Plotstyles not printing lineweight

[davidv37]

Im having great difficulty in getting different line weights to plot using plot styles.

I have tried numerous ways of setting the plot style just as exercises to see if I can work out what is going wrong by process of elimination.

No matter what I set the lineweights to in a plotstyle, even with everything set to 0.00 thickness I get a thicker line than I would expect, probably something like 0.25.

The only workaround I have found is to set the lineweight in the layers property and then print to 'as displayed'. 

However, my drawings are not set up to print this way and I really would like to work out what is not allowing the plot styles to be used.

Curiously also I have all my units set to metric yet in the layer table they are shown as imperial. ie 0.20" etc. and I cant find a way of changing this.

Its not my plotter because the output is the same on different printers and other peoples pdf's  plot perfectly with nice fine lines.

I have attached a file for reference.

Thanks in advance.

[maxim_k]

Hi David,

Which AutoCAD version are you using?

And which macOS is installed on your Mac?

Can you post screenshot of Page Setup manager with settings for the layout you are trying to plot?

Also pleas post screenshot of the dialog window where you see lineweights in inches.

Meanwhile I tested your drawing (I saved PDFs from Print window) with three different Plot Style tables and got acceptable results - see attached PDFs. i only changed lineweight for color 190, which was "default" in your plot style tables).

Plot as displayed.pdf - plotted without using Plot style table

Maxim

[davidv37]

Hi Maxim,

Im using LT2017 with update N.50.M.178  and OS Sierra 10.12.6

I have attached screenshots as requested.

I tried printing the pdfs you attached but only got blank pages!

Visually the two plot files looked (on screen) identical and the plot as displayed file printed the thick lines as well.

Thanks

[maxim_k]

>>>>I tried printing the pdfs you attached but only got blank pages!

Looks like this problem related to the settings of the printing device you are using. Maybe there is a problem with software you have installed for your printing device.

>>>>Visually the two plot files looked (on screen) identical

That is because lineweights in CTB file do not differ much, for the printing device I used:

0.000 lineweight outputs to PDF as 0.048,

0.050 lineweight outputs to PDF as 0.048,

0.090 lineweight outputs to PDF as 0.086,

It is really strange for me that you have inches for lineweights in the Layers Palette, because I never had a chance to change lineweights units in the Layers Palette from mm to inches on my system, I even believe that there is a bug in AutoCAD for Mac which prevents from changing lineweights units in the Layers palette and in Plot Style table editor from mm to inch.

What do you see in Lineweight Settings window (menu Format -> Lineweight)?

What if you will change printing device in the Page setup from current you are using for printing to some other (if you have one)? Does this affect lineweight units in the Layers Palette?

Maxim

[davidv37]

The strange thing is that this has only recently started happening (and always when you are trying to get some important drawings printed).

The plot style editor and the lineweight settings box are definitely confused.

I tried setting all layers to 0.00 and 'plot as displayed' to no avail, the plot is still rubbish

I tried printing the pdfs on both plotter and printer and neither will show any output. I dont know if this is because its trying to print pdf's from Webloc.

Im going to go back and see if plotting from 2016 is any better.

David

[maxim_k]

Which application you are using for printing PDF files, created in AutoCAD?
Are you able to print correctly PDF files created in other applications?

You have not attached screenshot of the Lineweight Settings window. what do you see in it?

If the anomaly with lineweights started to show recently, have you tried to reset AutoCAD?

Maxim

[davidv37]

Im using CutePDF which works fine for other applications.

Screenshot of the lineweight settings attached to last message 17.35.05, attached again just in case.

I tried printing from 2016 with no improvement.

By resetting autocad do you mean uninstalling and reinstalling? 

I tried a colleagues drawing and used their plot style and I finally got some thin lines so definitely the program, especially as the line weights were also shown as inches

Aaargh why do these glitches happen when you just dont need them!

[maxim_k]

>>>Im using CutePDF

CutePDF for Mac???

>>>By resetting autocad do you mean uninstalling and reinstalling?

I mean resetting with menu AutoCAD -> Reset AutoCAD
But wait, do not reset it.
Do you have inches for lineweights from the beginning?
What if you print from Preview app? Can you see lines when you using Preview app for printing?

Maxim

[maxim_k]

About lineweight units:
If you want them to show in mm in Layers Palette, than you need to set system variable LWUNITS=1, then restart AutoCAD.

Maxim

[davidv37]

The lineweight unit switch worked. Great, thanks.

Plotting is still an issue  so I did reset Autocad out of exasperation.

Plot styles still dont work when plotting direct but I did manage to get a quality print by using acadlt.ctb and altering the lineweights as I wanted and printing to  pdf then plotting from the pdf. A faff but at least I got a decent print out of it.

The same plotstyle plotting to the plotter still gave no variation in lineweight.

Yes CutePDF writer works in Mac! see attached.

David

[maxim_k]

Hi David,

>>>>Plot styles still dont work when plotting direct

Which printer (model, connection type) you tried to use to print directly from AutoCAD?

>>>>Yes CutePDF writer works in Mac! see attached.

I asked you about CutePDF on Mac because:

Maxim

[davidv37]

Hi Maxim,

Im using Canon IPF605 plotter and Oki C830 printer, both are networked with Ethernet.

I cant answer more about Cutepdf but it seems to be installed on my Mac and prints quite happily.

After much trial and error I have managed to get a workaround to the problem by setting up lineweights directly in the layers and plotting to pdf (native mac) then printing the pdf to the plotter. It a faff because the layers dialogue seem to take precedence over anything else so the plot styles dialogue box is redundant and more to the point it means that every drawing has to use the same layer settings rather than assigning a plot style.

David

[Victoria.Studley]

Hi @davidv37,

We've heard from other customers using Canon printers to plot from AutoCAD for Mac, who have seen the same or similar results to what you've described here.

The issue may be due to the printer driver that Canon provides. My understanding is that they provide a driver for Windows-based systems that is compatible with vector programs like AutoCAD, but that they don't provide a comparable equivalent for Mac-based systems.

You may want to contact Canon directly to troubleshoot the issue, or see if they can provide a different driver that processes vector-based files more precisely. If you're experiencing the same issue with other printers/plotters, you might also contact those manufacturers to see if they can provide some guidance, or a different driver.

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[davidv37]

Thanks Victoria,

I have the latest drivers and firmware. Canon unsurprisingly have said that as the machine prints perfectly well from other programmes including Autocad drawings saved as pdf's. the problem has to be with the software and bounced me back to AutoCad.

Logically I cant disagree with them but then I tried printing from Autocad Obi Beta and I still had the same problem! 

Does anybody else reading this have AutoCad for Mac and a Canon IPF605 and how do you find the plot quality direct from AutoCad?

In the meantime I am working around by plotting to pdf and then to the plotter.