topic Re: CTB not working (layers stay the same in preview/plot) in AutoCAD Forum

CTB not working (layers stay the same in preview/plot)

Anonymous — Tue, 08 May 2018 15:04:36 GMT

When I enter a ctb (one of my own or a default AutoCad ctb) - it won't preview and won't plot according to it. I don't understand why. I have a student version and I am using a windows version of Autocad 2019, on a Mac parallel desktop (although I don't think any of it is the issue). I am attaching the file.

I'd really really appreciate your quick help... Kind of under pressure with this project

Betreff: CTB not working (layers stay the same in preview/plot)

cadffm — Tue, 08 May 2018 15:20:45 GMT

You are using a CTB Plotstyletable,

your object color (from layer color) is for example 255,255,0

I am sure your plotstyletable has no plotstyle for color 255,255,0, OR?

With CTB (color depend) Plotsyle you can only regulate properties for ACI-colored objects (color 1-255),

not for truetype-colors (thats only possible with the totally different way via named plostyles (STB).

For example: Set all layer with color 255,255,0 to color 2 and try it again, your plotstyletable has a plotstyle

for color2 and the objects will plot with that plotstyle properties from your plotstyletable.

Re: CTB not working (layers stay the same in preview/plot)

ChicagoLooper — Tue, 08 May 2018 17:00:09 GMT

In order for Cad to see your plot style it must be in the correct folder. Otherwise Cad won't find it. (Hint: For your custom ctb, put "_101" or "_your initals" at the end of it so you won't get it confused with some other ctb file.) Make sure your ctb file is here:

Options>Files tab>Printer Support>Plot Style

Futhermore, and most importantly, your drawing file is using what I call PSEUDO COLORS (I just made that up--not an official AutoCAD term). In your properties palette you have a 0,255,0 which uses 'pseudo' green and 255,255,0 which uses 'pseudo' yellow and if you are trying to print using grayscale.ctb or monochrome.ctb the gray or mono colors will NOT be used because the pseudo colors are being used instead. When this happens you get a colored printout instead of gray or B & W. In other words 0,255,0 and 255,255,0 are overriding the gray and the mono. If you really want to plot to grayscale or monochrome, change your pseudo colors to the real deal, e.g. 0,255,0 in color column of properties palette should indicate 'Green' and 255,255,0 should indicate 'Yellow'. Only use pseudo colors when you are intentionally trying to prevent colors from printing gray or black, like when you want to highlight an area of contaminated soil (pseudo 255,0,0) that should be avoided. In this type of situation, all objects and text will be black while the dirty soil area will be pseudo red, which gives it eyeball priority when the drawing is being viewed.

Re: CTB not working (layers stay the same in preview/plot)

Anonymous — Wed, 09 May 2018 07:40:13 GMT

Eventually, I solved it like so:

opening a new Autocad file and copying all the content from old file to the new one. I have no idea what was the original problem but it completely fixed it, without any need to touch the ctb/plot definitions.

I have a feeling it has something to do with the fact that the original Autocad file I was having trouble with was generated via Rhino 5.0 export command.

Thank you for your help!