Halftone of Patterns and not Lines

[dmaughan25]

Is there a way to halftone patterns in for model elements, but not halftone the lines.

For instance a cross section showing soil, I want to see the outline of the soil thick, but see the pattern of the soil on halftone.

The only way I could figure it out was to use raster printing, but they makes curved lines choppy.

[barthbradley]

Do you have a picture or something that shows the effect you are after? 

[martijn_pater]

Could use a surface or cut pattern color override set to its half-toned color in Visibility Graphics...

[dmaughan25]

A little more information regarding the issue

I am using Black link printing

I have attached two images. I want the earth pattern to be halftone "halftone pattern", but the line defining the edge to be black. The "non halftone pattern" is to dark for the earth and overpowers the other information on the sheet.

In Autocad this was as simple as applying a screening % to a color. Is there something like that in Revit? If I use raster printing I can achieve that, but it prints too choppy (see "raster" image

[martijn_pater]

You can set the color of the cut pattern in the material applied to the topography. And after that you can do additional overrides to it in Visibility Graphic settings. I don't think you can do a 'screening %' type to a color such as in Autocad in this scenario (best realize Revit is not Autocad sooner then later...)

Topography material color

VG overrides for topography

[barthbradley]

Something else is going on here.  Your middle screenshot (Non Half Tone Pattern) looks terribly odd to me. Why are all the Line Weights the same width -- including the "Earth" Cut Pattern, which is (or should be) using #1, which is typically the thinnest.  Can you post a screenshot of your Line Weight settings? 

[ToanDN]

Not sure what the issue is since cut/surface patterns and cut/projection lines are independent from each others.

[dmaughan25]

I am just wanting hatch patters to be halftone while the perimeter lines are not halftone.

This isn't just for topography. This is for any element that has a patter in the foreground, background, or cut. The hatch patterns are too dark and overpowering so I want to lighten them up.

Believe me I know Revit is not CAD. Revit is awesome, but than in the simplest things it is like they totally forgot to think about it.

[barthbradley]

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@dmaughan25 wrote:

The hatch patterns are too dark and overpowering so I want to lighten them up.

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I agree. The hatch pattern line weight (e.g. thickness) is too thick. Why? Hatch patterns use Pen #1 by default.  What are your Line Weight setting for #1?  Manage Tab=>Additional Settings=>Line Weights.  

[dmaughan25]

So are you using grayscale to print, so lighter colors print lighter?

[martijn_pater]

Not sure anymore, is it a lineweight question or a halftone color thing? I think using a color override is the only option for 'halftoning' the cut pattern for this situation... but have a look at the suggestion by @barthbradley to reduce the lineweight anyway, if it's set too thick you want to do something about that for sure...

[dmaughan25]

Lineweight for pen style 1 is set to .001 inch (the lowest it can go) See attached. So, if I am using black line printing, the only way to show hatch patterns is to halftone the 3d element.

What I probably will do is get rid of hatch patterns on 3d elements and use 2d filled regions so I can keep the outlines dark, unless someone has a better idea.

[ToanDN]

Use Color or Grayscale printing.

[dmaughan25]

Clients do not want drawings in color so color printing is out.

 Grayscale would work, but currently our standard is everything that is non black is our company standard and all black items are Revit out of the box. So that would cause a complete overhaul of our standards. I think I will just place a ticket with Revit to allow halftoning of patters in future versions.

Thanks everyone.

[barthbradley]

Just turn Thin Lines OFF and print the actual line weights.  What's wrong with that?  

[dmaughan25]

Not sure what that solves. Thin lines is just a graphical setting for your computer screen. It has nothing to do with how things print.

Am I missing something?

[barthbradley]

The point is that you can effect a halftone through Line Weights.  

The screenshot of PDF below is using no halftoning. Just different Line Weights.  What's wrong with it? 

[dmaughan25]

It looks good in contrast to the thick line. I just want the surface pattern to print thin lines and halftone. I think it makes the drawings look a lot less busy. See attached roof cladding hatch with the two options. The halftone option looks way better to me.

Without halftoning the surface pattern the drawing is too busy, even if using the thinnest line of .001" Maybe I need to make my other lines thicker. We are still trying to fine tune our line weights.

I have submitted an idea of being able to halftone the surface patterns, so I guess we will see if that goes anywhere. Vote for it, if it makes sense to you.

Thanks for your help.

[barthbradley]

You got my vote.  

[dmaughan25]

Thanks