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Background mask not masking when Lines Merge is ON during plot
Background mask not masking when Lines Merge is ON during plot
Try plotting to a PC3 format with Line Merged option on under the properties for the plotter. Note how the contours continue through the text.
Try plotting with Lines Overwrite. Note how the contours don't go through text.
Any users out there saying they cannot use the "Lines Overwrite" option and need something else so they can still use the Lines Merged option and have their contour text looking good please post here for a business case to get this in a SP or HF soon. Otherwise it may be deferred to 2010 and so on and so forth.
OK, So Service Pack 2 is out again for Civil 3D 2009. Has anyone tried this new service pack and looked into the background masking working with lines merge?
I am soo tired of ploting out crap with lines overwrite and everytime the boss asks have we not fixed this yet?
The option that we are facing here is all black lines with lines overwrite. Yeah solid black shading, black lines for hatching, black grid lines for profiles, get the picture??? NO MORE GRAY!!
I check out the AUGI Wish list and the best we get for labels is text justification! How about a dang wipeout behind a label style?? I wish I was more intelligent in VBA or .NET to program my own stuff like Mircostation.
Add 20 more users to the list. I'm going to show my boss this thread as proof that what I told him about Background Masks in Civil 3D labels are true. I handed him a commercial grading plan this morning that looked like Swiss cheese. "Get on the phone or blogs or something. Someone has figured this out." Well now I have proof they haven't or should I say can't, handcuffed if you will. I thought I had a workaround for my pavement solid hatched area. I would add a background fill to match the same color. To my surprise Civil 3D 2008 label styles do not have the same ability as Mtext objects using background masks.
When hatching was able to be draw ordered to the top all was well. Now that it must be sent to the back all is horribly unpleasant.
It looks like Autodesk didn't fix the problem in 2010 when you use background mask and your pc3 is set to lines merge.
I haven't test the contour labels in Civil 3D but I can assume since this test I did it won't work with the labels in Civil 3D 2010
I have done some testing on 4 different plotters/printers, one is a KIP wide format, 2 Canon copiers, 1 HP laserjet and all with the latest drivers and they all have the same results. Basically the background mask will not plot correctly if your pc3 has lines merge on.
The test I used was using 3 mtext and 3 shapes that had a solid hatch that was shaded and sent to the back.
The first mtext used the Express tools - Text Mask, the second mtext used the background mask built into mtext, and the third was a wipeout that was sent to the back. Only the background mask didn't work correctly when I used a pc3 that was using lines merge.
To me I don't understand why Autodesk thinks that this is the way it's suppose to work, apparently they don't understand the word "mask" correctly.
Our wish is to build background mask into the font style and make it work no matter what your pc3 is set to, just mask it.
Unfortunately, Background Masks use solid hatches, which are then set to the background color to mimic a wipeout. So yeah, we still have the problem in C3D 2010.
However, there is now an option in C3D 2010 to break the contour linework behind the contour labels, much like what Land Desktop did. I don't have a copy of C3D 2010 handy at the moment, and I can't remember how it's enabled, but I remember it being there. This is only on the contour labels, unfortunately, so we still have the background problem with all other background masks.
Unfortunately this issue still exists across all Autodesk products. We use both ACA and C3D in our office and the only way I have been able to prevent myself from being burned at the stake every time this issue arises was to create two separate pc3 files for our plotters and printers. One for lines merge which is the bulk of our plotting and one for lines overwrite for the C3D group.
The worst part is the problem still exists in ACA 2011. It is a shame that this issue still exist oh so many versions later.
I have the same problem. The text is masked on the screen but not on the plot from our HP1055CM. (See attached screen captures.) Another strange thing is that the masking works when plotted to our HP5550 Laser Printer. Yes, changing the Merge Control to "lines overwrite" in the Plotter Configuration Editor solves the problem, but it creates a new problem. Since we use a lot of solid hatching, we have to make sure it is all "moved to back". But with the lines overwrite setting, we don't get the "look" we want when lines pass through the hatching. Perhaps i'm just being too picky.....
I'm wondering if it could be a driver issue. Attached is a screen capture of the driver we're using.
There are a couple of things that went haywire with the mtext in 2010 or 2011. One is the masking, so that the software perceives the mask as the lightest grey and moves it to the lowest level on lines merge. The other is paragraph spacing. The text can no longer (easily) be configured to have anything less than 1/4" between paragraphs!
AutoDesk doesn't seem to be listening. This has been a problem through at least two years, and no patch or even suitable acknowledgement of the problem has been offered.
It is horribly inconvenient to set up drawings so that the same effect can be achieved with draworder as used to be so simple with lines merge. And it takes us back to all the problems we had previously with wipeouts to have to make a workaround to these issues. It certainly has me looking at the alternatives to the AutoDesk product.
You would not need to use with plotters set to "lines overwrite" unless you are using an area hatch that you wanted to show with the contour label text rather than a blank area under the contour label text. When "lines merge" is used, this setting allows the contour line to be masked below the contour label text. Attached image uses "lines merge" with one contour label set to "Contour Line Only" and the other set to the default "From Label Style".
So, this conversation started in 2008. We are now nearing the end of 2020. Why isn't this resolved yet? We use a lot of hatching to represent surface treatments. Even if a text layer is frozen in a viewport, its mask is visible when plotting. Lines merge is a must when using hatching. Lines merge is also important when clouding changes. We use a polyline with a screened color and a 0.05" width when clouding so that the clouds jump out on the page. If you use lines overwrite, then the clouds mask text. If you use lines merge, then text underneath the cloud is still legible.
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