Plot and exporting drawings

[Yashasvi23481]

Hi All,

    I have a peculiar problem. On AutoCAD Mechanical, I plotted pdf with line weights taken off and I get a clear and neat picture/view. However, when somebody else opens up on their system they get mixture of light and dark lines, which is non readable until you zoom.  I am not sure why is it happening. Whats difference between plotting and exporting to pdf in terms of outcome?  If I check the box saying plot line weights, it get very dark. How do I ensure pdf opens same way in all systems ? be it Mac or Windows ? I tried on 1 other windows and 1 separate Mac computer and both shows differently. 

      I was under impression pdf shud open same on any system. 

Please help. Require urgently. 

Thank you for help and Regards,

Yash

[Yashasvi23481]

Hi All,

    In addition to what i wrote. I like to understand difference between Layer management and line weight mapping ? When you go to Manage layers, there is button saying line weight mapping. if I click on it, it goes to colours rather than layer. What happens if i map the line weights to colours ? 

Is there a way, i can create new line weight for layers than what is available in AMLAYER ? If so, how can I use them instead of default layers line weight. 

Thanks and Regards,

Yash

[pendean]

Your PDF file lineweights change wen shared with others? That has nothing to do with ACADMECH, either you or they need to adjust your PDF viewer display settings or use the same PDF viewer.

[Yashasvi23481]

Hi Pendean,

    Thank you for response. I use Acrobat reader and others use canvas and illustrator to view and make manuals maybe that's reason its showing up different way. What is lineweight mapping ? Please see screenshot below and let me know, if I apply settings by mapping what will be result ? Lineweight mapping shows only few colours. 

On top of this layer and line weight mapping, I have set my own layer setting for plotting and pdf which has lower line weights. Which will take preference when I print to pdf ?

Please let me know.

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,

Yash

[pendean · Accepted solution]

I'm still not sure what your original issue is frankly, maybe you can explain it more, but as a general rule you never want mix both ways of creating line weights like you have done (LAYER and using a plot style table), you pretty much are losing control.

Pick #1 or #2, not both.

[Yashasvi23481]

Hi Pendean,

    That's probably what I was missing. I mixed both settings. Thanks for showing. As far as what my original concern was, and still is probably, different people viewing it differently.

I admit doing with no line weight chosen, it was not good idea but till now I use to print them and checker use to mark up on paper. On my pdf it was always clear. Now this is big project consisting of nearly 35 sheets. Its preliminary stage so instead of printing them, they decided to mark up on pdf and they cant see what I see. Due to lineweights being zero some of lines were blurred or not visible. Till now, my drawings were printed and checked / marked up for correction as count was max of 10 sheets. I will try that and pdf rest of sheets. 

Thanks so much. Glad, I sent screenshot else wouldnt be possible to figure out what was wrong. 

Regards,

Yash