Publish a drawing to monochrome despite plotstyles.

[CadThisUp]

OBJECTIVE-
To publish 1200 drawings in monochrome for my client to view using the DWF Viewer

THE PROBLEM-
-The drawings have to monochrome per contract.
-The drawings are drawn using layer dependent plot styles.
-These drawings do not all use the same plot style tables.
-Some of the plot style tables are missing.

THE QUESTION-
How can I publish these drawings to monochrome without opening each drawing individualy and messing with the plot styles?

Thank you and I hope the format of this thread helps clarify my question.

 

[TCARPENTER]

Hi CadThisUp,

If you are using the batch plot utility, set up a "dummy" drawing using your monochrome.ctb file and correct plot settings for each of the drawings and then use that named setup for each plot.

HTH
Todd

 

[CadThisUp]

Todd,
Thank you for your reply. I'm not using the batch plot utility because I am using ACAD 2005 and it is not supported, however I am familiar with it. The 2005 publisher has most of the same functionality and then some.
Are you telling me to assign the monochrome, color dependant plot style table layout from the dummy drawing, to the drawings that have layer dependent plot styles via the batch plot utility? Interesting idea. I will toy with that in the AutoCAD 2005 publisher and see if I can make it work. I'm not sure how AutoCAD will handle that. If you have time, please check back later today and I will let you know how I made out.
Thanks again.

 

[CadThisUp]

Todd,
Not having much luck converting so many drawings to monochrome. On another note, I am having a hard time viewing the posts on my thread. For example I can not pull up your last response again. All I see is my question and an area to reply. Am I missing something?
Jonathan

 

[TCARPENTER]

Hi Jonathan,

Sorry, I'm afraid I'm not sure what the trouble with Tek-Tips is, I haven't run into this but you can contact them and they may have fix for you.

As for the AutoCAD drawings, you may need to set-up a script file to process your drawings. Since you mentioned you didn't want to permantly change these settings, you may want to copy them to temporary directory and process these files. I haven't had the chance to play with 2005 yet, but I do recall in past releases you had to run an ARX application to switch from STB's to CTB's, don't know if this still true or not, but check, because you could just run this ARX and then run your plots.

HTH
Todd