turn on plot transparency hatch become jagged

[wang890]

pretty sure worked in pre 2019 before. so i finally found out if i uncheck plot transparency then the arc shape hatch will plot smooth. if turn this on the dwg to pdf print jagged edge. somehow adobe pdf doesn't even print with the hatch.

i attached the drawing. i think maybe some variable messed up. not drawing variable but system variable. anyone have any idea what cause hatch transparency to print not smooth. 

the drawing i attached has only one layout so try print that to pdf and see what happens, with transparency on.

i tried on other people computer all the same result.

[wang890]

ok so i saved the hatch to 2017 and using dwg to pdf and prints in 1 second. on everyone's machine 2019 prints takes 5 minutes just to print this simple hatch.  

i suspect something changed in the system printer. but hoping it's a system variable. 

anyone has any ideas why? must have someone noticed this too. i told them not to act so fast saving all drawings up to 2019 since it was working fine in 2017. one person started doing it then all began doing it since can't open stuff. 

just added attachment look how jagged the hatch prints. so for 2019 if turn off transparency then still not as fast as 2017 but faster with transparency and smooth at least. then again we need transparency. I look at the result PDF in 2017 the hatch looks a bit different have those internal artifacts but i think they don't print out.

i think autodesk did something to these dwg to PDF printer driver to make the internals smooth without artifacts but then somehow can't print transparency and arc hatch properly.

[natasha.l]

Hello @wang890, 

Try adjusting the variables HPMAXLINES or HPMAXAREAS to imrpove the hatch. Also does the hatch quality change with a different "Name" plot driver.pc3? 

Please "Accept Solution" if a reply or replies have helped resolve the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

[pendean]

In addition to other tips...

Reset 2019 on one PC, ensure it is fully patched and updated (2019.1.2 should appear in ABOUT command), then test using ONLY the system driver on that PC (no PC3 files): does the problem persist?

[wang890]

tried those, didn't work. 

i don't think it's a matter of resetting the software as well. unless you are saying they messed up something when deploying.

when printing to printer directly it only print the part outside of the viewport. when turn off transparency it will print ok both pdf and actual printer. adobe pdf printer will not print the hatch at all.

i can try recreate the hatch boundary. but i don't get why it works in early versions. the hpmax and max lines both set to 100 in the other versions and i tried 0 and 10 million doesn't make any difference. 

im gonna go home and try on 2020 and see if that has problem too. maybe it's the software install. 

by default i didn't even see the pdf printer i had to create the pc3 from the add a plot wizard or copy pc3 from previous version.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> im gonna go home and try on 2020 and see if that

>> has problem too. maybe it's the software install. 

I tried it, same issue with 2020, so it's nothing you did wrong.
Interesting is that plot preview is looking good.

@natasha.l  ... have you even tried to plot his file? I can't imagine that you get a better result, if yes, then please show us the PDF as well as the plot settings you used, so we can try that on our systems.

- alfred -

[wang890]

thanks Alfred for looking into this

See attached image for plot settings. doesn't matter which ctb file to use same result. plot transparency is toggled on. turning off no jagged edge. the settings in the file already has all these.

save as this file to 2017 or prior then file prints in 1 second, smooth but the hatch looks a little different on it's rendering vs 2019 and newer. maybe the change was since 2018 we skipped that version here. 

i tried one more thing yesterday. delete the hatch and hatch just a smaller area around this viewport and then it plots fine. still slow though. i think we need to talk to the guy who updated the codes for the dwg to pdf e plot printer : )

i need to have these drawings by 6th so i am just gonna use 2017. most files are still in 2017 and the civil 3d stuff when saved to 2013 format still can use as xref in 2017 even all objects upgraded to 2019. so not too bad there. 

i saw your other reply on one guy asking hatch disappears when set scale small. that one is related to the hpmax stuff for sure i can verify. this thing is different. i think it has  something to do with how long the hatch is. those smaller blue hatches one side is formed by arc polylines as well and no problem plotting. we have another hatch in another file for this project that was done a long time ago like these and it's grey, thinner but same lenghth and plots jagged too. i think i pin down the problem as much as i could already. 

[wang890]

i noticed something else. all the hatches are now looking a bit weird with blue lines in side them if zoomed in in pdf. 

2019 was working. i hope it's not something infectious that is gonna screw up other computers. some cad files had that before when you work on big projects with a lot of people weird things happen.

see attached our company logo artifacts when printed.

ok never mind this, i was messing with the line merge and line overwrite. set it back now : )

there you go see how hard i tried to fix this problem. so it's not the line merge or line overwrite. should always be overwrite.

i just tried the hatch drawing again and turning off transparency it did come out in 1 second in 2019. so maybe something to do with hatch transparency variables? autodesk can you list all that's related i can try?

[ebrisse5]

So it appears we never found a resolution to plotting solid hatches with transparency turned on? I am having the jagged edges issue and haven't found a good fix for it yet. Tried just about every suggestion I have found online. 

[wang890]

Hey dude

Yeah no way because they made changes to how solid is displayed from software programming level. I settled with the ansi line hatch with density set down to very dense and it plot fast. Still not as fast as 2017 version solid hatch but what can you do. Finish work is more important. I do want to hear whoever decided this change to chime in what's your logic behind this. Don't you test software before release. This is downgrade performance is not acceptable and companies pay a lot of money to get newer versions and it's not really improvement for the AutoCAD side. Civil 3d is ok I feel there is a little performance and stability improvement each year. 

[Anonymous]

No solution to this problem yet? Struggeling with same.... Really annoying

[pendean]

Nope, there remains a conflict.