HIDDEN LINES

[Anonymous]

I HAVE TRIED TO CONTACT CUSTOMER SUPPORT ON THIS MANY TIMES WITH NO RESPONSE BACK AS OF THIS TIME. I AM USING AUTOCAD 2018 AND I AM TRYING TO SHOW  MY HIDDEN LINES AS DOTTED LINES. FOR EXAMPLE WHEN IN 2D WIRE FRAME IF YOU DRAW A BOX WITH A HOLE THE THE CENTER IT SHOWS THE OUTLINE OF THE BOX AND THE HOLE GOING THROW THE CENTER AS SOLID LINES, IF YOU LOOK AT IT ON THE FRONT VIEW ITS THE SAME THING. BUT THE HOLE ON THE FRONT VIEW SHOULD SHOW AS DOTTED LINES. DOES ANY ONE KNOW HOW TO CHANGE THIS?  

[Ed__Jobe]

Can you post a sample dwg of what you're talking about? From what you describe, it seems that there wouldn't be any hidden lines.

[Anonymous]

ON FRONT VIEW I WANT TO MAKE THE HOLE SHOW UP AS DOTTED LINES INSTEAD OF SOLID LINES AS IT SHOWS FOR THE OUTER EDGES OF THE PART

[Ed__Jobe]

Ah, you said you were drawing in 2D. Just change your view style from 2D Wireframe. Go to the View tab, On the View Styles panel, click the top listbox and select 3D Hidden.

[Anonymous]

THE ONLY VISUAL STYLES I HAVE IS 2D WIRE FRAME, CONCEPTUAL, HIDDEN, REALISTIC, SHADED, SHADED WITH EDGES, SHADES OF GRAY, SKETCHY, WIREFRAME, X-RAY, AND NONE OF THEM SHOW HIDDEN LINES AS DOTTEN OR DASHED LINES. 

[Anonymous]

THIS IS HOW I WANT IT.. SEE ATTACHMENT

[Ed__Jobe]

I've created a Visual Style in the attached dwg that comes close to what you want. I just haven't found a way to control the number of isolines and have them display at the same time.

BTW, please turn off your caps lock. Not only is it harder to read, but when you're conversing online, it's taken as shouting.

[SEANT61]

An option would be the use of a 'Legacy Hidden' viewport as well as the appropriate OBSCUREDLTYPE setting.  Unfortunately, the process is rather inconsistent.  See the attached.

A refinement option, though requiring more work would be to pre-plot a DXB setup, clean up as needed, then plot again to PDF,

[SEANT61]

Always reply at the original thread.  Advise here is for public consumption, and anything discussed privately has too limited an audience.

[Anonymous]

can you walk me through step by step how to do dxb print. That is exactly what I am wanting.  

Thanks for you help

[s.borello]

Can't you just create a layer with the dotted line style you want and assign your object to that layer?  You may have to adjust your line type scale to display the way you want.

[pendean]

Create a DXB plotter and plot to that: PLOTTERMANAGER command's add-a-plotter feature.

Then use DXBIN command to import it back in.

[SEANT61]

As @pendean suggested, you first need to have a DXB plotter setup.

AutoCAD Mechanical 2018 Help: To Configure a Plotter Driver for DXB File Output

http://help.autodesk.com/view/AMECH_PP/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-48ED6405-688E-41B3-8D34-D223A65D2D57

Then if you open the 'HiddenLine' drawing I posted earlier,  you will be able to plot the PrintToDxb layout.  Make note of save location of the DXB file.  When I did that I was then able to reinsert the geometry via DXBIN command.

The OBSCUREDLTYPE based process overlay the dashed lines in some cases, hence they do not actually look dashed.

I just deleted some of the intermediate lines to recreate a dashed look.  some additional cleanup may also be required.

the DXB automation may help with a complex drawings but the dashed spacing, or even the rather crude geometry returned by the DXB translation may not be suitable.  If that is the case then I would look more into the suggestion made by @s.borello.