make certain 3D solids appear as dashed in hidden line paperspace plotting...

[Anonymous]

Hello to the Forum! I have a problem that is driving me nuts and hope the community can help.

I have AutoCAD 2013, and we are preparing Patent drawings. We have 3D models of the objects in model space, and in paper/plot space we have the layouts all nice and ready to go with viewports showing 3D views of the objects.

Our problem is, we are trying to show certain 3D solids as DASHED LINE when we plot the layouts to a .pdf, and other 3D objects as SOLID LINE. We made a NEW LAYER that is a dashed line type and assigned this to the objects we want to plot as dashed. When we make a viewport render as 'hidden line' before we plot, all the 3D objects that were dashed become SOLID and plot as SOLID. We do not want this.

How do you make certain 3D objects in a 3D view in a viewport in paperspace plot as dashed line and other plot as solid line? Like I said, we tried making a new layer that has a 'dashed' linetype and it still does not work. LTSCALE and PSLTSCALE are both set to 1 (not that it matters). We tried everything!

Please help!

-Mike

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> When we make a viewport render as 'hidden line' before we plot

Don't use visual style "hidden" in that case, select the viewport, open the property window and change the setting "shade plot" to "legacy hidden" ... does that look like you want to have it?

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Alfred,

Thank you for your quick reply, but unfortunately that did not work.

When i look at the viewport in paperspace and just display it as wireframe, i can see the 3D objects that are displaying as dashed lines properly, but when i selected the properties for the viewport and put "shade plot" as legacy hidden it still plots those dashed lines as SOLID.

Any other ideas? There has GOT to be a way to do something as simple as this...

-Mike

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

can you please upload the drawing? At least with some of the interesting parts so we can select and look to their properties.

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

Set OBSCUREDLTYPE to 2 or 4 for hidden lines to plot.

Set OBSCREDCOLOR to a color that plots a thinner line for more contrast.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Well guys, it looks like i have actually SOLVED this issue myself from other digging and research.

Turns out, you needed to mess with the .ctb files (or plot styles) to assign a certain color as a plot type. I did this for the color red, for example, and assigned it to always plot as dashed and it WORKS now when i plot as hidden!

You can all check out this solution right here: http://65.57.255.42/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=28166&page=2

Thank you for all of your help guys. Its my first time using the forums and am thrilled by the kind and helpful people here!

-Mike

[dalbaral]

This has been a thorn in my side for years.... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

The OBSCURELTYPE (4) DID THE TRICK!

[wispoxy]

You said you set the layer to dashed, but by default plot .ctb settings uses ByLayer for linetypes by default unless you change it. All you did was change the linetype back to what it already was? From the looks of it you flipped a switch "linetype" and switched it "back". ByLayer was already set to dashed as you said, so changing it to dashed would've made it the same state. Am I missing a step not shared?

[artur070389]

Hello, Mike!

The link to your solution of this problem is not opening. I am having the same issue and hope you can assist me. Thanks.

Artur