Plotting issues

[KWatkins]

I am using 2006 LT and have run into an issue with plotting. Every time I try to plot, even just preview the plot, the lines become thick and the drawing cannot be read. What settings do I need to change? Thanks.

[Ryder76]

Can you post a screenshot of your plot dialog box so we can see what the settings are currently?

[chelsea1307]

check you ctb or stb file

[JoeC]

This could be a simple solution...Sometimes this happens if the lineweights are too thick. Check your line weights in your layers and modify any that are very thick.

 

You can also check the LWT button in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen...click to show line weights. This will show any that may be too thick.

 

Maybe this is the problem.

[KWatkins]

Here is the screen shot of the issue.

[chelsea1307]

notice in the upper right side your colorcad.ctb file is missing you need to find it and put it in the appropriate file (where all your ctb files are)

[Ryder76]

Ok the first thing I see right away is at the top right of the dialog box you are missing your ctb file. You need to find it and reload it. If you have others you work with they may have a copy of it they can email you and you can cut and paste it where it belongs.

 

OOPS - Chelsea beat me to it!

 

The other thing is you don't have a plotter loaded.

[KWatkins]

What should it be?

[chelsea1307]

the ctb file should be whatever your office standards say to use. if it should be colorcad.ctb then you need to find it and put it with the rest of the ctb files

[Ryder76]

Why don't you try the monochrome.ctb and see if that one gives you the results you need.

 

 

From the Help file (hit F1)

 

A plot style table is a collection of plot styles assigned to a layout or the Model tab. There are two types of plot style tables: color-dependent plot style tables and named plot style tables.

Color-dependent plot style tables (CTB) use an object's color to determine characteristics such as lineweight. Every red object in a drawing is plotted the same way. While you can edit plot styles in a color-dependent plot style table, you cannot add or delete plot styles. There are 256 plot styles in a color-dependent plot style table, one for each color.

Named plot style tables (STB) contain user-defined plot styles. When you use a named plot style table, objects that have the same color may be plotted differently, based on the plot style assigned to the object. A named plot style table can contain as many or as few plot styles as required. Named plot styles can be assigned to objects or layers, just like any other property.

[KWatkins]

Still no luck with the monochrome. As you can tell I am not that versed in the software. It is doing this with every CAD file in our database.

[Ryder76]

Can you screen shot what the plot preview looks like?

 

Also - what printer are you using or are you plotting to a PDF?

[KWatkins]

Xerox Color Duplex Printer

[Ryder76]

What are the DPI settings in your printer? in the plot dialog box next to the printer select properties then locate what the DPI is set to. Sometime our preview is trashy when we don't have the DPI set to at least 400. This is sometimes the case when plotting to a PDF writer but sometimes when printing.

[Ryder76]

Still no luck with the monochrome. As you can tell I am not that versed in the software. It is doing this with every CAD file in our database.

 

Is this a recent occurance? Were they plotting nicely before and then all of a sudden came out bad?

 

Have you had any luck locating a copy of colorcad.ctb?

[chelsea1307]

once you find it you want to put it in the file shown on your options, files - plot style table search path

[KWatkins]

The DPI settings didn't change the preview. The highest I could go though was 300.

[KWatkins]

I have printed fine before and it did suddenly go to this. Where would I look for the ctb file?

[rkent]

In the plot dialog you need to select the "Scale lineweights" box in the plot scale area.

 

Also, if it says the xxxx.ctb file is missing most of the time the drawing file is set up for STB, so pick the down arrow and find an alternate file, they will all be .stb.

[Ryder76]

Do you have a co-worker that has it? It should be located in your ACAD printer support files area (plotstyles)