Plotting and Page Setup

Setting Plottable Area in Layouts

To be sure that your sheet will plot correctly, in this case, for example, a 24" x 36" sheet, open up one of your page layouts (Paper Space) and do the following:

1. In Autocad, go to Page Setup... from the File pulldown menu.
2. On the Plot Device tab, select the appropriate driver for the plotter.
3. Select the Plot Style Table. In our case, SU-acad.ctb.
4. On the Layout Settings tab, select the desired paper size and orientation from the drop down list. If the paper sizes assigned to "Custom 1", Custom 2" etc. are still set at the default value of "8 1/2 x 11" skip to the section below. Otherwise, click OK.

If, in Step 4, above, you encountered evidence that the Custom 1 thru 5 settings are still set to the default value of "8 1/2 x 11", it is necessary to set up other sheet sizes for your driver to recognize.

Setting Paper Sizes for Your Printer Driver

1. On the Layout Settings tab, click on the small black down arrow to the right of the Paper size drop down list.
2. Select "Custom 1: 8 1/2 x 11 (landscape)"
3. On the Plot Device tab, click on the Properties... button.
4. In the Plotter Configuration dialogue box, click on the Custom Properties... button.
5. Making sure that "Custom 1: 8 1/2 x 11" is indicated in the Application page size window, and that the landscape radio button is highlighted, click on the More sizes... button.
6. Under Custom paper size, select "Custom 1" and proceed to set the width and height as 36 and 24, respectively.

It is important to note that when assigning a paper size to any of the Custom settings, you must make sure that in steps 5 and 6, above, you reference that SAME Custom setting number (Custom 1, Custom 2, etc.) where indicated.

Important reminder:
The Page Setup... command and Plot... command icons will produce highly similar pop-up Dialogue boxes.
Significance: The Plot command WILL RESULT IN A PLOT; the Page setup merely adjusts the layout sheet size.

New in 2000: Plot Styles

Color-based, or "color-dependent" plot styles are the same as the plot style used in Release 14, in which the lineweight of an object is determined by its color. These plot styles (also called plot style tables) are stored in the Plot Styles subfolder within your AcadArch directory, and contain the "*.ctb" suffix.

With Named plot styles, layers are assigned plot styles and all objects on that layer, regardless of their color, are assigned that lineweight. You could create several different layers, each of the same color, but with a different plotted lineweights. Consequently, you could have several lines of different colors on the same layer, yet, each line would plot the same. Named plot styles are stored in the Plot Styles subfolder within your AcadArch directory, and contain the "*.stb" suffix.

With the introduction of AutoCAD 2000 came the introduction of lineweights as a property of an object. Information such as named plot styles and non-default lineweights will not translate into Release 14; instead all lineweights will be assigned by the objects color. Therefore, if you are using both AutoCAD 2000 and Release 14, it is best to use color-based plot styles so that the plot information will be available for both versions, without having to perform any sort of translation.

Assigned Pen Weights

Pen No.	Color	*Lineweight
1	Red	0.007"
2	Yellow	0.007"
3	Green	0.010"
4	Cyan	0.010"
5	Blue	0.014"
6	Magenta	0.010"
7	White	0.014"
8	Dark Grey	0.014"
9	Lt Grey	0.020"

In our office, we have assigned lineweights to the colors we utilize. Ergo, we have instituted the practice of using color dependent plot style tables.

You can modify the plot style table and the associated lineweights by opening the file "acad.ctb," found within the Plot Styles subfolder of your AcadArch subdirectory. Though there are 256 colors (pens) available in Acad2000, we elected to use only those listed in the table, to the right, for simplicity and clarity.

Our reasoning behind choosing this simplistic heirarchy of lineweights is three-fold:

1. Plotter capabilities: 3 lineweights easily distinguishable on both plots and copies.
2. Ease of use and shortened learning curve for operator.
3. Simplified editing of Saved Layer States.