Layers set to True Colour plotting as Black and White

[murrayt945]

I'm having difficulty plotting in colour. I'm using AutoCAD 2013, and I'm trying to plot to a pdf. My drawing contains line work that has been set on layers that are ACI colours, these I want to show up as black and white. Also in the drawing I have a few hatches on layers that are true colours, these I want to show up as coloured. 

I'm using a custom .ctb file and Adobe PDF as plotter / Driver. When I print I only get black and white, line weights are fine but no colour?? Any ideas what might be causing this and any solutions? Thanks,

[pendean]

If you plot with NO plot style table, do you get color on the PDF?

[murrayt945]

I tried No plot style still no colour. I've checked pretty much everything related to layers but can't figure it out. On an older version of CAD 09 I would do this all the time with no problems.   

[pendean]

Good: so your problem has nothing to do with plot style table settings, so that diagnosis is shot. One down.

Are you plotting using any special 'shade plot' option?
is your file or viewport set to anything other than Shademode=2D?

Is your PDF driver set to output to balck/white? You never said what you are plotting to etc.

Which 'truecolors' are you using? grays or actual blue-red-green type colors?

[murrayt945]

Shademode = 2D

I'm plotting to "Adobe PDF.pc3" (Adobe PDF Convertor - Windows System Driver - by Autodesk). The default for this driver is set to colour prints so I typically open the properties and change the settings to Black and White. My initial thoughts are by doing this it is causing both ACI and True Colours to go b/w, but I've been successful in the past doing it the same way. If I don't overwrite the default and leave the print settings to colour I get coloured lines and coloured hatch.

and I'm using RGB colours    

whats strange is I have a colour image in the titleblock that plots in colour? Just wish the rest would follow suit. 

BTW thanks for helping

[pendean]

Two tests:
- Plot to the DWG TO PDF.PC3 driver, no plot style table: still B/W?
- Plot to any DWF drivers installed, no plot style table: still B/W?

If yes to both,I'd like you to post a sample from your DWG file to review in person.

FYI: images plot the way they are, AutoCAD never has and still does not override them when plotting/publishing. It's not a relevant observation sadly.

[murrayt945]

Plot to the DWG TO PDF.PC3 driver, no plot style table: still B/W? -  No, RGB and ACI plot in colour
Plot to any DWF drivers installed, no plot style table: still B/W? -  No, RGB and ACI plot in colour

I'm unable to change the settings to plot in b/w for both and w/o a plot style the ACI layers will only plot as per the colour values. 

I've attached a etransmitted sample w/ custom CTB and plotter settings. Please feel free to take a look and let me know what you think. I feel the solution is fairly basic but I'm just missing something. 

Thanks.

[pendean]

So these different dirvers give you what you want, so did you try them with your plot style table? The tests were to get away from your first problem where EVERYTHING was black/white without a plot style table. Forget about your other driver, I don't have it and have no way to help you fix it.

PS: you posted a test doomed to fail: your lines are in CYAN (in your plot style table, that is set to BLUE, not black or cyan). Your 'black' settings in your plot style table start with ACI color 18 through 21, then  23 through 29 then 31 through 52 then 55 through 82 then 84 then 86 through 103 then 105 through 135 the 136 through 141 and so on. All the others seem to be set to BLUE.

do you know which ACI colors are black and which are not? Your test file doesn't show it.

Even your pen #7 is set to GREEN in your plot style and pen 85 is set to RGB 60,288,58: wow! How confusing, for me anyway.

[murrayt945]

Those drivers allow me to plot in colour but that's not what I'm looking to do for all my lines. I want ACI colors to plot in B/w and I want my RGB values to plot in Colours. I'm trying to colour render parts of a plan. Can you suggest a way of doing this? 

You're likely right, it's a CTB file I use only for Black and White plots, so despite what colours they're set to I get the lineweights that I require. Can you recommend a CTB file that's worth using or where I can find out some more info? I rarely plot in colour but have rendered in CAD in the past and have been successful plotting in colour.    

[pendean · Accepted solution]

Fix your plot style table to do what you just described: do you know how to do that? Open the CTB, click on the last tab that shows all the ACI colors in table form, select them all and set the color to BLACK with no dithering.

OR... The MONOCHROME plot style table that AutoCAD provides for free is correctly set to have all the ACI colors set to B/W.

[murrayt945]

So it all came back to the CTB file. I did as instructed and changed the colours from blue to black and then plotted using my original Adobe driver and it worked. Thanks for you help! 

[pendean]

Great!

[eaccari]

I spent an hour on this 🙂

I setup the paper size, Plot to PDF, monochrome and everything I could possibly think of, then when I try "Preview" button, some stuff shows up in Color whereas I did what I could to make it B/W.

So at the end I decided what the heck I setup all the layouts and then did a batch plot, Lo and Behold, the PDF is a masterpiece in B/W.

Turns out in my mind it is a bug in the software. The guy who wrote the routine for the "Preview" button did not finish his work by the time AutoCAD 2016 shipped to marked. 

[ShumailaK]

 WHAT IS CTB?

[pendean]

http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/acadblog/tutorial-create-a-plot-style-color-dependent/

[anashyousef]

 you can  write CONVERTPSTYLES in a command line look at this

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Plotti...

or

you can copy everything and paste it in another file then plot monochrome