topic Using Solid Hatch for Masking - White Prints as Transparent Instead in AutoCAD LT Forum

Using Solid Hatch for Masking - White Prints as Transparent Instead

jim.mongiardo — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 15:51:36 GMT

I read up on masking and wipeouts. I decided to use a solid hatch set on a layer configured to print as a mask.

I've tried setting the color to 255,255,255. I've tried setting screening to 0%. It still ends up printing the underlying geometry.

This would be a solid hatch on a symbol placed in paperspace over a viewport. The geometry to mask is in the viewport. I use .ctb files for printing to an HP Color Inkjet that supports 17 x 11.

Re: Using Solid Hatch for Masking - White Prints as Transparent Instead

pendean — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 16:32:42 GMT

RGB 255,255,255 is "transparent".
CTB do not affect any RGB colorways either.
Plus there is no such color as WHITE when printing from AutoCAD if you are creating PDFs or printing on white paper.
So those things are not it.

Any reason you do NOT wish to use a WIPEOUT? Look that up in HELP, it's there for your need.

Also... content over a viewport has issues if you forgot to review your PLOT PAPERSPACE LAST setting on that pagesetup/plot command pop-up; I suspect this also needs to be considered after you fix the above colors issue.

In the absence of a CAD file or relevant screenshots from you, that's about all I can think of for you to start changing and testing. Give all of those a shot.

Re: Using Solid Hatch for Masking - White Prints as Transparent Instead

h_s_walker — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 16:21:54 GMT

Is the ringed item in the image below ticked?

Re: Using Solid Hatch for Masking - White Prints as Transparent Instead

jim.mongiardo — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 16:38:20 GMT

pendean - Thanks for the input. Solid hatches vs wipeouts is one of those AutoCAD debates I try and steer clear of. The short version is they both have their idiosyncracies and I'm more familiar with solid hatch as mask then wipeout.

hwalker - That's what I was missing. We just switched from LT 2013 to LT 2023 due to no new activations allowed anymore. Figure there will be a few settings things I overlook. We don't do much heavy lifting with our 2D, but I'm glad to update (even if the bean counters aren't!).

I figure I'm going to have a few of these litle issues pop up. Thanks for all the help!

Re: Using Solid Hatch for Masking - White Prints as Transparent Instead

plantpower — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 16:52:33 GMT

I know this solution was solved, but for me the solution wasn't the end. For the life of me, all my solid hatches were still transparent even though I changed the white to a true color. The preview plot looked like it was working and for some reason the pdf would still come out with transparency. So for anyone where the transparency for white was still showing, let this comment be a solution as well.

I hypothesized that it might be a printer/plotter problem and it turned out it was. The merge control was set to lines merge which meant the lines were over on top of each other and mixed rather than being on top of each other. See snip of the plotter configuration editor setting.