From the "RE: DBUG> mike smith's LINE WEIGHTS stuff" thread on the DBUG Forum:
[Scroll down to <snip> for just the trick]
How many of you DBUGers use lineweights exclusively? A combination of
lineweights and colors? Exclusively colors?
Although I'm not quite as well aged as some of you (DataCAD and life post-college since 1995), we have been using colors exclusively with the odd exception of the dimension ticks (double wieght red) which must have been a DCAD default which lingered and clouds which are a 5 weight lt blue (30% grey) so you can see the cloud, but nothing is obscured.
It's a lot easier to tell the new guys, use Red for section cuts, Green for floor plan walls, Magenta for fine details, etc. I have a print out which graphically shows the color on the screen and its plotted line weight.
I would think having a screen color plot out various line weights would be very confusing. I think of the colors as a set of electronic Rotring Rapidographs. I even have one pen that effectively works like "white out". Why? Ever need to omit something in the middle of an Xref? Bingo!
"Ok you got me....how do you do this?"
<snip>
The white out trick:
First download the zip file from below for visuals and pre-set files:
http://www.box.net/public/static/387a786zkb.zip
1. Set a pen to "Near White" (see "Near White.gif") - I chose Color 30 because it was close already.
The color White is 255, 255, 255 and this setting will always print black no matter which color you edit, so I created "near white" by changing the RGB settings of Color 30 to 254, 254, 254 and this will "print" white (no grey tinge, so it's not off-white, it's near(ly) white
). The settings are NOT automatically saved, so after editing the color "Save As" and select "DEFAULT".
Before the next step save your pen table (see after NOTE below on location). DataCAD will over write current settings for pens automatically (ie you don't have to save). Or you can just load the "David's Pens.dpf/.pen" from the zip.
2. DataCAD cares about pen order when printing: Pen 1 first, then 2, ... and 15 is last. So to allow my white out to block everything I adjusted my pens so that 15 is open and not mapped to a color, thus printing the screen color (near white) (see "Near white pen.gif"
3. I use a dense line hatch when whiting out. Using a fill would be better, but you can't with the Pen Table Bitmap/Fill Order setting set to "First". You can change it to "last" and all fills will print over lines (not optimal for me) or you can change it to
Recently added in a free (go DCAD!) update is "In Order" and fills will follow the pen order (1-15) and "Near White" - aka Pen 15 will over write everything. This is a good option, but again, this a "global" setting and will affect any file using this Pen table. [I mention the greatness of DataCAD's flexibility in this thread before and think I'll do so again.]
NOTE: if you have more than one CAD station and YOU change your pen/color table you need to copy them to every other computer that runs CAD. Otherwise, hilarity.... I mean, insanity and frustration will ensues when this doesn't work for anyone, but you
.
Pen Table (*.pen (old) & *.dpf (DC 11)) located in:
C:\Program Files\DataCAD\Support Files\
Color table (*.rgb) is also located there.
DataCAD guys!!! Please allow for pens/colors/hatches (most of the stuff in the /SUPport/ folder) to be placed on a central server so that everyone on a network can have access to the same support files. Every time I create a new hatch or color table (site plans) we have to copy them around to 5 different stations and someone usually doesn't get it and then needs it (see note).
Hope I haven't missed anything. This is one of those simple/complicated topics, so send me a line if you have a question.
PS I included the DataCAD file and screen line color PNG file in the zip, so that you can produce your own PDF line weight chart. Have fun!
[Scroll down to <snip> for just the trick]
How many of you DBUGers use lineweights exclusively? A combination of
lineweights and colors? Exclusively colors?
Although I'm not quite as well aged as some of you (DataCAD and life post-college since 1995), we have been using colors exclusively with the odd exception of the dimension ticks (double wieght red) which must have been a DCAD default which lingered and clouds which are a 5 weight lt blue (30% grey) so you can see the cloud, but nothing is obscured.
It's a lot easier to tell the new guys, use Red for section cuts, Green for floor plan walls, Magenta for fine details, etc. I have a print out which graphically shows the color on the screen and its plotted line weight.
I would think having a screen color plot out various line weights would be very confusing. I think of the colors as a set of electronic Rotring Rapidographs. I even have one pen that effectively works like "white out". Why? Ever need to omit something in the middle of an Xref? Bingo!
"Ok you got me....how do you do this?"
<snip>
The white out trick:
First download the zip file from below for visuals and pre-set files:
http://www.box.net/public/static/387a786zkb.zip
1. Set a pen to "Near White" (see "Near White.gif") - I chose Color 30 because it was close already.
The color White is 255, 255, 255 and this setting will always print black no matter which color you edit, so I created "near white" by changing the RGB settings of Color 30 to 254, 254, 254 and this will "print" white (no grey tinge, so it's not off-white, it's near(ly) white
). The settings are NOT automatically saved, so after editing the color "Save As" and select "DEFAULT".
Before the next step save your pen table (see after NOTE below on location). DataCAD will over write current settings for pens automatically (ie you don't have to save). Or you can just load the "David's Pens.dpf/.pen" from the zip.
2. DataCAD cares about pen order when printing: Pen 1 first, then 2, ... and 15 is last. So to allow my white out to block everything I adjusted my pens so that 15 is open and not mapped to a color, thus printing the screen color (near white) (see "Near white pen.gif"
3. I use a dense line hatch when whiting out. Using a fill would be better, but you can't with the Pen Table Bitmap/Fill Order setting set to "First". You can change it to "last" and all fills will print over lines (not optimal for me) or you can change it to
Recently added in a free (go DCAD!) update is "In Order" and fills will follow the pen order (1-15) and "Near White" - aka Pen 15 will over write everything. This is a good option, but again, this a "global" setting and will affect any file using this Pen table. [I mention the greatness of DataCAD's flexibility in this thread before and think I'll do so again.]
NOTE: if you have more than one CAD station and YOU change your pen/color table you need to copy them to every other computer that runs CAD. Otherwise, hilarity.... I mean, insanity and frustration will ensues when this doesn't work for anyone, but you
.
Pen Table (*.pen (old) & *.dpf (DC 11)) located in:
C:\Program Files\DataCAD\Support Files\
Color table (*.rgb) is also located there.
DataCAD guys!!! Please allow for pens/colors/hatches (most of the stuff in the /SUPport/ folder) to be placed on a central server so that everyone on a network can have access to the same support files. Every time I create a new hatch or color table (site plans) we have to copy them around to 5 different stations and someone usually doesn't get it and then needs it (see note).
Hope I haven't missed anything. This is one of those simple/complicated topics, so send me a line if you have a question.
PS I included the DataCAD file and screen line color PNG file in the zip, so that you can produce your own PDF line weight chart. Have fun!
David L Mooney