Batch Plot Issue ( Please Help!)

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am currently using Autocad Electrical 2015, I am trying to use the batch plotting feature in autocad electrical to plot over 30 drawings to pdf's.  I have it setup that I get the pdf's with the drawing properly sized, the only and major problem I am experiecing is that when I use batch plotting and print the drawings, they come out very light.  You can barely see some parts of the drawings, mainly the text identifying part numbers etc.

I have been trying to figure out how to fix this issue for a few weeks.  The only solution I was able to discover required having to plot each drawing individually but when your project has over 30 and now 50 drawings that is highly inefficient.  Any help would be greatly apprciated.

[pendean]

Very light in your PDF? Change how your acrobat reader PDF viewer handles lines in that apps settings, assuming of course that your plot style tables settings are not the real problem (your post is light on details).

[Anonymous]

In the page setup manager I have the following:

Plot Style: monochrome.ctb

Shaded Viewport options: 

     Shade Plot: As Displayed

     Quality: Normal

Printer/Plotter: DWG To PDF.pc3

Plot Area: Window

Landscape

This is how I have it set up.  Is this what you were refering to?  I am still very new to autocad, have only been using it for 4 months.

[pendean]

Those look good: so does this mean your lines are light ONLY when you look at them in your PDF viewer? But they otherwise print to paper just fine? If yes, then change how your Adobe Acrobat pdf viewer handles lines smoothing display.

[Anonymous]

Hello Pendean,

The text is very weak in the pdf viewer and more so when I print it.  Some text comes out fine, but the text that is inputed to devices or terminals etc, prints out very lightly.  Sometimes you can barely tell that any text is in the drawing.  I do not know if this is an issue on the pdf application side or if its an issue with the batch plot feature.

I plot each drawing individually and the drawing prints out perfectly and everything is clearly visible.  I do it with the batch plot and you can barely see the text.

[pendean]

So it would appear PUBLISH is not actually using the correct pagesetup that is being used in PLOT command.

How do you have PUBLISH set to output to PDFs? If you are unsure, post a screenshot of the PUBLISH pop-up with your files in the list.

[Anonymous]

I have attached a picture of the requested PUBLISH pop up.

[Anonymous]

in your publish options include layer information

[Anonymous]

I changed the setting in the options to include layer information, but the printout of the drawing still looked faded.

[pendean]

That's not a good way to batch print modelspace content: you are not using any PAGESETUPs so no plot style or lineweights are being picked up. Look at the bottom of that screenshot you posted: see where it says all the pagesetups are being overwritten? That's "ignored" in normal-speak.

Explore this video for an overview of a better method, see if this helps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEa-l33vzJM

[Anonymous]

Thank you, with the information on that video I was able to fix the issue I was having with batch plotting.  In the publish setup the box "subsitute truetype fonts for shx" was checked and changed the font style.  Once I unchecked it the drawings came out exactly as I required with all text very legible.  

I would like to thank everyone for their assistance.  Thank you.

[raphael_fortin6QCNB]

For anyone looking for the publish setup panel its this one : 

[pendean]

@raphael_fortin6QCNB Your very specific variant of AutoCAD (ELECTRICAL) has abilities is not found in the plain AutoCAD (the topic of this forum), but good catch that is what the OP is using, thanks for sharing.

[theilt20uae]

Plot Style: monochrome.ctb

Shaded Viewport options: 

     Shade Plot: As Displayed

     Quality: Normal

Printer/Plotter: DWG To PDF.pc3

Plot Area: Window

Landscape