×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Problems with Named Plot Styles and Plotter

Problems with Named Plot Styles and Plotter

Problems with Named Plot Styles and Plotter

(OP)
Hello. If anyone can help me with this perplexing problem, I would be very grateful.

I'm trying to plot drawings involving architectural backgrounds and symbols overtop of the backgrounds.

I've created a Named Plot Style, with settings for the Background and the Foreground. The Background is set to be Black, 0.3 mm, and print at 25% screening. The Foreground is set to be Black, 0.6 mm, and 100% screening. I have preset layers for the types of symbols and for the backgrounds; they are all set to the appropriate plot style setting. When I create a new drawing, I put the backgrounds (an XREF containing a multitude of its own layers) on the Backgrounds layer (with Backgrounds plot style setting), and I insert Blocks of the symbols from the Design Center, and place each of those on the appropriate Symbol layer (with Foreground plot style setting).

When I plot the drawing to the plotter (HP Design Jet 600), the background comes out fine; a light grey color. The foreground symbols, however, appear with some thick lines and some thin lines, completely at random; blocks and even single text objects contain both lineweights. I've tried plotting on all three settings available on the plotter; Draft, Enhanced, and Final. That didn't fix the problem. I tried printing the drawing on an ordinary printer (HP Design Jet 970 CSE Professional Series), and the drawing came out perfect.

So the question is; what's wrong with the plotter and/or the plot style settings that could be causing this problem? It seems like either entirely a plotter problem, or a conflict between the plotter and the settings. I'm clueless.

In addition, the Design Jet 970 CSE printer outputs a quality of lines 100 times better than the Design Jet 600 plotter. Is there a way to enhance the plotter's quality to match or approximate that of the printer?

Thank you for any replies.

G McKenna
---
gmckenna@intertechassociates.com

RE: Problems with Named Plot Styles and Plotter

(OP)
I almost forgot some potentially helpful information; I use AutoCAD 2000 full version, and the plotter and printer are both on a network.

G McKenna
---
gmckenna@intertechassociates.com

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources