Block Lines Printing Thicker Than Regular Lines

[GoldenBoy79]

Hey all. I am new to AutoCAD and have been a self-taught user. I am currently working on electrical prints for our shop. In my drawings I have developed my own dynamic blocks to work with. I have used different colors for my layers but for printing purposes I have been using the grayscale.ctb default file and changing my layer colors to all print black. Now when I plot the drawing for the office printer, any regular lines in my model space print off normal but any lines within any of the blocks I have made are printed with a thicker line weight. I have only been using 0 for my line weights even when I developed my blocks. A pdf printout of the drawing doesn't show any differences in the line thickness.

 

 

I do like the way the blocks are printing just trying to figure out why all my lines that aren't part of a block are displaying thinner than any lines contained within a block. I have attached some screenshots to show what I am talking about.

[ReMark]

And what happens if you were to print using the monochrome.ctb? Any difference?

[GoldenBoy79]

I will try and let you know. Thank you

[GoldenBoy79]

Still happening with the monochrome.ctb as well

[RobDraw]

Can you post the file? If not, post a stripped down version with the block(s) and a few lines.

[GoldenBoy79]

Here you go

base.dwg

[Lars Pantsonfars]

I'm having the same problem, though it appears to be a copying/pasting issue, not a block issue. I'll explain how I've determined that;

 

There are many blocks in the drawing I'm working on, and most, if not all, are printing thick. Tried making blocks, lines, and polylines, with different tools and methods with varying results. Made a block within the drawing in question (rather than copying or importing) and this works fine, though this doesn't solve the issue. Then tried copying components from several different drawings, and all printed thick. Even just a single line. But none of these display thick in the drawing, only upon printing/preview.

 

Just some more info to go on. Will update if I find a solution.

[tombu]

16 hours ago, Lars Pantsonfars said:

I'm having the same problem, though it appears to be a copying/pasting issue, not a block issue. I'll explain how I've determined that;

 

There are many blocks in the drawing I'm working on, and most, if not all, are printing thick. Tried making blocks, lines, and polylines, with different tools and methods with varying results. Made a block within the drawing in question (rather than copying or importing) and this works fine, though this doesn't solve the issue. Then tried copying components from several different drawings, and all printed thick. Even just a single line. But none of these display thick in the drawing, only upon printing/preview.

 

Just some more info to go on. Will update if I find a solution.

You can set your Page Setup to display the same lineweights and colors as it plots by checking the Display plot styles box. 

I added a macro using this lisp to toggle Display plot styles off & on so I can always see the what the drawing will look like when it plots.

; Plot Style toggle
; by: Tim Creary
; http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=75802&highlight=ShowPlotStyles#3
;^C^C^P(or C:ShowPlotStyles (load "ShowPlotStyles.lsp"));ShowPlotStyles
(defun c:ShowPlotStyles (/ acDoc ctab)
  (vl-load-com)
  (setq acDoc (vla-get-activedocument (vlax-get-acad-object))
        ctab (vla-Item (vla-get-layouts acDoc)(getvar "ctab"))
  )
  (vlax-for oLayout (vla-get-layouts acDoc)
	(if (= (vla-get-ShowPlotStyles ctab) :vlax-true)
	  (vla-put-showplotstyles oLayout :vlax-false)
	  (vla-put-showplotstyles oLayout :vlax-true)
	)
  )
  (vla-regen acDoc acAllViewports)
 (princ)
)

For anyone else to troubleshoot your issue we'd need a small drawing and the CTB or STB you're using attached so we could see how it looks on our PC's.

 

Of course if you do this 5 minute tutorial it may answer all your questions: https://www.cad-notes.com/layer-0-bylayer-and-byblock/

[henryberger]

On 3/8/2023 at 2:34 PM, tombu said:

You can set your Page Setup to display the same lineweights and colors as it plots by checking the Display plot styles box. 

I added a macro using this lisp to toggle Display plot styles off & on so I can always see the what the drawing will look like when it plots.

1254 meaning

; Plot Style toggle
; by: Tim Creary
; http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=75802&highlight=ShowPlotStyles#3
;^C^C^P(or C:ShowPlotStyles (load "ShowPlotStyles.lsp"));ShowPlotStyles
(defun c:ShowPlotStyles (/ acDoc ctab)
  (vl-load-com)
  (setq acDoc (vla-get-activedocument (vlax-get-acad-object))
        ctab (vla-Item (vla-get-layouts acDoc)(getvar "ctab"))
  )
  (vlax-for oLayout (vla-get-layouts acDoc)
	(if (= (vla-get-ShowPlotStyles ctab) :vlax-true)
	  (vla-put-showplotstyles oLayout :vlax-false)
	  (vla-put-showplotstyles oLayout :vlax-true)
	)
  )
  (vla-regen acDoc acAllViewports)
 (princ)
)

For anyone else to troubleshoot your issue we'd need a small drawing and the CTB or STB you're using attached so we could see how it looks on our PC's.

 

Of course if you do this 5 minute tutorial it may answer all your questions: https://www.cad-notes.com/layer-0-bylayer-and-byblock/

Thanks for sharing the cad-notes link and saving my time! However, I googled yesterday and this morning for any such tutorial and found nothing. I'm currently in Switzerland for work, so it's possible that Swiss google doesn't show US links. Thanks again!