24d. Plot in Color Thickness Lines

How to Plot in Color and Thickness of Lines on printed paper in AutoCAD.

If you probably have a problem with the Thickness Line (not to say the width of the line because some use this expression) on the drawing or the Color Line on the drawing.

If you are asking any of the following questions:

• Why are all the lines of the same thickness?
• How to change the thickness of the line on the drawing we print to the printer (plotting on the plotter)?
• AutoCAD does not print Color on the drawing?

Why these questions? Well there is reason.

• Print black and white drawings are done over pre-prepared CTB file (also in color).
• To have the lines do not look like a toe, you need to experiment with the thickness of the line.
• If you want to print a drawing Floor plan of a building and you want to distinguish it from outer walls of interior, portions of drawings that display windows, doors and the like. Then you will set different line thicknesses in the CTB file that will serve you for plotting.
• If you are going to the first steps of geodesy or you may be working in Geodesy, when printing a digital copy of the plan (black and white), you want the objects (buildings) to be copied to the thicker lines.

Then you need to look at the Plotter (Printer) settings as well as the Plot Style Manager.

Set the Thickness of Lines in the Draw in AutoCAD

I would like to mention immediately, to plot the drawings on paper with different thicknesses of lines, it is necessary to modify the '*.ctb' file.
This file contains settings for line thicknesses when plotting on paper. In Autocad 2007, there are several of them and are located on the path of C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2007\R17.0\enu\Plot Styles\
You also need to keep in mind that these paths are not the same for all versions of AutoCAD.
For example: if you are using the 2006 MAP or some other (for geodesy) then it is in the second place. In essence, search your computer and find, for example: 'acad.ctb'.

In principle, you can copy from a friend the already configured 'acad.ctb' file and rename it to, for example: 'MyAcad.ctb' but you need to take care of the plotter (printer) that your friend used. Perhaps the settings in it will not be the same and the same as for your plotter (printer)

In this example I will try show how the Line Thicknesses for a particular drawing can be set.
Notice the drawing below where the lines are in color but are all over the same thickness. Of course I can set me to draw a line with a thicker line (LWT button in Autocad at the status bar) when drawing a line, but it has nothing to do with plotting (paper - paus). Distinguish drawings and lines when drawing from print drawings on paper.

Why is the '*.CTB' file important?



Example: I want my yellow lines on black and white printing to be thicker than Dimensioning Lines. To achieve this I have to change the line thickness in my default file '*.ctb' to print/plot (or create a new one)

In Autocad 2007, it is necessary to do the following:

Find '*.ctb' files and copy 'acad.ctb' files somewhere else on the hard drive. Rename the copied file in eg: '3Dmodel.ctb'

Now, this renamed file should be returned in to the folder where the other '*.CTB' files are.

Run AutoCAD and open the Draw that you want to set up for. This drawing is irrelevant, the important thing is that we will use it to set the settings in the '3Dmodel.ctb' file, which we can use for all future 3D printing drawings.

Open the drawing that will serve us to edit the Line Thickness settings.

Before we can even set the line thickness setting, we need to look at the color that we want to edit before. So, let's go to our drawing and click on the button to show all Layers and open Layer Properties Manager. We find the Layer in which we have drawn the main part of the drawing in yellow and note (remember) the color code. In our case it's number 50. It looks like the picture below.

After remembering the color number, just click on File => Plot Style Manager

In the new open window you can see all '*.ctb' files and among them an important file '3Dmodel.ctb'. Double click the mouse on it. Now a new dialog window opens where you need to set certain parameters. On the General tab, set a description for the respective CTB file.

The next Table View Tab displays all the colors with their parameters. On this tab we can set the Thicknesses of the Paper-Pause Print Line. We find our (remembered) color number 50 and then we're editing it. (btw: study the settings). On the next Form View tab we can also change the thickness of the line and I mostly do this on this tab. Consider printing standards for a particular branch (engineering, building, geodesy ...).

If you want in the MODEL, while drawing to show the Thicker Lines then click the status bar on the LWT button. Also in the work of Drawings, it is desirable to create styles and specify styles of lines for each style.

NOTE: There are some standards when printing a drawing. So, in the construction industry, certain colors are set for certain thicknesses (although all color is printed)

Technical Drawing line Thickness

Thickness standards when drawing in construction (thickness of lines for technical drawings). Do not take this standard below as serious. I do not know maybe something has changed over the past time.

MAGNETA: 0.2 mm
RED: 0.3 mm
YELLOW: 0.5 mm
BLUE: 0.2 mm
GREEN: 0.3 mm
WHITE: 0.2 mm
CYAN: 0.25 mm

And finally save all changes by clicking the Save&Close button. If you want, you can create a few CTB files in this way, so use them for specific purposes when drawing.
So, when PLOT from LAYOUT of a drawing in plotting settings, you need to select a (pre-prepared) CTB file from the drop-down menu (see 'Page Setup Layout1').

It looks like this in the picture below.

You are in "Layout1" (or your Layout Name) of your drawing. Right-click on the 'Layout1' tab then click on the Page Setup Manager.

After clicking on MODIFY button opens a new dialog window where you need to select the settings a and CTB file. Also pay attention to the Properties Plotter (printers). For each case, see them.

See how it looks on paper after printing (click on the Preview button). Notice the difference between the Line Thickness of the main object line.

This is an image below, is an preview of 'acad.ctb' file without editing it.

This is an image below, is an preview of '3Dmodel.ctb' file after editing.

All of this, previously written, can be used to set color when printing on paper. Pay particular attention to the last steps in Plot Style Manager.