PDF LINE THICKNESS/TOOLBAR

Ken Taylor

Hi all.

Two questions please:

1. Is there any way of changing minimum pdf line thickness either in Print or Export PDF?
   I have changed all the line thicknesses in mono print ctb file and made all objects take specific width of 0.05mm
   Still get thick and clunky lines even with increasing raster ppi to 1200.
   There was a topic about this several years ago but the results were inconclusive.

2. Is there a way of transferring toolbars between different versions....the method that transfers menus etc works for that but not toolbars.
   I want to get V13 bars to V17 and not have to write them from scratch.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

By the way in May I am going from NZ to tour Europe and UK and might just drop by Bricsys for a quick visit!

Roy Klein Gebbinck

1. If you are using _Export: what is your PdfUsePlotStyles setting?
2. The standard approach to customizing the CUI is to create a partial CUI for this purpose. If you have skipped this essential step you may be able to extract some of the toolbars by editing CUI files (which are xml files) with a text editor such as Notepad++.

Ken Taylor

Thanks for the reply Roy

1. PdfUsePLotStyles 1 which is default setting. Presumably that means monochrome.ctb which is my standard. I have set linewidth to 0.01 for all 256 "pens" and use entity lineweight for all objects for that .ctb. It doesnt matter what pdf printer I use (primopdf, pdf-exchange, Foxit etc) with dpi set to max it is consistent. What I want to do is replicate lines as on Bricscad display (nice and fine) as clients are now using paperless processing for building consents using pdf.
2. I have created partial CUI's and transferred menu settings OK including my own menus. Same outcome.....custom toolbars wont shift. I use toolbars I have written for a compact on screen "tablet". Yes I use the quad too for modelling.
   Cheers Ken T

Roy Klein Gebbinck

1. You are mixing things up. The PdfUsePLotStyles setting only applies to the _Export command, it is irrelevant when using a virtual PDF printer. And of course every page setup has its own 'Plot style table setting'. Note that for every plot style in a CTB you can specify either a fixed lineweight or choose the 'Use object lineweight' option. Selecting both, as you seem to suggest, is impossible. I would advise against using a single lineweight for PDF output.
2. It may help if you post one of those partial CUI files.

Joe Dunfee

In regards to #1, I am not at all certain of your issue. But, will mention some things that may apply.

There is a toggle in most PDF viewers that permit you to turn off line thickness. This results in very fine lines, like what you see on the BricsCAD display screen if you have line weights set to not show on screen.

Also, (at least in my v14) if a viewport is set to anything but 2D, Legacy 2D, or Legacy Hidden, then you will get raster images in any sort of print or save-as. Line weight settings are always ignored.

-Joe

Ken Taylor

Thanks Roy and Joe for your input

I have found if you just copy the CUI file you want to a new location on the search path of the new installation its quite easy to point the new installation to it. In fact just copy the whole directory incl linetypes etc then all needed info is in one place. There is a program I used to use to copy setup from one to another but for some reason it never included toolbars.

I'll try further the line thickness thing but essentially my building consent drawings are 2D, and I want to acheive on screen what you get on paper with the thinnest line for basic drawing, and using thicker ones for outlining cut sections. Because we are now using pdf rather than paper copies for building consent applications it's important to keep the same standard of presentation.

Ken T