Publishing in Black and white While retaining greys

[Anonymous]

Our company has recently replaced my PC with a new unit.  Unfortunately I was unable to export my autocad settings, so I've been manually setting up Autocad to match my old settings.  All is working out except my CTB file.  I typically set all colors to plot in black with the exception of greys (250-254) which I set to print as the same color with the "Use object color" (see my screenshot below).  Despite the CTB settings, the greys are still showing up as black in paper space (I use "Display plot styles") and in PDF when published.  This one is a head scratcher for me - what am I doing wrong?

Also, I am using 2021

[dbroad]

Try varying the screening.

[Anonymous]

Just tried it - no dice.  Thanks for the reply, though.  I'm thinking maybe there's some check box deep in a settings sub menu I'm not aware of or something.

[pendean]

These are my settings for 250-254 and I have no issues

[Anonymous]

I copied these same settings to mine and still all colors show in black.  I appreciate the help, though - thanks!

[cadffm]

Works fine.

Please make you are working in the right file, set color of 250-255 to color2,

do it via PLOT dialog, upper right corner, edit the CTB file.

[pendean]

Are you sure about that? See attached from your own drawing.

FWIW your file also needed recovery, AutoCAD reported 5897 issue here.

[cadffm]

i noticed that the file was in contact to other software product (you are in AutoCAD Forum),

what is your softwareproduct (-name & Productversion, see command: ABOUT) ?

I tested it with:

and it works the same way as AutoCAD2020/2021 - as expected.

8.3.53.0 Architecture (based on R.118.0.0 AutoCAD 2021.1)

[Anonymous]

Wow, this is crazy!  I downloaded your version of my drawing and plotted from that with the same settings aaaaaand... still all colors showing as black.  I'm not sure what to make of this.  I must be doing something wrong, but I just can't figure it out.  I've been publishing this same way for years, so it's not like this is new to me.  Frustrating. 

[cadffm]

Please create a new CTB file and set 250-255 to green or red, just for the test,

" I must be doing something wrong, "

The only possible things are:

-Other Software - you didn't answered my question about this. Command ABOUT

-Wrong CTB file - to check this i wrote the way to test it above. Go to edit your CTB via PLOT command

 Much better: Create a new on, by the same way.

[dbroad]

Are you plotting to a physical machine or pdf?

Since you didn't post your ctb file, I plotted using the AIA LWT by Object.ctb to a PDF using my Adobe PDF driver.  The settings are as follows:

The file appeared to plot with a grayscale and B&W

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I think I may have found a solution.  I am currently pulling my CTB file from the company server, something I just started doing with the introduction of this new machine.  I have since copied to CTB file to my local hard drive, referenced it from there and it is now working fine.  It looks like some combination of sharing the file and our own server settings may be getting in the way.  Thanks to everyone for offering their advice!