DoubleCAD Plotting

[Doug]

Hello,

How is plotting to hardcopy in DoubleCAD XT and XT PRO working for everyone?  Any feature or enhancement requests needed?

Thanks in advance for your input!
Doug

[Doug]

Ok, so it sounds like no one is plotting in DoubleCAD?  If so, what applications do you use to plot your CAD files to hard copy?

[Nick]

Well, to be honest, I am having a hard time figuring out how to set up plot styles.  This is partially my fault as I am used to ACAD's .ctb (color dependant) plot styles, but I still feel a little lost even when compared to ACAD's .stb setups (which I can figure out, but am not entirely comfortable with yet).

I just can't seem to get my head around DCAD's handling of plot styles.   

[tmunson]

Hi Doug,

I have not printed (plotted) anything yet except on my desktop 8 1/2" X 11" Canon printer. The hard copy print was great and setting it up was simple. And this was from Model Space.

In the past, with TurboCAD and Chief Architect, whenever I needed to print to a large format I used PDF995 that I took to a print shop. DoubleCAD might consider adding the PDF995 as a printer option. Chief Architect provides this. PDF995 is free, I believe.

Someday, I hope to obtain a large format printer, but, alas, times are hard in the drafting business. If anyone needs help in printing to a large format printer, CadCourse has a pretty good book on this and and with the purchase the PDF 995 is provided. www.CADCOURSE.net.

[Nick]

DCAD Pro has the ability of saving as a pdf.  You can always pick from a myriad of free pdf "printers" as well and just print to pdf.

[makr]

Actually, you can do that even with the Std version. At least with the free PDFCreator. Not very sure about the quality of work though. I'll try it as soon as I get some time.

[thebrian]

I have found that PDF995 gives a very nice result for PDFs

[Doug]

What about controlling lineweights for a PDF or paper hardcopy?  Are lineweights important?  If so, what methods do you use to specify lineweight for your plot output?  For AutoCAD experienced users, is supporting .CTB in DoubleCAD important?

Thanks.

[Nick]

How does DCAD currently handle a dwg that has a ctb plotstyle?

[Doug]

How does DCAD currently handle a dwg that has a ctb plotstyle?

So I was originally trying not to ask a leading question  , but we do not currently support color pen tables (CTB's) and I'm trying to get a sense of how important it would be for DoubleCAD to support them.

Thanks.

[Nick]

How does DCAD currently handle a dwg that has a ctb plotstyle?

So I was originally trying not to ask a leading question  , but we do not currently support color pen tables (CTB's) and I'm trying to get a sense of how important it would be for DoubleCAD to support them.

I understand that, I am curious as to what happens when a dwg that is setup with a ctb is opened.  Is the ctb converted somehow?  ignored?  I have noticed that all ACAD colors are changed when a dwg is round-tripped which makes the ctb in ACAD useless.

I would at least like some sort of sensible conversion from ctb to ?(DCAD pstyle)?  ACAD does have a CONVERTPSTYLES function that converts a ctb drawing to an stb drawing.  Perhaps DCAD needs something like that.  Also, if round-tripping is a goal then there needs to be some way to make the DCAD pstyle compatible with an ACAD pstyle whether it is an stb or ctb (at least one of them).
I think if the DCAD pstyle were made more like ACAD's stb I could handle not having ctb compatability,  I think this would involve making DCAD more layer-centric and less object -centric.  This setting per object is VERY cumbersome.  There is a reason we use layers.

[Doug]

Hi Nick,

DoubleCAD does support AutoCAD Style Based Tables (STB) but not Color Based Tables (CTB).  You can import AutoCAD STB tables in DoubleCAD using the File/Print Style Manager/ Import AutoCAD Print Style (down arrow next to the New button).

Most AutoCAD users use .CTBs for plotting so we're looking at supporting CTB's in DoubleCAD as well.

.CTB's are not embedded in the AutoCAD drawing so the .CTB must also be packaged and sent with your drawing. 

As far as colors changing during round-tripping with DoubleCAD and AutoCAD, that should not happen and maybe a bug.  Do you have a drawing or steps to reproduce so we can try that?

Thanks.

[Nick]

Hi Nick,

DoubleCAD does support AutoCAD Style Based Tables (STB) but not Color Based Tables (CTB).  You can import AutoCAD STB tables in DoubleCAD using the File/Print Style Manager/ Import AutoCAD Print Style (down arrow next to the New button).

Most AutoCAD users use .CTBs for plotting so we're looking at supporting CTB's in DoubleCAD as well.

.CTB's are not embedded in the AutoCAD drawing so the .CTB must also be packaged and sent with your drawing. 

As far as colors changing during round-tripping with DoubleCAD and AutoCAD, that should not happen and maybe a bug.  Do you have a drawing or steps to reproduce so we can try that?

OK, I understand the ability to import an stb, I have done it a couple of times, but does ACAD Know what to do with a drawing setup with a DCAD pstyle and is there a way to export a DCAD pstyle to stb?

Packaging the ctb is not a big deal (etransmit), but DCAD doing something with it would be great even if it just converted it (and the drawing) to a DCAD pstyle (or even an stb that could be imported).  In ACAD a drawing must be one or the other, it cannot be both.

As far as color change: the physical color does not change, but the color name changes from say Index color 10 (red) to a true color value of 255,0,0 so the ACAD ctb no longer recognizes it as an Index color and instead treats it as a true color.  I'll come up with an example and post it later.

[Doug]

Thanks for looking into this and explaining it more.  We'll have to look into how STBs (almost wrote STD's :-) are transferred between DC and AC and back.

We are looking at a 1:1 relationship with the 256 ACI (AutoCAD Index Colors) and DoubleCAD colors as part of our CTB compatibility effort so this info is useful.

More info later.

[Nick]

Here are the sample files.  Sample.dwg is original dwg from ACAD 2010.  SampleDC.dwg is original dwg opened in DCAD, added a pline and saved as dwg. 

As an extra bonus: Sample2010.dwg contains some parametrics from ACAD 2010 I thought you might want to check out.  It is a 2010 format so ACAD 2010 is required to open it.
The previous two files are the same one, just saved as a 2007 format dwg.