Thread: Question for AutoCad Experts

This may be a shot in the dark seeing how there probably aren't that many members who use AutoCad.

Yesterday while I work, I was going through some mark ups that a QA/QC made on some sheets I had. We used the hatch tool in autocad to shade the paving work. The road was a grey solid pattern shade and the sidewalk was a different grey dot pattern shade. Everytime I made a change, I would print a copy out to see how it looks. (we were having problems because the QA/QC said that there wasn't much contrast between the road and sidewalk shades. Ironically, I found that when I print the sheets from my work computer and a co-workers computer, the sidewalk shading comes out darker on the co-workers. Everything else on the sheet is virtually identical. We are printing the same file, we are using the same color tables, and we are printing on the same printer. I presented the problem to a senior expert of AutoCad and he's never seen a problem like this before. He said my solution will just be, don't print from the computer that prints the darkness I don't want.

Weird problem, even the IT guy couldn't figure it out. We checked the screening on the tools/options menu for that particular color on each of our computers and the screening value was identical.

Do we have any AutoCad wizes?

Using the same printer and different computers it sounds like you have a bad hatch file. Remember you can edit hatch patterns and create new ones. Under the programs>autodesk file I believe, you can find the hatch files. Delete the one on the bad computer and put the same one from your computer on a flash drive and then paste it into the proper folder. Thats a long shot but I had to do something similar with my text files after my computer crashed one day. That is the only thing I can possibly think of, hope it helps.

I can edit hatch patterns through the use of the hatch tool. Even after the hatch has been created, when you double click it, the menu pops back up for that particular hatch and you can make changes.

I was looking for the hatch files and went to programs/autodesk. There are no files under autodesk. Also, I should mention, I've always been confused with autodesk and autocad. Are they one entity or two separate entities? I'm using AutoCAD 2006 so I went looking in folder programs/autocad. There are a bunch of .dll files in there but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Nothing in there is titled hatch.dll.

Autodesk is the company, Autocad is the product.

Here's a simple but maybe a good solution. When you plot the file are you using the advanced plot settings? (click the little arrow next to the help button to expand them). The setting that may be affecting your particular problem is plot style table (pen assignment). This is the overall style assigned to the plot that tells the printers line weight and such.

Make sure both are set to the same plot style before printing. I know at my old job you had to select the correct plot style depending on what size sheet you were printing on (dark heavier lines for 11x17, thinner lighter lines for 22x34)

We do use the advanced settings everytime we print. The file we are supposed to use for the preliminary submittal is 11x17.ctb. I have checked that for my computer and it checks good. I'll have to check the other guy's pc. Though, I can't image why he'd have his wrong, he's worked here as a CAD tech for over 10 years as compared to me working here as an engineer for 6 months. I'll check his pc.

Well here is an update. My co-worker and I have identical pen assignments and with good reason. Once one employee sets up a plot. That plot is saved with that drawing, not just to that individual pc but all pc's will be forced to use the same plot settings for that particular drawing and printer.

Here's an interesting tidbit of information. I consistently print the same light shade of a particular hatch. My co-worker flip-flops back and forth between a the light shade I print and a particular darker shade as well. It's weird, he'll plot a drawing, it will be light, I'll say, plot again, it will be dark (in no particular order) his plots for the same drawing file don't seem to be consistent.

Hmm... There has to be a simple solution, thats always the way it works. Are these color plots? Then it may be a plotter issue. I use a graphics company for my plots, so as far as trouble shooting the plotter, I cant help there. But it seems directly related to one computer? Intermitant problems are always a little tricky. Somewhere there is a difference between the two causing the problem... but it only shows up on one particular hatch? It still seems wierd.

These are not color plots and that is correct, they only show up on one particular hatch where we use a dot pattern, a color of 251, and a spacing value of 5. Weird seems to be the best way to describe it, and even the resident AutoCAD genius at my company is puzzled.