topic Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg in Civil 3D Forum

Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larger R

claimed4all — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 21:14:48 GMT

Having a plotting issue with a a few specific drawings that is driving us nuts. Some parts of a polyline segment print thin, while others print normaly. Staight segements and segements with a larger radius plot normally, the tighter radius spots plot thinner.

Here are the facts that I know.

If I print right from autocad to plotter everything prints normarlly.

If I publish a PDF set using the DWG to PDF, I can see the lineweight change in the PDF (almost appears as a line shift with slight overlap) and and it will print to the plotter.

These changes are happening accross a single polyline, and I verified global width set to 0

We use PDFs alot for the storage of print sets and sending to agencies. All project coordinators use PDFs to run the prints as required for clients/submittals so creating a plot file set is not a good solution.

This is happening only in a couple of drawings out of a hundreds a month. Al drawings started from the same template file.

Not sure how to proceed here. I attached a screenshot of what the PDF looks like. When printed (via PDF to KIP print) it goes from normal polyline width (0.30mm) to super thin (0.00-0.09mm) where I marked on the screenshot.

This is all occuring on Civil 3D 2016.

Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg

tcorey — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 23:32:55 GMT

Are you able to post one of your "bad" drawings?

Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg

claimed4all — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 14:35:19 GMT

The CAD file is a group of about 5 files totalling 35mbs. If someone really wants to take a look at that I don't mind privately sending the CAD file. My work around is plot files right now.

I am using the built in DWG to PDF printer. I have Bluebeam, but I can not use that as several sheets use transparancy and bluebeam rasterizes everything when plot with transparancy is on.

Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg

tcorey — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 20:24:07 GMT

tcorey at shasta dot com.

Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 22:05:38 GMT

I was wondering if this issue has been solved, We're having the same problem in our office with our pdf output.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg

rl_jackson — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 04:35:51 GMT

@tcorey

Did you solve this. Very odd

@Anonymous

Can y9u post or private message the drawing

Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg

tcorey — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 14:29:13 GMT

OP never sent the drawing.

Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg

claimed4all — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 14:35:44 GMT

Here is where my issue stands. Its only one drawing that has this issue. I am pretty sure its a plotter issue. If I have a user in another office plot the same PDF drawing to their printer it works just fine (They have a smaller KIP). We have updated all plot drivers and the issue persists, with only this one drawing.

I have asked our KIP guy and they have looked into it with zero results.

My current work around is a print as a PDF IMAGE. I use KIP Print for printing everything except this one drawing. For this drawing I plot via BLUEBEAM or ADOBE and tell it to print as an image file and my issue goes away.

Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 16:03:36 GMT

PDF-PRE-PLOT.PDF is the PDF output from Civil 3D 2016 using DWG to PDF - PDF ePlot - by Autodesk, which looks fine

KIP_7900-PRINT.PDF is a scan of the printed page which has the curves printing thinner than the adjoining lines.

Looking into Kip drivers at this point, doesn't seem to be an Autodesk issue.

Thank you rl_jackson and claimed4all for your help and input, I will try the PDF Image approach and see if that helps.

Thank you

Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg

claimed4all — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 16:11:16 GMT

Just plotted your PDF to our Kip 7970. Same line issue I have seen on my plan. Our other office says they don't have the issue on my original drawing, they have a Kip 7170.

I am going to say its a Kip issue, not sure how to fix it other than printing the PDF as an image.

Re: Curves with radius under XX' plotting lighter than lines or curves with larg

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 16:42:29 GMT

Here are two sheets of our preliminary plots from the KIP 7900, I have circled the contours in question. On sheet 6 the issues with the arc appear at the top of the sheet.

On sheet 7 the same contours are circled and look perfect, but other arcs are looking thin at the top of the sheet, bottom of the sheet looks good.

Time for a breakfast margarita!

Thanks for all the help and input