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Managing Object Coding, Lineweights, And Plotstyles In AutoCAD 2000By Barrie MathewsPLOTSTYLES in AUTOCAD 2000 Plotstyles are an extension of the object oriented approach in that they are a grouping of all of the plotting properties in one place. Where density (or screening), and various other plot settings were set in the software of the plotter driver in R14, these settings are now all in one place in a "Plotstyle Table" that is selected and attached to your drawing at plot time. The plotstyle table in AutoCAD 2000 is an enhanced replacement for the PCP files used in R14 and now links plotter driver settings for definition by color or by object names. Plot settings can be defined according to the color code you use in "Color Dependent" plotstyle tables (*.CTB tables) or for objects directly by way of Named Objects in Named plotstyle tables (*.STB tables). The Named Plotstyles that you define in a Named Plotstyle (STB) table are the classification of plotting characteristics (properties) under the names of the objects for plans and of materials for details. In AutoCAD 2000, the name of the object or material (Plotstyle Name) can be applied to your drawing elements as another new property in addition to the new lineweight property. Hence all the plotting properties are classified under names of objects. Note however that there are 2 kinds of drawings in AutoCAD 2000, "Color Dependent" and "Named". You must determine which system your office wants to employ and stick to it. One system uses the color dependent plotstyle table and the other uses the "Named Plotstyle" approach where the plotstyle name links the drawing element to the plot file by way of the new plotstyle property. I recommend that you do either one of two things: a. develop a full object color coding system and use the Color Dependent system. When you migrate to the Named system, you will simply apply names to your color coding system and proceed to apply the plotstyle property to drawing elements. Utilities and systemized processes provided with the S-MAN Standards Managers by Softco will apply lineweights and named plotstyles to all of your drawing elements according to color in Named plotstyle drawings. You can choose old PCP or PC2 files for lineweight or map both of the new properties to color in user defined setup files. b. proceed to the "Named" system right away so you do not need to adjust to a new system again. Important: My recommendation is that you do not get carried away using the override settings available in the plotstyle tables. The plotstyle tables deliver your drawing properties and plotter driver settings to your plotter the same as your PC2 file did in R14. In most cases the settings in the plotstyle table will be "By Object Property" so that the plot will reflect what the designer intended and created in the drawing. When you are adding new work to a drawing set up in another standard, you will need to convert the setup in the drawing or work in the standard that the plotstyle table is designed for, not both. The big thing about plotstyle tables is to use them for special presentations. For example, you will have your standard set of tables for regular plotting output, but you can save one to a special purpose name for quickly preparing a color highlighted presentation for a meeting. Simply set the color code (or plotstyle name if you operate on the named system) for water or gas lines or furniture to plot "By Object Color" or any color instead of black, and change the screening, lineweight, or linetype to override the drawing properties. Contents:
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