CTB or Layers

[Aditya Bagaskara]

I've previously never used custom CTB in any way. I always use layers instead to assign lineweights and distinguishing my objects. I want to learn how to use CTB but first, 

Why should I use CTB?

IS CTB has more advantage than Layers?

If I only use CTB as a way of organizing lineweights, should I stop using layers (just use layers as a organizational tool)?

[BIGAL]

We always used CTB but that follows on from the old ISO drafting pen standards, 0.18 -> 1.0 So the 1st 8 colors matched the pen lineweight required, so layer color was used for pen weight. The remaining colors were set to 0.25 and by color so a true color would be printed. We also changed pen weights for say JPG etc and had multiple ZCTB's even one for all black.

[tombu]

The advantage of assigning lineweights & linetypes with layers is they are displayed in the Layer Manager and can be quickly set with Layer States. Controlling only 4 lineweights & 10 linetypes in a CTB would require 40 Plot Styles for each color you use. Using layer assigned lineweights & linetypes an STB with only 6 Plot Styles can allow plotting with all colors not just the 256 recognized by a CTB using all the lineweights & lineweights you have as well as black, 3 grayscales and a shade of the assigned color. Since each Plot Style in a STB has a distinct name & can be assigned to any object or layer name it needs research and implementation as a company standard. As different STBs use different Plot Style names switching from one STB to another is a lot more complicated so everyone using them need to work with the same STB.

 

I found in AutoCAD there's at least a few ways to do everything intentionally, work with the one that best suits your organization. If your company plots everything in black & white you don't need the power of a STB.