Paper Space Viewport Color Overrides Display but DO NOT PLOT to PDF!!!

[Anonymous]

This is an intermittent and ongoing problem. I have searched high and low for a solution with no success.

I am an AutoCAD power user since before R12 (...back to the DOS days, actually...).

Setup: I create 3D models and use varying layer colors to keep track of different parts while working in Model Space. When it comes time to plot a Paper Space layout to a PDF, I override layer colors in the Model Space Viewport so that all displayed entities will plot with black linework (index color 7):

Viewport Layer Color Overrides

The Paper Space Viewport now shows exactly what I want to see in the PDF to come (the red annotations are in Paper Space):

Viewport Overrides Display Correctly

Visual Style for the Viewport is set to 3D Hidden, and its Shade Plot is set to 3D Hidden. The Properties Panel also correctly indicates that the Viewport contains property overrides:

Viewport Property Settings

I plot to PDF using the AutoCAD-supplied acad.ctb Plot Style Table and a tailored version of the AutoCAD 2016 PDF .pc3 driver file:

Plot Dialog Settings

I do NOT wish to use the monochrome.ctb or any tailored "black.ctb" Plot Style Table.

The resulting PDF does not show the effect of the color overrides:

Resulting PDF Does NOT Show Color Overrides

Note the colors of the drawer boxes (green), the small control panel (orange), and various hardware items (dark red), all of which are plotted with their respective layer colors, and all of which layer colors were set to override to "White" (index color 7) that should have plotted as black lines, just like the rest of the elements on Layer 0.

I have gone through every setting I know of that could reasonably affect plot-to-PDF functionality, and am at my wit's end! The truly frustrating thing about this problem is that is is NOT consistent across new and/or reused drawing files. Some days the color overrides work. Some days (...this being one of them...) they do not. I cannot find a single setting or set of settings that are clearly different from one working instance to another not-working instance and might thereby point toward a solution.

Here is my AutoCAD version info:

Any help will be most appreciated!

Best regards,

James Gafford

Omnirax Furniture Company

[WarrenGeissler]

Switch your viewport to LEGACY HIDDEN. 3D Visual styles are good for work and rendering - not for plotting.

[Anonymous]

Warren,

Thank you for your reply. It did not fix the problem, however--the entities still plot to PDF with their layer colors instead of the overrides.

To be explicit: I set the Shade Plot property of the Viewport entity to "Legacy Hidden" in Paper Space. When I double-clicked inside the Viewport to enter Model Space, there was no "Legacy Hidden" choice available on the "Visual Style" property drop-down, so I left it as "3D Hidden."

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OK, so...my bad, maybe, but...there is one thing I neglected in my original post. The entities that are (...displaying correctly, but...) not plotting correctly are all Block References. The entities in the respective Block Definitions are, mostly, 3D (ACIS) Solids. I've seen this issue when the block-definition entity colors were set to ByLayer, and also when they were set to ByBlock.

Clearly, I am at best very reluctant to do things like explode blocks before plotting. One of the things I have always admired and made heavy use of in Paper Space Viewports is the ability to create a single Model Space model (regardless whether 2D or 3D), then set up separate purpose-specific views showing different features merely by freezing or thawing separate layers and altering layer color overrides in separate Viewports. More work up front, but absolute heaven when something in the model has to change! (The same philosophy, really, behind the idea of parametric modeling in Revit.)

[RobDraw]

My first thought is that they are blocks and the objects within them are set to a layer which you are not overwriting in the viewport.

My second thought is why don't have your own custom plot style to print all the appropriate colors to black?

[WarrenGeissler]

Don't suppose you can post a drawing?

I created a simple block from a BOX. Then in paperspace I overrode the layer color to RED. Then I selected the viewport to set the viewport object to "Legacy Hidden" When I plot to PDF I see the shade plot option is set to "Legacy Hidden" and my viewport overrides are honored. If I set the viewport to "Hidden" they are not. Each time the "Shade Plot" option in the plot dialog should be greyed out as I am using a viewport override. (How you set the visual style inside the viewport becomes irrelevant at this point)

Having said that - if you have nested entities in a block with a color override then all bets are off.

[Anonymous]

Warren,

File is attached. I distilled it down to just the model elements of interest, and the two Paper Space views of interest. Each has its Model Space Visual Style set to 3D Hidden, and its Viewport Shade Plot property set to Legacy Hidden. If you're able to get the colors-overridden-to-white result, then maybe that suggests something is corrupted in my PDF plot driver, or maybe there's been an update I missed. Ideas?

I did try an experiment where I changed the Edge Settings - Color setting in the Visual Styles Manager palette for 3D Hidden to "White":

This did give me the result I wanted here. But that isn't a general solution since there are times when I do want a Model Space entity to plot in its layer color, or an override color other than white.

[Anonymous]

Rob,

Thanks. I had the same first thought, but all my block definition entities are on Layer 0 and set to either ByLayer or ByBlock color (or they're on a layer I have turned off or frozen anyway).

The latter could be a workaround (I'd have to think about how I go about assigning layer colors), but wouldn't answer the question about why this is happening in the first place. Layer color overrides are supposed to plot that way--that's been the way of things for as long as I've been using Paper Space Viewports to create output, be it to PDF or directly to a plotter device.

[RobDraw]

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@Anonymouswrote:

Rob,

Thanks. I had the same first thought, but all my block definition entities are on Layer 0 and set to either ByLayer or ByBlock color (or they're on a layer I have turned off or frozen anyway).

The latter could be a workaround (I'd have to think about how I go about assigning layer colors), but wouldn't answer the question about why this is happening in the first place. Layer color overrides are supposed to plot that way--that's been the way of things for as long as I've been using Paper Space Viewports to create output, be it to PDF or directly to a plotter device.

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It's been a while since I had to print 3D AutoCAD but I have struggled with getting 3D Hidden to plot the way I expected it to, so that's most likely the culprit, but ya gotta rule out the obvious and here's another one to consider:

I noticed that you are using some true colors. Do any of the layers that are not behaving have a true color assigned to them?

[WarrenGeissler · Accepted solution]

Step 1 - edit your blocks so all entities have color=BYLAYER. (BYBLOCK interrupts what you are doing with layer overrides.)

Step 2 (UNUSUAL AS IT SEEMS) - apply a color override for LAYER 0 to WHITE as well.

Then it works

I'll do more investigation on this in other versions - but it's interesting since layer 0 is NOT supposed to act like this.

[Anonymous]

Warren,

Thanks again! Agreed, that works. So for purposes of the question the way I asked it, I'm accepting this as a solution. I have instances, though, where I do want colors to come through, and I'm still experimenting with that.

Can you (or anyone else) tell me if there is detailed documentation somewhere for exactly how the chain of settings--layer, layer color, object color, moving from innermost nested block definitions all the way out to model space and then through Viewport Layer Color overrides--is supposed to work (...as in, is there a documented requirements spec somewhere...)?

Best regards,

--James

[WarrenGeissler]

There is loads of internal documentation on these things - but not readily in a workflow format you are looking for (except perhaps in training documentation).

General rules are:

1. Color overrides take priority (regardless of block nesting)

2. BYLAYER allows the block objects to change color by the layer - but not by entity (overrides)

3. BYBLOCK allows the block to have a color override independent of the layer

4. Block entities on layer 0 are supposed to take on the attributes of the parent layer (Although you have proven otherwise - a defect I am certain)

5. Block entities on any other layer take on the attributes of THAT layer - not the parent layer.

To give you the best options you might want to try color and linetype BYBLOCK. See how that works for you.

[Anonymous]

i am facing the same situation and  i am using autocad 2018..i have tried all the solutions you offered on this forum but nthing has worked....

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[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> i am facing the same situation and i am using autocad 2018..i

>> have tried all the solutions you offered on this forum but

>> nthing has worked....

If really none of the above suggestions helped (using Shade-Plot property, making sure all objects have assigned color=byLayer) then the only chance is:

• please upload your DWG-file
• please upload your CTB-file
• please upload the PDF you get as result
• please describe which entity in the PDF does not look like expected (and what you expected instead)
• please show us a screenshot of command _ABOUT so we can see the exact release/update you are working with.

- alfred -