paper space and line-weight confusion

[emera]

Hello!

I'm working on my first autocad drawing and am struggling to work out what it will actually look like when printed! when i go onto paper space the look of the drawing (a building plan) completely changes when i move the cursor across it, from clumsy thick awkward lines to neat drawing with correct hatching etc...I hope my drawing is the latter but i suspect it isn't! How do I know for sure?

this is probably a really obvious question but I would really appreciate some advice

 

Thanking you in advance

em

[mikekmx]

pdf it, then print the pdf, then you can be fairly sure that WYSIWYG

[RobDraw]

First, the different looks as you move your cursor are more than likely just the selection preview.

 

There are a couple of ways to preview your lineweights within AutoCAD before printing. You can turn lineweights on. It's a button at the bottom of the AutoCAD window. Or you can do a print preview from the plot dialog window.

Edited August 3, 2013 by RobDraw

[JD Mather]

I am not sure why the extra step of saving to PDF for printing?

Turning on lineweights is not WYSIWYG in AutoCAD.

 

I set everything up in my template - so I know exactly how it is going to plot.

Set it and forget it. Plots will always be consistent. Plots will always be perfect.

 

[RobDraw]

I forgot to mention what JD has hit upon. Any type of plot preview on your screen, including PDFs, will not necessarily be exactly what you will get on paper. The print to paper is usually better than the previews.

[SAFeSTeR]

When plotting from paper space you may (or may not) want to click the 'Scale Lineweights' option.

[Pablo Ferral]

I like having 'Display plot styles' turned on - just as JD suggests. It's kind of like having a permanent plot preview.

 

Here's a post on Ellen Finkelstien's blog showing how it's done:

http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/acadblog/know-what-your-plot-will-look-like-when-you-use-plot-styles/

[JD Mather]

I like having 'Display plot styles' turned on - just as JD suggests.

 

Just to be clear - I was simply showing an option. I NEVER have that turned on - because I prefer to work in color (even though I plot monochrome) and I already KNOW what my plot is going to look like before I even started the drawing because my styles and standards are all set up in my template.

 

Set it and forget it.

 

In any case - this appears to be the typical student post - 1 post, no follow-up and gone.

The assignment was due days ago.

[emera]

Nope, still here!

 

Thanks for all the advice! I found that print-preview works okay, and my drawings looked as I wanted.

Display plot styles is also useful.

 

thank you