Line Weight/Visibilitly Issues

[geofriendly]

I've posted another similar question and was not able to resolve it - probably due to the fact that I had a deadline to meet!  I am trying to increase the width of a line (both in paper space, printed and in model space).  So far, I have used the pedit command to increase the width and the line looks great in model space, then I changed the ltscale to 700.  That probably sounds crazy, but I read somewhere that my ltscale should be 75% of my scale in my model space which is 1:900. Also, I've tried both checking the lineweight visibility and unchecking in my plot styles manager dialogue box.  Haven't seen any results from that. I feel like it must be a combination of things and unfortunetly the doc is too big to attach. 

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> I have used the pedit command to increase the width

Polyline-Width and lineweights are two very different things as the Polyline-Width is measured in absolute units while a lineweight is alway relative to paper/display.

E.g.  if your UNITS are set to Millimeter and you set the Polyline-Width to 1 it's 1mm (absolute) width ==> if you plot noe with a scale 1:5 the Poly will be plotted with a width of 1/5 = 0.2

On the other side if you set the lineweight to 1mm ==> you can plot 1:1 or 1:5 or 5:1, the geometry will always be plotted with a lineweight of 1mm on paper.

HTH, - alfred -

[geofriendly]

Alfred, thank you for your response.  My plot scale is 2:1, could that account for the "skinny lines"? 

[geofriendly]

I can see that this is something I just need to sit back and take my time and experiement with. 

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

if you upload a drawing with a few of this polylines it's easier to check what 2:1 means for your project plus how variables are set like MSLTSCALE, PSLTSCALE, LTSCALE and the objects-linetypescale.

Also interesting is the definition:

>> my scale in my model space which is 1:900

I don't know what scale that should be ... annotation scale or just a zoom factor?

Anyway it's always a bad way to set two parameters to get one result, in the case for linewidth do either lineweight or Polyline-Width, don't try to set both and calculate the output as this will always makes troubles when changing the output scale.

- alfred -

[geofriendly]

Alfred,

I'm afraid my drawing is too big.  Thank you for your input. 

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> I'm afraid my drawing is too big

Make a copy of the drawing an then erase all but a few elements ... just to see what you see on one or two polylines. A drawing with 2 polylines plus one layout containing one viewport (or two layouts) will not be to large to be uploaded here (do _PURGE if necessary)

- alfred -

[geofriendly]

Alfred,

It took me a while to get the drawing small enough to send.  In this case, I'm wanting to emphasize certain lines (make larger in print) and de-emphasize others.   I want to emphasize the magenta line (barely visible) which show our transmission line.  All in all, I am wanting to make it easier to read and I feel that the symbols I am using against the backdrop of the roads, parcels, railroads, are getting lost making my drawing hard to read. 

Thanks so much. 

[Alfred.NESWADBA · Accepted solution]

Hi,

set the global widhts of your plines to 0

give the layer "ALIGNMENT1" a lineweight of e.g. 0.5

turn on display of lineweight (LWDISPLAY)

And having done that you will see the alignment with a constant lineweight undependend from any viewport-scaling (see the drawing attached ... I created two viewports on your Layout1 with different scales)

Additional comments to your drawing:

don't set a scale (in standard cases) to your pagesetup of the layout (was set to 1:2)

try to use Blocks and Attributes, all your labeling (e.g. objects on layer "TRANS POLE-BOTTOM" or "NEW PROPERTY CORNERS") ==> that gives you much more control while modifying and analysing your drawing PLUS (most important in your case) blocks can be scaled dependend from scales, so they may also be automatically resized when changing your viewport-scale!

- alfred -

[geofriendly]

Alfred,

Thank you so much for your input and for taking the time to look at these issues.  My drawing is looking better.