Published by the Vancouver AutoCAD Users Society
The Oldest and Most Dangerous AutoCAD User Group
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We were welcomed back from the summer break with the arrival of new software 
from Autodesk. Bill Fane demonstrated Mechanical Desktop at the meeting.

3D drafting continues to make inroads through programs like Mechanical Desktop, Architectural Desktop and Inventor. Although CAD/CAM applications actually build the model, our created designs continue to be shown on flat 2D screens. I look forward to the day when we can build 3D holograms that 
will occupy real space while allowing fly-throughs. Until then, we will have to settle on working with tools that improve productivity. The following information about R2000 plotting styles may help you achieve this goal.

Toolbar Tip: If you want to use a toolbar icon as a "double escape" key to remove selected grips on an object, use the following code to customize a toolbar macro: ^c^c_graphscr;_redraw

APPLYING NAMED PLOT STYLES
(*.stb files)

The use of AutoCAD R2000 in the office has seen the addition of powerful new tools for plotting. Designers willing to spend some time on plot set-ups will appreciate the logic of R2000.

Plot styles are one of the new ways to control the drawing by adding further customization abilities to your layers. Although the LMAN Bonus Tool is useful for freezing and thawing layers, other settings such as colour and linetype are controlled by your layer standards. Designers often have preferred set-ups for model creation that must be changed before sending the plotted drawing to a client. Enter the .ctb and .stb files in R2000 that gives further controls to your plot settings. Layers can be defined in colours for use on the screen, yet the final drawing can adjust colour, linetypes, and lineweights before plotting. For Named Plot Styles, choose an .stb file of choice, edit the styles, and assign named styles to the layers found in your drawing. Its easy to use and keep track of. When accompanied by the LMAN tool, your plotting set-ups become very powerful. Remember that the plot styles you apply display in the full plot preview and the hardcopy plot only. Properties applied using plot styles do not display on-screen in the drawing window.

If a drawing is set up for Colour Plot Styles and you would like to change over to Named Plot Styles, there are two commands that accomplish this task. They allow conversion of the whole drawing or can be used to change a single layout. CONVERTCTB changes an existing .ctb file to a .stb file. CONVERTPSTYLES changes the drawing over to show .stb files in the Plot Device tab when setting up the plotter configuration. Once the .stb file is available, it is a simple task to edit the column style. If you wish to avoid these set-up conditions, then start your drawings with the .stb setting activated. Use “Options + Plotting tab” to change the “Default plot style behaviour for new drawings”. All new drawings will then look to Named Plot Style files for your layering needs.

GRAYSCALE CHANGE TO THE DRAWING

Plotting objects with grayscale, instead of all black, is another feature of R2000. You may want objects to plot as different shades of gray when you plot a black & white copy. To plot using a grayscale, edit the plot style table for the current drawing:

1. Select the Plot Device tab in Page Setup

2. Select the Plotter

3. Select the Plot Style, then pick the Edit button

4. Select the Table View tab.

5. Check the “Enable Dithering” box for the Colour 1 column.

6. Right-click on the “Enable Dithering” box and choose “Paste to All Styles”.

7. Select the “Convert to Grayscale” box for the Colour 1 column.

8. Right-click on the “Convert to Grayscale” box and choose “Paste to All Styles”.

9. Adjust the Screening Percentage for each display colour—100 represents pure black, while 1 represents only 1% black.

10. Choose the Save & Close button when you have made the desired changes.
    

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Attendees to the October 4th meeting will catch the exciting annual elections and a chance to win a copy of AutoCAD R2000. See you there.

Demo by Bill Fane – Mechanical Desktop 5

Areas covered:

• Parametric design through dimensioning the drawing (referred to as “Sticky Dimensions”),
  
• Parametric design through spreadsheet linking,
  
• Design corrections were performed by rearranging the browser’s drawing order,
• The browser now compresses out of sight (this would be a welcome tool for the Properties dialogue box in R2000).
• New UCS icon,
• Library contains washers, nuts & bolts, rivets, gears, tapped holes, and lots of other design parts and tools.
• Surface modeling / compound curves.
• Wireframe design.
• Repair imported solids.
• Multi-processor support.

News and Announcements

• New courses start at BCIT and Kwantlen University College this month.
• John Sprung has moved to the daytime drafting program at Kwantlen University College.
• Paul Backus and Frank Zander will teach the evening classes for AutoCAD upgrading and customization.
• Theft of computers from administration offices has become a problem. Lock up your laptops!
  

Problems/Interesting Items

• A problem was noted with plotting to an HP750 with R2000.
• New drivers loaded from the HP website did not fix the problem.
• Nobody else had experience with this problem. It could not be determined if the problem was R2000, a hardware conflict, incompatible software, or something other problem locally without actually going on site. These are the type of problems that require further investigation by someone with experience.

Door Prize of the Month: Inventor

Winner: George Brownell, Rogers Sugar Ltd., Vancouver

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Looking for an experienced designer for that special project? Please call:
Rob Stephenson
Stephenson Technologies
Mfg. – fixtures, jigs
303-6950

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