Batch Plot to PDF Default Lineweight different from Print PDF

[ahickmang]

I've spent > 15 hours the last 2 weeks week delving into the world of lineweights and plot settings. I've been able to get everything set up perfectly, EXCEPT for one thing. If I print a single page by itself to PDF, the default lineweight (which I set using LWEIGHT) shows up correctly (I set it to 0.00mm to make it painfully obvious). When I Batch Plot, everything shows up fine except for the default lineweight, which it looks like it resets it to the autocad default value. What I've tried:

Creating my own Page Setup (shown below)

Lineweight in Plot Style Table Editor is set to "Use object lineweight"

Applied that page setup to each individual page 

Made sure that page setup was actually applied when batch plotting

The following two images show a screenshot of the results of printing and plotting. The obvious thicker line I've set at 0.5mm while every other line is 0.13mm

Printing Individual sheets (what it should look like):

Batch Plot (what it does look like):

When it comes to printing/plotting/lineweight issues, I've read through everything because I've had the same problems as everyone else over the last 2 weeks (I can't believe this is such a huge topic!). This has me stumped, it almost seems like printing a single page by itself uses the default lineweight I've applied (0.00mm) and when batch plotting, it uses the autocad default value for default lineweight (0.23mm or something like that). 

Thanks

[pendean · Accepted solution]

PUBLISH RULE OF THUMB THAT ALWAYS WORKS:
1. Launch Publish from a drawing that is not part of the publish set, but is configured with all your possible sheets and plotter options.
2. Bring in all the drawings/tabs to be published.
3. Import the pagesetup desired from the template file (in your case, one set up for exacting desired output).
4. PUBLISH.

[ahickmang]

I'll give that a shot, thanks.

[bcsurvey]

Have batch plot issues come to the point where we can't even have one of the desired drawings opened to get normal operation??  Well I'm having a related problem but not understanding step 3 in the solution above.  In my case, it seems that the batch plot process can't see the ttf fonts that exist in support file search paths.  I just went through the plotandpublishlog.csv file in installation directory and found this:  

"WARNING: The drawing contains text with unicode characters in a referenced font. The PDF may not display correctly on all viewers. Capturing fonts for this drawing is recommended."

Not sure how to address this one though.

[pendean]

@bcsurvey what fonts are you using in your DWG file? That's the problem being reported.

Try this  as a test too

[bcsurvey]

I work for a company that does a large amount of state-funded roadway, lighting, ITS and signalization work, so in my case, there's also the FDOT state kit that introduces proprietary layers, styles, settings, blocks, fonts, etc.  So this is what I'm seeing:  

as for the pdf options, I have had the "Capture font . . ." box checked.  Here is the folder containing desired fonts:  

This path is included in Support File Search Paths

[pendean]

>>>... I have had the "Capture font . . ." box checked...<<<
@bcsurvey Interesting, because your PDF driver/ viewer does not seem to think so when it report "...Capturing fonts for this drawing is recommended...."

Are you using a different pagesetup/PDF drivers perhaps?

[bcsurvey]

That does seem to indicate a disconnect . . . I also hit F2 after opening C3D and also after opening each of the 2 drawings in question, and the only font not loaded (substituted) were 2 obscure ones font001 and font011 - not the issue I'm fighting with, which is font "FDOT'.  I see this yellow error triangle but there are no hovering or right-click options that indicate details. 

No doubt it's just not finding it, although there is "FDOT.ttf" as shown above.

PS - If I hadn't said it earlier, these drawings contain items from 2011 +/- .dwgs and a coworkers initial assessment was either that the state kit was corrupted and needed uninstalling/reinstalling (which has been done about a half dozen times in the last year) or that the old objects were somehow corrupting or blowing out a setting or reference path.  I can still plot each sheet individually and get the right font to display, so I'll do that for now, was just wanting to get a firm grasp on what was going on exactly.

[pendean]

The yellow exclamation mark means that font is missing (or in this case perhaps it is corrupt or not in the correct Windows Fonts folder, just in the AutoCAD search path which is useless for TTFs).
Either way, it is not being used/is ignored/is being substituted: you must have that important alert at startup to warn you of these things turned off. Turn it on, restart C3D and open these files again and see what comes up.

[bcsurvey]

I do get a "missing shx" prompt, but these seem to be only for several named "dgnlstyle- . . . " (yes, being involved with FDOT work, we have to use Microstation/CONNECT, unfortunately).  As much as I can blame this on older files, this is the 5th one and the others didn't have the problem.

[pendean]

>>>...and the others didn't have the problem....<<<
Perhaps you can OPEN both files and dig a bit deeper in the "working just fine" one to find out what all is different between it and the problem file. Something is different.

Or post the two DWG files here for others to dive into them to find out more.

TIA

[maphillipsCFFU3]

I was having issues as well. I found that if you go into Options - User Preferences and click on "Lineweight Settings", 

change the lineweights from the standard .25mm to 0.00mm. I just did a text print and everything worked perfectly.