Plot Screening
I sent this problem to BricsCad Support about a month ago, and sent another message last week, but haven't recieved any replies, so now I'm asking if anyone else has noticed this problem. Version 7 of Bricscad is supposed to support plot screening of entities through the .ctb file. I'm finding, however, that it still doesn't quite work. We've set up colors to map to 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, ..., to 90% screening, with various lineweights. While some of the colors do actually screen, they are not screening properly. Some are plotted 100% black. Has anyone else tried and noticed this?
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Hi Steven,I use screening without any problems although it took a while to set it up so I'd get the results I wanted. Here are a few things I've noticed that might help.Dense screening patterns like 90% are dark enough that they can appear black. I've found that about 50% screening is as dark as I want to go for linework that can be easily differentiated from black. You can go darker for area fills.Thin lines combined with light screening can be nearly invisible.Some software screening patterns can create a moire effect when combined with plotter screening patterns. All you can do to identify them is trial and error. I haven't noticed any of these for years so maybe Bricscad/Intellicad/autocad have worked it out.Although you can specify any screening with the new versions of the software, I've found it easiest to control by using the grey pen colors available in earlier versions. Pens 250 through 254 print in increasingly light grey. Pen 7 black, pen 255 white.To set everything up originally, I set up a chart/grid of my different lineweights drawn with many different screens applied, printed the results and then tossed out those that didn't print well. Screening patterns can be plotter dependent. You really need to chart out all your possibilities and see how they look on paper. You should also consider the different quality levels your printer can produce (and whether you would always want to print highest quality for a specific result.) Also, if you ever use a service to print your drawings, you'll need to test results with the service also. It is worth the time to figure all this out for your specific equipment and application. Took me about a day to do it although I also figured out lineweights I wanted to use at the same time.Screened linework and area fills xerox badly although acceptably. They blueprint (diazo) well.Usually, for grey linework, I draw on layers that have been associated with Pen 252 rather than screening a layer that is associated with a black pen and use screening for very specific applications for which my regular settings don't work.Hope this is helpful.
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The solution you suggest, John, is only a work-around. The fact is, screening is still not working with BricsCad. I should be able to get a drawing from an Autocad-using client, along with their .ctb file, and be able to plot their drawing with their lineweights and screening. The lineweights work fine. The screening, however, is hit and miss at best. I even make sure that both Dither and Grayscale is turned on, but it still doesn't work. Is BricsCad aware of this? I've sent 2 support requests with no response from them!
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We have a fix ready and it will be available in the next update.Kind regards,Alexander Van HeuverzwynBricscad
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Great! I look forward to that update!
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I've installed the latest update to BricsCad - version 7.1.0006-4. Although the program work beatifully in every other way, it still is not plotting the screened entities correctly. I though this problem was supposed to have been fixed for this update. Can we expect a fix any time soon?
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I don't like to keep bringing this up, but plot screening has never worked in BricsCad. It was supposed to have been fixed in version 7, and I was told before the last update that it was fixed. It still doesn't work. I've submitted a drawing and .ctb file to BricsCad support for testing in the past. I still cannot get this to work correctly. Is there any possibility of getting this fixed in version 7??
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Stephen,We do have a fix for screening but the version containing the fix is still in the beta stage, to be released this month.kind regards,Alexander Van HeuverzwynBricscad
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I just downloaded the v7.1.0010-1 update to BricsCad, and the screened plotting has been fixed! It works beautifully - just as it should. Thanks to the BricsCad programmers for this fix - it saves us a lot of time not having to figure out work-arounds to the screened plotting.
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