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Lines merge, how does your office handle it?

8 REPLIES 8
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Message 1 of 9
pkolarik
616 Views, 8 Replies

Lines merge, how does your office handle it?

(I haven't gotten much information where I originally posted this, so I thought I'd try here)

 

As more and more clients, subs, etc., etc are requesting pdf's more and more often, the issue of "lines merge" vs. "lines overwrite" (and therefore, pdf "flattening" when printing a pdf) is becoming more of a topic of discussion in our office.

 

I know we're not the only office making pdf's that have to be "flattened" (thereby taking a huge amount more of time to print) when sending to a printer.... but not *all* pdf's we receive need to be flattened so there are some offices that don't have to deal with this issue.

 

The question is this:

If you use lines merge = on in your autocad, do you have a way to get pdfs that don't need to be flattened? (printing to dwf then pdf is not a reliable option either, as that does not consistantly honor the lines merge feature between dwf/pdf either)

If you don't use lines merge then how do you set up your drawings to allow for easy draworder handling? (and do you use solid hatching patterns in your drawings, which we rely on alot)

 

Thanks!

8 REPLIES 8
Message 2 of 9
pendean
in reply to: pkolarik

You should share links if you are going to refer to other posts:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-2011/Lines-merge-what-does-your-office-do/m-p/3365007

 

Message 3 of 9
pkolarik
in reply to: pendean

Ah, good idea! Thanks!

Message 4 of 9
chriswade
in reply to: pkolarik

We utilize named plot styles and draw order to accomplish this.

Message 5 of 9
jggerth1
in reply to: chriswade

Lines over write and draworder.  When I draw a screen line over a black line, I want to see the screened line, not the black+screen.  Similarly, with multiple screened hatches, if a 25% screen overlays a 50% screen, I do not want to end up with a 75% screen.

 

Personally I've never found a benefit to lines-merge, as it gives me less control over the final hardcopy that will be used to permit/build the project.

Message 6 of 9
pkolarik
in reply to: jggerth1

So how do you two and your offices deal with the "draworder/xref bug" in Autocad? We've tried using draworder and lines overwrite several times and we always come up against this bug.

 

Do you just have 40 brazillion xrefs to separate out every single group of items that you want that level of control over? (different hatch patterns, certain groups of linework, etc., etc)

 

Thanks for your input!

Message 7 of 9
jggerth1
in reply to: pkolarik

Xref and draworder has not been a significant problem here since we went from 2006 to 2009, and I've had little problems with it in 2011.  Mostly we do civil type work, and typically we use two or three xrefs - existing condition & design base as model files, referenced into a sheet file for borders, annotation, and plotting.  Aerials fairly often, but generally they get pushed to the back of the stack, with exisintg conditions over that, and design base on top.

 

I do not ATTACH any xrefs; just use OVERLAY, so each plottable sheet is constructed by xreffing in what's needed, nothing nested.  

 

seems to work pretty well for us.

Message 8 of 9
chriswade
in reply to: pkolarik

The last release that I can recall haivng issues with Draw Order in was 2010. I definitely have not had any issues in 2012 or 2013.

 

Also, with the newer versions, we will somtimes utilize transparency, but try to avoid it for the most part as it makes plotting a lot slower.

 

Overall, these are the reasons that staying on the latest release makes sense.

Message 9 of 9
pkolarik
in reply to: chriswade

hmmm.. interesting. We've not upgraded past 2011 versions for the most part yet (haven't seen a good reason to so far), but maybe we should get 2012 installed and test out the draw order issues again.

 

Thanks!

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