topic Displayed line thicknesses in AutoCAD Forum

Displayed line thicknesses

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 18:38:56 GMT

For me, it's not to do with how it plots out - I use colours and I 'see' the different colours as different line thicknesses. What I don't understand is why, in previous versions of autocad, the lines all had a delicacy and fineness that has now gone. I just can't get used to the 'cheap' feeling it's giving my drawings on the screen. And I have an older version of autocad running on another computer, and previously on this one, so I know that the displayed thickness of supposedly one pixel is not as fine as I can get - it used to be much finer (I wasn't counting pixels), and I want that back.

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

imadHabash — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 19:05:55 GMT

HI,

If do you want to see your drawing exactly how it will be look like when plotting and i understand your need right, you can make it by preparing a page setup .

From Layout model.
File > Page Setup Manager > New.
Fill all needed information.
Tick Display plot style.
set current your new named page setup.
from layout you will see a new final look for your drawing depending on your page setup info.

Good Luck...

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

Kent1Cooper — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 19:28:54 GMT

That sounds like a screen resolution issue. Has anything else happened that could have changed any screen-resolution-related settings, such as an operating system upgrade or a new monitor? Are things like desktop icons different sizes than they were before that? If that's not the cause, the one thing I can think of that's AutoCAD-specific is that this sounds like something in the general "class" of issues that may be resolved by turning off hardware acceleration, but others know better than I about such things.

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

dmfrazier — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 21:08:29 GMT

"...in previous versions of autocad..."

Which versions of AutoCAD are you comparing?

Is this simply a matter of having the Show/Hide Lineweight toggle turned on?

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

dmfrazier — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 21:12:31 GMT

"...in previous versions of autocad..."

Which versions of AutoCAD are you comparing?

Is this simply a matter of having the Show/Hide Lineweight toggle turned on?

(Sorry for the duplicate - not sure why, but must have something to do with the inserted image.)

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 07:04:02 GMT

Thanks for all the replies - I appreciate it. I'm on 2017 at the moment, and I've tried everything I can to get back the 'fineness' of my older version. I've set the default lineweight to 0.00, and I've read about how 0.00 is one pixel, and people saying you can't get less than one pixel, because that's all the screen will allow. Well, I don't know why or how, but it used to be much finer - with this same screen, so I can only think that autodesk has done something to the lineweights. I can see the difference immediately - it was the first thing that disturbed me about the programme.

And yes, I have toggled the lineweights off, although I struggled to find it (don't know if I can again), it seems to have been replaced with something called Annotation monitor, and I have no idea what that is at the moment.

I can never get over how things seem to get worse when they're supposed to be improved.

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

pendean — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 14:03:16 GMT

Is there a reason you are not able to post a screenshot to show us what you see?
We are not experiencing anything like you are.

Post a full program window screenshot, in high res, not scaled down, if you have no idea haw to do that read this https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13776/windows-use-snipping-tool-to-capture-screenshots

Or.. turn off LINESMOOTHING and LINEFADING variables (type them) in R2017, or even start GRAPHICSCONFIG command turn off everything else on that pop-up when it comes up. These are likely to help too, it may be your video card chocking with R2017 but not your older version.

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

wispoxy — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 14:54:13 GMT

I noticed a visual difference in the colors and lines too on screen when transitioning to AutoCAD 2017, but it still prints the same correctly.

Maybe the monitor or something else...? I stopped worrying when it was printing the same.

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

jggerth — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 15:05:44 GMT

take a look at the LINESMOOTHING system variable.

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 18:38:38 GMT

Thanks for the reply, pendean. I tried the linesmoothing, and helpfully got the reply: "High quality geometry is on. Cannot turn off LINESMOOTHING." Fortunately you saved me from another search of the internet to find out how to turn off high quality geometry by giving me the command (thank you!) graphicsconfig. I turned off hardware acceleration, went out pessimistically, and turned off the linesmoothing - and it worked! I now have my delicate lines back - thank you so much.

I have a new computer because my last one got struck by lightning, but the screen was fine. The screen is a 22" Samsung flatscreen, and while it might now be getting on, it works perfectly well - as far as I am concerned it is a great screen, and I'm not going to add to the problems of the environment by throwing it away. It may take a few milliseconds longer to respond (I don't know), but it is crystal clear and I like it.

Thanks again for giving me the solution to this problem. Although why autocad can't just assume that I wouldn't know where to find 'High Quality Geometry' and just ask me if I want to switch it off is beyond me. Or, simply assume that I know enough about linesmoothing (which I don't) and switch it off automatically.

I have been on autocad since the DOS days of autocad 9. Which is possibly why I have no patience with a programme which makes me relearn everything every time they upgrade it. For me autocad is just a tool, and when it slows me down instead of helping me, it really annoys me.

Can I ask you whether the same (graphicsconfig and linesmoothing) would apply to Revit?

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

wispoxy — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 19:39:22 GMT

@pendean, @jggerth, @Anonymous,

Overall the problem was resolved, that's a plus

Re: Displayed line thicknesses

scot-65 — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 23:26:24 GMT

One thing I have noticed for this R2016 here (from R2014) is
when there are multiple lines on top of each other (and the
same color), the lineweight increases. At first I thought it was
the LWDISPLAY variable, but it was not. I since have gotten
used to it and overall I now like this new feature.

???