AutoCAD Print / Plot :: Background Mask Plots Partial Black On MText
Oct 16, 2012
I have this problem with my MText Background Mask. You can take a look at the two attachments. Each one gives me the same issue, but with different MText objects. I'm also plotting to a KIP5000 and a SHARP All in One, and I get similar results, except in some of the MText, they come out in a random color as well. The pc3's for all devices are set to Lines Merge.
The text is actually part of an xref file, and if I plot directly from the file they are in, I have no problem. I did a test where I copied the text into the sheet file, and got similar results when the text is in modelspace, and I got my intended results when the text is in paperspace. Now, this is the way I want to go...but the company standard is to draw it all in the xref, so I have to figure out how to get around this.
I've gone back and forth with the Merge/Overwrite options in the pc3, and when plotting to PDF and SHARP, I get the correct output with Overwrite, but the KIP just completely ignores the background mask with Overwrite.
Just upgraded my PC and before when I select plot quality "high graphics" the spreadsheet comes out low resolution, if I use monochrome spreadsheets came out perfectly defined.
Now with the new PC High graphics still comes out the same but when I select monochrome all I get is a solid black block. If the OLE object is an image (BMP) it comes out perfect with monochrome,it only happens with excel files
I search the forums for an answer but the closest I found was changing the OLE type under properties (currently is embedded); problem is the field is grayed out and cannot be changed just as the source application (ms excel 2003)
By the way, on the older files created with my old PC if I just open and print them from the new computer they come out perfect; if I open the OLE file and modify it, the solid black block shows up regardless if I print to PDF or print on paper.
When printing a plan with a background mask, the mask shows as a bunch of ting gray dots. Also we have a plot style, using STB, that is supposed to print white, but it too prints as a light gray hatch. It is not that big of a deal until we scan to run sets. The dots and hatch get picked up more intensely by the scanner and it looks like hell, a big gray background. It happens on label masks too: contours, structures, etc. Wipeouts are okay, but those are not used much anymore. I am printing to an OCE TDS600 with current drivers, I have even tried older drivers. I also tried printing to DWF then to the printer and got the same result. Printing to DWF actually added little gray plus signs for the wipeout. The scanner is a OCE TDS600, and we plot with the grays & lines setting.
I have heard the dots are unavoidable, but I really don't want to believe that because it makes our plans look like crap.
Is there any way to print to a PDF and have the background remain black? I know how to make the colors stick for the objects but colors like yellow and cyan are hard to see on a white background.
I am trying to place a black background on a drawing so once it is printed it will be easier to read. I place a solid hatch in a boundary and use the DRAWORDER command to place in underneath everything else, but when I plot the dwg to pdf the black hatch comes out grey in the pdf (see attached pdf)
Is there an alternative that I can use to add a black background to a dwg?
We recently upgraded to 2014 and have been experience significant issues with plotting to PDF. When plotting individual pages, we are able to center the plot and adjust the margins to where they will plot correctly. However, when trying to "batch publish" mutiple layouts of a drawing they all come out off center or parts of them are being cut off.
I've been working on some wiring schematics lately and I noticed that when I plot to PDF (using both Adobe and the ACAD PDF plotter) my plots are coming out fuzzy. It looks like I have a shadow around my text and lines. In the attached graphic, the plot on the left was drawn about a year ago, the one on the right was done within the last two months. I recently went in and changed the PDF plot setting to High quality print. Ultimately,I didn't have this issue last year and as far as I can remember, I haven't made any changes to my plot settings.
I'm having a problem with "phantom" lines appearing in PDF plots.
The Situation:
The firm I work for often uses Excel tables in Autocad LT 2013. I have learned through experience its better to use a linked table, but in this situation only paste special is an option due to time constraints.
Basically when we try to plot a DWG with tables specially pasted in the drawing space phantom lines appear.
But only when we try to convert to PDF. In the plot preview everything is fine, but when the PDF is created vertical lines appear in the tables on the actual PDF.
I've tried many different options to fix this but so far the only thing that has worked is, converting the DWG to a DWF and opening in Design Review. From there I plot to PDF and everything is fine, no lines appear.
In the DWG I have tried tweaking the Plot Quality for the "pasted" tables to no avail.
My company is switching from ctb files to stb files. With the ctb file, we make concrete hatch with two layers. A top layer with the concrete hatch pattern and a background layer with a solid hatch patern. The ctb file concrete plots the concete hatch black and the solid background hatch light gray. I am using civil 3d 2013 and the hatch allows a seperate background color mask. I am trying to make all my concrete layers (Top of Curb, Curb Flowline, etc.) a certain color scheme, i.e. shades of green. I would like my on screen concrete hatch patern to be a green color with a gray background, but plot the concrete hatch black with a gray background. I can not figure out how to do this without making two layers. Is there a way to use one layer and utilize the background color mask to show on screen green and gray, but plot black and gray?
I am trying to add an MTEXT background mask in vba I know it may be easy to do in lisp but I already have a working vba code for creating the MTEXT just need to add the background mask into the text.
all the codes I can find in the internet are doing it in lisp.
Presently, the Fill Color defaults to "Red" and I have to check "Use drawing background color" every time. Certainly there must be a way to change this?
While I am at it, how about line space distance? Ditto on default justification, height, etc., etc.?
How to make a multileader style with automatic background masks? How to select all the multileaders in a drawing (via a script or macro) and turn on the background masks?
I know I can quick select the mleaders in a drawing, but I'd rather just run a script or macro to correct the mleaders.
Unfortunately I am using ACAD 2000 so bear with me and the only ACAD training I have is a 3 day crash course at the local software reseller.
I am attempting to plot a drawing that was created from a template into a .pdf but it is plotting colored lines instead of black lines.
Here is some background info. My template is set up as a .dwt which I will save as a .dwg when I begin to make my drawings. Plot style table is “monochrome.stb” and I have selected Adobe .pdf as my plotter configuration. I then select the “Properties” then go to “Custom Properties”, “Paper/Quality” tab and then select “Black & White” as my color.
When I go to plot the drawing as a pdf and do a preview of what I am about to plot, I see that the lines that make up the drawing are a shade of gray in color. All my lineweights in the layers property manager are set to default. I have attached a blank drawing that is based off of my template.
We do most of our drawing in 2D – quaint I know, but that’s the way the office works. On occasion we’ll do something as a solid model to guide a client understand a complex roof or a clearance problem. We started a model for a project we are working on and ended up using it as building elevations.
The problem is with plotting. If I use our standard office CTB (which is set to print as black), I get color printouts no matter what I try. I have tried using an STB and changing all our layer colors to “7” in an attempt to make it print black, but I'm getting extremely undesirable - seemingly random - line weight results.
The client wants the next project done in 3D as well and I’d like to be able to have the elevations look right.
We have two Xerox 6204 Wide Format plotters, one in my office and one in another. When I plot the wipeouts (w/in blocks on layer 0, color 255 which is set to 0 screening) it plots as it should.
When the same file plotted with the same *.ctb file in the other office the Xerox plots same wipeouts come out completely black. (The LaserJet prints are not effected).
If I create one MTEXT object with the Background Mask set to Yes, then COPY it to several locations, and lastly edit the text for each one, does the width of the bounding box have to be adjusted for the width on each individual peice of MTEXt, or is there an "autofit" option?
The Background Masks are either too narrow or too wide on the copied items.
I have set mtext (with background mask on) to the foreground (using draw order: front, and draw order: above objects) but those settings do not 'stick' and often have to go back and reset all those values over again.
I've also tried using Draw Order on the objects under the text (draw order: behind) which also results inthe text randomly behind in front of or behind objects.
Is there a way to set mtext to be in the foreground permanently and not have to go back and mess with Draw Order all the time?
Try plotting to a PC3 format with Line Merged option on under the properties for the plotter. Note how the contours continue through the text.
Try plotting with Lines Overwrite. Note how the contours don't go through text.
Any users out there saying they cannot use the "Lines Overwrite" option and need something else so they can still use the Lines Merged option and have their contour text looking good. How to get this in a SP or HF soon. Otherwise it may be deferred to 2010 and so on and so forth.
I just finished installing AutoCAD C3D 2013. And my drawings and designs were done on C3D 2011 AutoCAD, but the problem now is when i open my drawings with C3d 2013 all the text that has background in it shows black in a paper space but on model space is owk, is there a way of resolving this without goiung through all the text settings.
I'm using a HP DesignJet T1100 (non postscript). I have inserted a screen capture of a google map into a sheet as a area/aerial location map for the project. Unfortunately, the jpeg is plotting out as solid black. I have tried inserting it in different ways but same result when plotting. I understand the difference between PS and nonPS plotters/drivers but I was under the impression that there was a setting to plot images in nonPS plotter dialouge box. I did find various incarnations of my question but nothing that directly speaks to it.
how to stop AutoCAD Lt from ploting in grey... it doesnt seem to make sense to me why this is happening. We use to have Autocad 2007 and a lot of the files that we still work from were created in that. Everytime files are now plotted to pdf parts of the drawing appear a very light grey as oppose to black which is how they appear on the screen. In the plot style table in the page setup they are also black - and I have tried changing it from monochrome to custom pen assignments, nothing seems to change it. The files are usually in stb as oppose to ctb. whole page prints black or the colours that I have actually clicked on?
When I try to plot the file from the layout the middle and right part of my xref'ed image comes out as a black box - the top, bottom and left edge are fine. As are the line-drawings from two other xref on top of the image. The problem accourse both when I try to a physical copy on our plotter and when I try to plot to a pdf.
I'm working in autoCAD 2013 for mac and the files I'm working on are located on a server.
Because of the problems with wipeouts, I have switched to using some solid hatch set to colour 255. The hatch is in paperspace, sitting under titleblock and other Layout text. I am plotting to an HP1050C, using a .ctb file with 255 set with grayscale off.
The plot preview is fine, but the hatch blocks come out black on paper. I thought this was the problem with wipeouts, and that hatch didn't suffer from it.
I'm on Civil3d 2010. I have a drawing where i have background masks on most of my text - everything works great. Then I did a "Save As" to give the drawing a new name. After working in it for a day or so, I noticed that all of the text masks don't show. When I hover over mtext (or blocks with mtext), a border shows around the text (only when hovering). But bottom line is the background mask doesn't show at all or print. The original drawing is still fine.
I've checked and this has nothing to do with line merge in the pc3 file etc.
I have been having this issue with autocad generated color PDF printouts having "fuzzy" fonts and some other black objects. What I have traced it to is that the PDF created by the stock Autodesk PDF ePlot renderer/driver is printing those fonts (and other things like lines with global width) in rich or enhanced black. 75,68,67,90 CMYK to be precise. When this is done without some sort of 100% K border (and sometimes even with) it leads to a blurring of the edges because the registration is never perfect. There is often even some ghosting due to the sheer amount of toner.
Some printer drivers have a way of forcing or selecting this "Enhanced Black" but I see nothing in the settings. I wonder if this can be externalized. It seems that at least fonts should almost never have this turned on.
For some reason, when using publish in 2012, it keeps taking me out of whatever window I have active at the moment. In all my versions of cad, I've never once had this issue.
I have 2 layers and I want to mask one through the other. I've attached a png showing what I want. I tried to attach an .xcf file, but it won't do it, which seems strange for a gimp forum. Anyway, one layer is the text (black outline) and one layer is a colorful background. In the xcf, the background layer is entirely filled with the colorful stuff, but I want it to only show through the interior of the letters (as shown in the png).
Attached File(s) at-final.png (9.55K) Number of downloads: 2
