite 200
McHenry, IL 60050
www.cadzation.com
Providing Industrial Strength
PDF & DWF Solutions to the
Global CAD Marketplace.

 

you should probably look at using an stb (style dependant
table) and create a style for each layer.

This is what I have been doing. The problem arises when I need to switch
between color and B&W printers. When using style based plotting (.stb), if I
need to plot in B&W, I have to reconfigure the plot styles for each layer
that is set to plot in color, and vice versa. In order to have a mix of B&W
and color linework in a plot, I have to create a plot style table that has a
color style and a B&W style for each lineweight. This results in numerous
layers with plot styles that have to be modified whenver I have to alternate
between B&W and color printers.

Using a color based style table is not a solution either because I would
have to reconfigure all my layer colors when alternating betweeen color and
B&W plots.

 

It takes some proper management, yet we do this CONSTANTLY,
w/o grief. Set up your CTB's this way, we have 1 for MIX'ed Color
and Black/Grayscale, Black/Gray only, and Color Only.
Any user can tweak, yet park masters in a safe place incase someone
over-writes. We push to make "project" relevant so all users use any
small tweaks across the board (network).

Our Black only goes to a Cannon GP200-225 PCL or a HP 755CM
(each have their own Black-only CTB) and the Color and Color mix.
to that HP 755CM. Full range of letter to Long Axis, and I mean LONG.
I love to spool out 6-10 feet of 36" paper with a road/profile and notes
Great wall paper during the project design. I may want Black, yet
client/council/public may need some color visualization to comprehend.

It's all the same objects, just how the palet reads that color assoc. to
the object. And then we can get into MAP DISPLAY in MAP .
Wow, more options to visualize your objects w/o changing properties.

We change nothing, only the CTB ref. and given color, weights, etc.
basic options, into intensity/shading for that pen.
It really comes down to using the FULL color pallet, and managing
color "Classes" with respect to your device options.

Hope it's useful

 

I have not had time to learn about Map 3D, much less the DISPLAY tool.
Perhaps I should take the time to study all my new applications (7 new apps
altogether) before spending any more time working with the old. It is a
challenge to balance the demands from departments for maps with the need to
learn all the new technologies.

As for the color plot tables, I have not used color based tables since the
advent of the style based tables because I didn't like the restrictions of
color schemes. It would be great if we had the option of using either, but
the technology does not allow us to do so without conversions. I can see how
color based styles would be more proficient for switching plot tables.
Perhaps in this instance it would be worthwhile to deviate from our
convention, but it is preferable to be consistent in the use of style
tables.

Thank you for the advice.

 

If I may add, with a Color/B&W toggle for layers, we would have lineweights
and colors and all the other variables available. In light of the replies, I
would think a toggle would spare users alot of effort to accomplish the task
using style tables.

 

Hey, much agreed !!

I wish my co-hert and I would work toward the style based concept.
We seem to be stuck back from R13 and just worked our "style" concepts
around the idea of color schemes. By no means is it perfect !!

Just thought to add some conversation, and maybe i'd take away some
of your frustration, and put more on my end to rethink how we're doing
things as well.

Take Care....

 

Neil,

Unless I'm missing something here if you already have an stb file setup all
you do it open it in the Plot Style Manager, change the colors to Monochrome
or the appropriate greyscale value, and resave it as a new stb file and then
select that one when you plot. You only have to do it once.

Honestly the whole overall plotting in AutoCAD totally misses how 90% of the
users plot. Multiple layouts should not be setup for different printers or
plotters and the layouts should be printer independant and only based on the
full-size that it is designed for. The when you select plot you would
select a printer configuration that would have printable size, scale, and
associated stb and ctb files.

The other problem is that with stb files I don't think you can modify the
Normal style to a black color which even in their base Monochrome one it's
still set to Color from what I can remember. This obviously makes no sence
at all because the Normal plot style is the one used for anything that
doesn't match up to a style in the file. If this is the problem that you
are having then you can email me the stb and I can modify it on the binary
level to switch the Normal style to Monochrome if you need.

--
Rodney McManamy
President
CADzation
-------------------------

-------------------------
518 South Route 31 Suite 200
McHenry, IL 60050
www.cadzation.com
Providing Industrial Strength
PDF & DWF Solutions to the
Global CAD Marketplace.

 

The normal plot style is EXACTLY the problem. To circumvent it I have had to
create a plot style called "Standard" which I include in all my plot style
tables. I then assign all layers with the "normal" plot style to use
"standard". Thus I can load any plot style table and have the control of all
layer output. The problem that prompted my post arose when I wanted to have
layers with varying line weights and colors that would plot in color or
black and white according to the plot style assigned. If I could assign
different plot style tables to individual layers it would not be an issue,
but that is not the case. Thus in order to accomplish the task I would have
to create a plot style table that had all the lineweights and colors I
wanted to use in both dithered (color) and non-dithered (B&W) versions. Then
I would have to duplicate the table again and modify it so that all the
styles used B& W (No dithering) only so that I could simply change the style
table in my drawing to the color or B&W style for corresponding output,
without having to modify the layer properties.

As for your offer to modify the "normal" style at the binary level, I would
be interested in giving it a try. Better yet, if you could explain how you
accomplish this, you would "feed me for a lifetime". Please email me at
-lake.nd.us.

Thank you

 

I do this all the time. I have an STB that defines Plot Styles of 100%,
90%,...10% and COLOR. NO lineweights are defined in the CTB. Then my layers
have a color, a lineweight in the layer dialog, and a PlotStyle. If the
PlotStyle is 100% I get a black line at the defined lineweight, if it is 50%
I get a grey line, if it is COLOR I get a color line. Layer States make it
easy to jump back and forth. Also, because lineweight in now by
layer/object, not PlotStyle, I can have multiple lineweights in an object,
such as a door, where the door part hase a lineweight of ByLayer and the
swing has a lineweight of .05mm. Now my door plots a thick door and a thin
swing, with the layer controlling the door thickness, as well as the screen
for an existing door vs a new door. If I need to show it at a smaller scale,
the lineweight of the door layer is reduced. The swing still prints the same
width, but because it si the thinest lineweight that will print, it still
looks ok, just less variation between door and swing. And, because any layer
with a COLOR PlotStyle uses the layer color to plot, and in R2005 you have
16 million colors available for layer color, I can create a layer called
BRICK1, make it COLOR PlotStyle, then choose whatever color works, and see
that color on screen. With a really light blue background in both MS & PS,
this makes rendered plans and elevations REALLY easy. Throw in ColorBooks of
office standard colors and Solid Hatches that automatically go behind the
everything, and those rendered drawings become easy and fast.
OK, so that went on a real flyer off the front. Anyway, lots of good reasons
to go to STBs with no lineweights, starting what you actually asked about

best,
Gordon

 

Your approach has alot of merit. The one drawback is having so many
lineweights to work with in layer manager, especially without a real "feel"
for how the lineweights look when plotted. I will definitely have a closer
look at your approach though.

Great idea!

 

I am really hoping that the next version of Acad allows adding and removing
lineweights, along with scale factors. My approach would certainly be easier
if you had a smaller list of lineweights to deal with.
If you try it and run into any problems, or things that work really well,
let me know. I am doing a class at AU this year, with STB plotting a good
sized chunk. Any added 'news from the treches' is always welcome.

Best,
Gordon