Plot Stlyle not applying to XREF

[D_Senden79]

Hello,

I have just made the move from Plant 3D 2012 to Plant 3D 2014, and I am having some XREF issues.

   Issue 1

We work with Civil surfaces XREF'd into Plant 3D. While working with PLant 3D 2012 we were able to XREF in a surface and still be able to snap to lines and points in the XREF no problem. If a site is graded for a pump station or some kind of building, we can snap to the conerpiont and place our building and piping where it needs to be. In 2014 version a Civil surface XREF comes in as a PROXY and loses all its information, and and cannot snap to anything. at first, nothing would even show up, but after digging around I found that I had to change PROXYSHOW setting to just get the XREF to even show up. The only way I was able to work around it was to open my Civil surface in Civil, export it from Civil, and then XREF in the exported file into Plant 3D2014. then it worked fine, my only concern about that is an XREF will update if changes have been made to it, where the exported version does not. What is the right way to use Civil surfaces in Plant 3D? Why don't they work like they did in 2012?

Issue 2

Attatched is a PDF of a site plan, with a base stick drawing (xref'd in), a Civil surface (exported from civil, then xref'd in), and a 3D model of new building with new pipe runs. the problem is our company CTB file is not working. the 3D model and piping should be in color, and the surface and base stick drawing should conform to our plot style. I have used the CTB file when customizing P&ID settings, and index sheets, and plot style worked great, now when I drop in P&ID symbols the come in the color I need to work with out plot style. if my visual style is set to 2D wireframe the plot style works fine, but when trying to make a plot if my visual style is set to realistic all colors/lineweights appear as they are. What do I need to do to get things to plot the way we want them? we want color model/pipe with black and white background. Again, this worked fine in 2012, why not now?

Thanks,

Damian Senden

[dgorsman]

The first issue is to do with object enablers, which control how custom objects are shown in AutoCAD-based programs other than the one with the appropriate ARX loaded.  You need to install the proper version in the viewing program e.g. to see Civil3D 2014 objects you need to install the Civil3D 2014 object enabler.  This has to be done for each new release, although in some cases a newer OE version can be used to view older content as well.

Not sure about the second issue.  Any of the rendered views ignore plot settings the same way as if you were using TrueColors for layer settings.  If you want rendered views *and* lineweight control in the same file, you will need to do some work-arounds e.g. overlapping viewports or plot the rendered view as an image and then underlay the image.