RICHMOND AUTOCAD MANIFEST AUTOCAD BASICS SERIES. Session 1: Plotting. Paul Kirill January 2006

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1 RICHMOND AUTOCAD MANIFEST AUTOCAD BASICS Session 1: Plotting Paul Kirill January 2006 This is the first in a series of instructional documents presented by the Richmond AutoCAD Manifest. The intent of this series is to combine technical information with realworld experience to create a document that explains the how, the why, and the what the heck does THAT mean? Please keep in mind that this information is compiled by volunteers in their spare time and is based on their experiences. We do check the documents for accuracy, but the experience part is pretty subjective. If you find that some of the methods described are not what you are used to and feel you have a better way by all means let us know! That is what we are here for. These are living documents subject to change and updating at any time.

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3 Table of Contents AutoCAD Plotting: A Simple How-to... 3 General Plotting Procedure... 3 Setting up a drawing to plot... 4 Plotting Basics... 4 How a Plot is Born... 5 Page Setup Dialog Details... 8 A Look at the Plot Dialog Box... 9 Walking Through the Advance Settings Modifying the Plotter Configuration Creating or Modifying a Pen Table Adding a Plot Stamp Troubleshooting and Tips Troubleshooting Tips for effective and efficient plotting Summary and Review Questions

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5 RICHMOND AUTOCAD MANIFEST AUTOCAD BASICS Session 2 AutoCAD Plotting: A Simple How-to Plotting can slow down productivity in an office if not done efficiently. Knowing and following established procedures for using a plotter will ultimately save time, money and your nerves. M ore often than not, the end result of your AutoCAD work will be a plotted drawing. The dream of the paperless society is a nice one to strive for, but the reality is that it is far easier to review a set of printed drawings than an electronic copy constrained to some sort of display device and the industry still demands a paper product. Since we are stuck with the paper output for now, it is a good idea to know how to efficiently and effectively create these prints. Hopefully this guide will help you get there. SPACES Model or Paper Space? This lesson assumes you know the basics of Model Space and Paper Space. There are advantages and disadvantages to using one or the other, but life is too short to get into that here. General Plotting Procedure Plots can be created from the Model tab and the Layout tabs. The general procedure for both is basically the same. We will discuss these steps in more detail, but for reference this is the most basic process: 1) Create a drawing in Model Space. If you are using layouts, also create the floating viewports, titleblock, etc in Paper Space. 2) Determine the scale and other plot settings. 3) Decide where you want to plot (what device). 4) Plot the drawing. Sounds pretty easy and for the most part it is. As with most things AutoCAD-related, the more you want to accomplish, the more complex the process.

6 SETTING UP A DRAWING TO PLOT There are two basic methods of plotting a drawing plotting from model space or plotting from paper space. Plotting from model space is the old school method where all drawing information, including drawing geometry, notes, title block, etc., is located in Model Space and the Layout1 tab is just something extra down there below the drawing. Arguably this method is the simpler of the two. Plotting from paper space, while certainly not new, is the new-er method and offers more flexibility than model space plotting. There are advantages to both, but in keeping with the times we will only be discussing Paper Space Plotting. (Be relieved the debate is finally over!) PLOTTING BASICS There are a few plotting basics that need to be addressed before we get into the actual plotting process. These include: Drawing Scale vs. Plot Scale Model Space vs. Paper Space Layouts Page Setups Plot Styles Tables and Plot Styles Drawing Scale vs. Plot Scale Drawing Scale is what we use to identify the scale of a plotted drawing. It goes back to the manual drafting days. When drafting by hand, we shrink the objects we are drawing by a certain specific factor the Drawing Scale and then reproduce (i.e. blueprints, copies) the final output (a sheet) at a scale of 1:1. Drawing Scale is the size of an object in the drawing relative to the size of the real object. Plot Scale is used to reduce (or enlarge) CAD work to fit it on a sheet. In CAD, we typically draw objects at full scale, and then reduce the final output by a certain specific factor the Plot Scale for reproduction. Plot Scale is the size of the CAD drawing relative to the final output size. The terms Plot Scale and Drawing Scale are often used interchangeably. It is important to begin understanding the real differences. Model Space vs. Paper Space Okay, here we go. Model Space is the graphic environment in which drawing objects are created. While the Model Tab is the most popular way to draw in Model Space, you can also access Model Space by double-clicking in a floating viewport on a Layout Tab. Paper Space is the graphic environment used to arrange the drawing objects for output. When Paper Space was first introduced in release 11, it was clunky, difficult to use, generally used only for arranging views of 3D models and not very popular. By release 14, Paper Space had been refined and simplified enough that it began to become popular. But there were still limited advantages to using Paper Space for creating plot layouts. Slapping a title block around your drawing objects and plotting was the easiest way to go very similar to the manual drafting process and thus more comfortable. With your plot layout in Model Space, you knew where you stood WYSIWYG, sort of. All you needed to know was the Plot Scale. The hassle of xclipping was outweighed by the hassle of setting and maintaining viewport scales, etc. But those days are gone and we are moving forward. The newer features of Layouts and viewports are just too compelling. That being said, the rest of this document will address the art of plotting Paper Space layouts only. Layouts Perhaps this section would be better called Layout Tabs. Layout Tabs were introduced in AutoCAD 2000 in an effort to simplify the use of Paper Space for laying 4

7 out drawings and plotting them. At face value, with the exception of floating viewports and the initial appearance of a virtual sheet, there is little difference between a Layout Tab and the Model Tab. A Layout Tab can contain the same types of objects (lines, arc, circles, blocks, text, etc) as the Model Tab. The advantages of Layouts are revealed in repetition. Layouts can be copied in the same drawing, or from one drawing to another. Plot settings assigned to Layouts can be named and saved (called Page Setups) and used over and over again. Using named Page Setups in the overall plot strategy opens the door to more tools such as the Sheet Set Manager and the Publish command. Page Setups A page setup is the collection of settings which control how the drawing is displayed on a sheet of paper. Most aspects of how the drawing is plotted can be set in a page setup, from the plot device to pen settings to scales. Other settings include paper size and drawing units, paper orientation, plot area, plot scale, plot offset, and plot options. These settings can be saved in the drawing file as a named page setup, which can be recalled each time the drawing is plotted and can be imported into other drawings. Plot Style Tables and Plot Styles A Plot Style Table is a collection of plot styles assigned to a layout or the Model tab. There are two types of plot style tables: color-dependent plot style tables (.CTB) and named plot style tables (.STB). Plot styles within a table contain settings that are applied to objects whey they are plotted. Color-dependant plot styles are applied to all objects of a specific color (i.e., all blue objects plot with a lineweight of.005mm). A CTB will always contain 256 Plot Styles one for each color. A named plot style table (.STB) contains user-defined plot styles and can contain as many or as few as styles necessary. Named plot styles can be assigned to an object or a layer. Lineweights are independent of color and can be assigned to layers anything on a given layer will plot using the same lineweight or to objects each object will require a lineweight assignment. (Lineweights are not the only setting controlled by the plot style just used as an obvious example here.) HOW A PLOT IS BORN We will discuss these steps in more detail, but for reference this is the basic process for plotting a paper space layout: 1) Create a drawing file with all geometry in Model Space at full scale 2) Create another drawing file and Xref the first drawing into Model Space of the second. 3) Add the floating viewports, titleblock, view labels, etc. in Paper Space. 4) Then access the Page Setup Manager or the Plot Dialog and specify values for the plot settings. (Each layout tab can have its own settings.) 5) Access the Plot dialog box, fine tune your settings and plot. We will assume you have already created the Model Space drawing either by adding objects to the Model Tab or (preferably) by referencing a separate working drawing into Model Space so we ll skip right to the Page Setup Manager. In the old days of plotting Model Space layouts, configuring your plot was the last thing you did just before printing. The new approach or at least the one we will take here is to configure your plot first. Getting into this habit will allow you to take advantage of importing layouts and page setups and hopefully get you out of the habit of using the printed sheet to verify the plot settings. 5

8 The Page Setup Manager can be accessed from the File pull down menu, by right clicking a Layout Tab and selecting Page Setup Manager, or (by default) by selecting a Layout Tab for the first time. 6

9 The options in the Page setup Manager are to create a new named page setup, modify an existing setup, or import one or more page setups from another drawing. The initial dialog box is divided into two areas - Page Setups at the top and Selected Page Setup Details below. The Page Setups area displays a list of the page setups available in this drawing. By default this will only display the name of the current Layout. If you are using a template that has preconfigured page setups or, if you have configured page setups for other layouts in this drawing, these will of course be displayed here. The next step is to start creating a new page setup by clicking the New button. The name used in this example is descriptive of the final plot settings. Start by giving your setup a name. If you plan to reuse this setup in other layouts or in other drawings, you need to think about the name a bit be descriptive. Once you have decided on a name, click OK to show the Page Setup dialog box. This is where you will assign the settings for the Page Setup 7

10 The Page Setup dialog box is similar to the Plot dialog box. The obvious differences are that it is expanded by default, you cannot plot a drawing from this dialog, and there is no option to Plot to file. There are some additional Plot options that are only available in the Plot dialog box because they are relevant only to the final output. (We ll take a look at these a little later.) PAGE SETUP DIALOG DETAILS Title Bar The blue band across the top is the Title Bar and it displays the name of the Layout you are setting up. In this case Layout 1. Page setup This area displays the name of the Page Setup assigned in the previous window. Printer/plotter Once you select an output device from the combo box, details about the device will be displayed below. You can choose a Windows system printer if you have one attached to your computer, a networked printer (i.e. \\server\printer), or a Printer Configuration File (HP 1050C.pc3). The last option will typically offer the most control over your final output. Paper size Choose the paper size for this sheet. The layout display in AutoCAD will change to match what you select here. Plot area Your choices here are: Display plots only what is visible on the screen Extents plots everything in the layout Layout plots the Layout area only. Anything outside the paper displayed in the Layout will not be plotted. Window prompts you to select a windowed area for plotting. 8

11 Plot offset Change the plot offset to adjust the location of the plot relative to the lower left corner of the Layout (0,0). Use this to adjust the location of the final plot to compensate for odd margins on the plot device. If you are having trouble orienting your drawing on paper, try centering the plot. Plot scale Since we are plotting a full size layout (based on the name we gave it), this should be 1:1 or 1 = 1 unit. If you want to create a half size layout, this should be 1:2. It s also not a bad idea to check the scale lineweights box if you are plotting half size prints. This will reduce the lineweights on the final plot and save you from having to create a new pen table. (This is another advantage of using layouts to plot. When you let the drawing scale determine your plot scale, you would never use the scale lineweights option ) Plot Style Table Select the plot style table you wish to use to control the printed display of objects. The Display plot style check box only applies to Named Plot Styles. This controls whether the properties of plot styles assigned to objects are displayed on the screen. Shaded viewport options control the plot quality of shaded 3D object in viewports. The choices range from Draft to Maximum. Selecting different options will change the resolution of the final output. The default is Normal which should be adequate for most applications. Note that the dpi for each selection may change depending on the capabilities of the plot device. (A note on shade settings: If you use a lot of lighting effects, you may want to experiment with the higher settings. If you are plotting check prints where color or shading is not an issue, try the lower settings to save ink/toner. Always keep the limitation of your output device in mind.) Plot options These setting control some lineweight options when you plot. Plot Object Lineweights If you have lineweights assigned to objects then check this box to plot them with their assigned lineweights. Plot with Plot Styles - Specifies whether plot styles applied to objects and layers are plotted. When you select this option, Plot Object Lineweights is automatically selected also. Plot Paper Space Last - Plots model space geometry first and paper space geometry last. This is especially important if you add dimensions or text in paper space. Leaving this unchecked will cause floating viewports to obscure any dimensions, leaders, text, etc overlapping the viewport. Hide Paper Space Objects If you want to hide the lines of 3D objects check this box. As with most of these settings, you won t see the change on the screen, but you will see it in a plot preview. (Doesn t make much sense to me either ) Drawing orientation Making the choice between portrait or landscape is very similar to choosing in any other program. Most plot devices are smart enough to automatically rotate drawings so they plot in the proper orientation. However, some plotters are quirky or require you to be very specific and you may need to play with settings to get your Layouts plotting correctly. The plot upside down check box is helpful for flipping the output so the plot stamp or sheet number comes out of the plotter first. A LOOK AT THE PLOT DIALOG BOX As mentioned above there are a few differences between the Page Setup dialog and the Plot dialog boxes. Keep in mind that the Page Setup dialog is for preparing the Layout. The Plot dialog is for fine tuning that Layout for output to paper (or file). 9

12 Title Bar Basically the same as the Page Setup title bar. Page setup This area displays the name of the Page Setup assigned to this layout. In this dialog, you can select any available Page Setup, including <Previous Plot> which will restore the settings used on the previous plot, or Import a page setup from another drawing. The Add button allows you to add a new named Page Setup using the current settings. Printer/plotter In the Plot dialog, you have the additional option of plotting to a file. Checking the box will prompt you for a file name and location to place the PLT file created. A paper plot will not be created. Paper size Basically the same as the Page Setup dialog. Plot area Your choices here are the same as in the Page Setup dialog. Plot offset Again, same as the Page Setup dialog. Plot scale Same Plot Style Table The display plot styles check box is not available when using color dependant plot styles (CTB). Shaded viewport options Same Plot options There are some additional Plot Options. Plot in background this is a feature new to AutoCAD 2005 and will send the plot process to the background allowing to you immediately get back to work in AutoCAD. The downside is you can still only plot one drawing at a time. It is best used only when plotting several copies of the same drawing or when using the PUBLISH command. Plot stamp on - check this box to include a plot stamp on your prints. When checked an icon appears to adjust the plot stamp settings. (We ll touch on these later ) Save changes to layout if you make any changes that will affect the way the Layout will display in AutoCAD, check this box to pass those changes back to AutoCAD when the plot is processed. Otherwise after this plot, all changes will be lost. (But can be recalled by selecting <Previous Plot> from the Page Setup combo box ) Drawing orientation Same 10

13 Walking Through the Advance Settings In order to plot effectively, you need to have a basic understanding of how to configure a plot device, modify a pen table and adjust the plot stamp settings. All of these can be complex and changes should not be made lightly and if you are not the one in charge of making changes then DON T. In a network environment one where plotting resources are shared among team members from a central network location, your changes will affect everyone. Often, a significant amount of trial and error will be necessary to get the best output. Fortunately, once you get them set correctly you won t need to go back too often. CREATING OR MODIFYING THE PLOTTER CONFIGURATION There are two way to configure a plotter create one using the Add-a-Plotter wizard located in the File pull down menu, or modify an existing plotter configuration file (PC3) via the Plot dialog or by double clicking the file. It deserves repeating that monkeying with existing plotter configurations (PC3 files) is a dangerous game. There are so many little settings to tweak, that it is easy to lose track of what changes you are making and which ones ultimately gave you the best output. Since every plot device is different, there is no way to describe the exact process for setting one up correctly. But we ll go over the highlights and point out some important steps and pitfalls. We ll start with a quick run through the Add-a-Plotter Wizard. You start by going to the File pull down menu and selecting Plotter Manager In the window that opens you should see a shortcut labeled Add-a-Plotter. If it s not there, you should be able to find the addplwiz.exe application in C:\Program Files\<acad folder>. Double click the icon to start the process of creating a new plotter configuration. Introduction screen Blah, blah, blah, click Next First decide which kind of device you want to configure. 11

14 There are three types of devices you can configure: My Computer If the printer/plotter is attached to your computer, you can select this option maybe Network Plotter Server If your plotter is on the network, choose this one. System Printer If you are going to reference a Windows System printer, select this one. Deciding which device you have may be a bit confusing. Here are few guidelines for getting it right: - Choose System Printer if you have an inkjet printer (for example) connected to your computer and there is an icon for this printer in your Printers & Faxes folder. Your computer will process (aka crunch ) all the plot data for output to the device. Sometimes a network plotter will also offer a Windows Printer Driver allowing you to create a Windows System Printer that will print to that device. Occasionally these Windows printer drivers offer more features or options than the controller. - Choose Network Plotter Server if you have a plotter somewhere in your office that has computer or controller attached to it. This will offload most of the processing to the controller. - Choose My Computer if you have a plotter attached directly to the computer and you want this computer to process all the plotting jobs for the device. The next step is to pick a device. We chose System Printer, so here are the choices: Pick the device from your available choices Selecting the \\dragon\hp1050c (a Windows System Printer that points to plotter on our network) and clicking Next opens the Import window. These days it is rare that anyone still has an old PCP or PC2 file available for import. And if they do, I wouldn t recommend using it unless the plot device is very old. Import? Why? Who even remembers what a PCP file is anyway? 12

15 So on to Naming. So many people just accept the default name provided by the wizard (in this case it was HP1050C ). However, this is another place to stop and think. Have you ever opened an old drawing, tried to print it, and then been annoyed by the notice that the plot device can not be found? It is recommended that you change the default name to something more descriptive of the purpose or location of the device not the actual device. This gives you some flexibility if/when you need to change or upgrade a device and helps cut down on those annoying messages. When naming the device, give it some thought before accepting the default Click next and you re almost done This is the last window. Click finish to accept the configuration as is. A PC3 file will be created using the name you provided in the default AutoCAD Plotters location. However, it s probably a good idea to click the Edit Plotter Configuration and adjust some basic settings before wrapping it up. Click Finish to create the PC3, or first edit the configuration. 13

16 Editing the Plotter Configuration If nothing else, it s a good idea to change the default media size to what you most commonly use, Arch D, for example. Clicking the Custom Properties button will open the properties window for the device - much like right clicking the System Printer icon in Printers & Faxes and selecting Properties. The difference is that changes you make here will only pertain to the PC3 file and will not be global as if you made changes from the icon. You can also access the Plotter Configuration Editor by clicking the properties button next to the PC3 filename in the Page Setup or Plot dialog boxes or by double-clicking a PC3 file in the Plotters folder. Now let s take a look at creating a pen table 14

17 CREATING OR MODIFYING A PEN TABLE Color Styles or Named Styles, CTB s or STB s can t answer that. Both have advantages and disadvantages and a complete discussion is worthy of a document of its own. For our purposes, we will simply be taking a look at a Color Plot Style Table. AutoCAD comes with several pre-configured pen tables (both color and named styles). The best way to configure one for your use is to copy and modify one of the default tables. You can copy and rename an existing table in Windows Explorer then double-click to edit, or use the Add-A-Plot Style Table Wizard. We ll use the wizard. From the File pull down menu, select Plot Style Manager In the window that opens, you should see a shortcut labeled Add-A-Plot Style Table Wizard. If the shortcut is not there, you can find styshwiz.exe in the C:\Program Files\<acad folder>. Why start from scratch when you don t have to? Although there is something to be said for starting with a clean slate, if this is your first Plot Style Table use an existing table to modify. If you already have specific pen settings in mind, then you may want to start from scratch. If you have old CFG, PCP, pr PC2 files, you can quickly convert these to the new format. 15

18 Select the existing style to start with. Give your new style a name. Again, try to be descriptive. Clicking next will take you to the last screen where you can click Finish to create the CTB file in the default Styles location. But like the plot configuration, it is a good idea to go ahead and modify the style table to suit your needs by clicking the Plot Style Editor button. 16

19 Editing the Plot Style The default view for the Plot Style Table Editor is form view. This is the view that offers the quickest access to options. On the left is the list of pens, on the right is the list of customizable options for the pens. Since this is a CTB, each pen is represented by a color; meaning that anything in your drawing displayed in that color will plot according to the settings on the right. As mentioned earlier, a complete explanation of all these settings is worthy of a discussion of its own. Suffice it to say that you can accomplish 95% of what you need by modifying three settings: Color Select a color for the pen. If you are creating a monotone (black and white) pen table or your output device is only capable of black and white printing, the color should be set to Black. Choosing a color will cause the black and white output device to plot in grayscale. Screening this is a better method for controlling grayscale output. 100(%) screening is the default and is opaque. 50% screening lightens dark lines by 50%, 25% or less will be very light (depending on the device). Much less than 25% may be difficult to reproduce. Lineweight This option controls the thickness of the printed line. The default is millimeters but if you are an inches fan, select Edit Lineweights to convert. In order to maintain consistent plotting or ensure all plots from your computer/company are similar in appearance, it is important that each person use the same plot style table when plotting. 17

20 ADDING A PLOT STAMP A plot stamp is specific text information included on a printed or plotted drawing. A plot stamp may include information such as the drawing name, date and time of printing, the user (login) name, as well as options for custom fields. Plotting with stamps is a good habit to get into whether you use a custom block with fields or RTEXT or the built in Plot Stamp feature. When drawings have stamps, it makes it easy to identify who is plotting what as it rolls out of the plotter, which version of drawing is the latest, who plotted it last This is the initial Plot Stamp dialog box. Here you can set the most basic options and save the plot stamp configuration or load one previously created. The Advanced Options dialog allows you to change the location and appearance of the plot stamp. You can: Change the Location and Orientation put the stamp in any one of the four corners of a sheet and orient it horizontally or vertically relative to the orientation of the sheet. Plotting the stamp upside down may help for quickly reading it as it is coming out of the plotter. The X and Y offsets will shift the plot stamp towards or away from the printed border or the paper 18

21 margin (i.e. printable area). With so many location options, count on several practice runs before getting it right. Change the Text Font and Height change the font to closely match the one used in the drawings and adjust the height to minimize the prominence of the stamp, but still be readable. For most applications, a single line plot stamp is desirable. Change the Units Specifies the units used to measure X offset, Y offset, and height. You can define units using inches, millimeters, or pixels. Create a Log File you can specify the name and location of a log file. When checked, the plot stamp information will be written/added to the log file. Troubleshooting and Tips TROUBLESHOOTING Always start with the simplest solution. For example, if your plots are suddenly being cut off when they print, look to your layout settings first before you start mucking with the PC3 settings or call the plotter repair people. You also might check the paper size and location of the roll in the plotter If plotting extents presents you with a postage stamp on a 30 x 42 sheet and there is absolutely nothing out there, run the QTEXT command and REGEN the drawing. You may see tiny little boxes out in the middle of nowhere that you can now erase. Also check the layer states of DEFPOINTS and layer 0. If you re trying to plot a drawing received from someone else, and the Plot dialog tells the pen table is missing and when you go to substitute one of you own they have all disappeared, look closely at the extension. Chances are they are using the other plot style (If you use color CTB files, they are using named STB styles). Run the CONVERTPSTYLES command to switch the drawing to your way of doing things. If you consistently share drawings w/ another office and you are constantly getting that annoying message about the plot device not being found, try copying your PC3 and renaming it to match the one they use. You ll stop getting the alert and when you send the drawings back, they won t get the message either. Be a hero It s a good idea to create a generic Color Style and Named Style to keep in your arsenal. Styles with moderate to thin lineweights that will plot any drawing legibly. When making changes to the Plot Configurations or Pen Tables, take it one adjustment at a time. Don t try to jump ahead and make three tweaks and hope one of them works. Be slow and methodical, documenting what you do for each change. If your plotter has multiple paper sources, consider creating multiple PC3 files for that plotter using a different default paper source and/or size for each. TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT PLOTTING At face value, plotting is a tremendous waste of resources. It wastes paper, ink and/or toner, and most importantly it wastes time. But since we are stuck with them, it makes sense to approach the endeavor as efficiently as possible. Here are a few things to think about and some tips for getting plots out successfully the first time. 19

22 Plan Your Plots Consider these things before plotting: Size and type of plotting media (bond, vellum, PLT, DWF, PDF) Origin location and scale of the drawing. Portion to be plotted (Layout, window, extents, display ) What stamps are required Have you properly updated the title block Have you double checked all corrections and/or revisions Eliminate Unnecessary Plots The easiest way to eliminate plotting problems is to eliminate plotting all together. To save time and money, plot to paper only when absolutely necessary. Some suggestions for minimizing the need to plot: Use the same redline markups of throughout the drawing review process Thoroughly review drawings on the screen before plotting Plot PLT files first and use viewing program such as View Companion or PrintExec to review before printing Avoid plotting multiple check sets. QC drawings in teams to save time and paper. When you have to plot As mentioned at the beginning of this session, we are a long way from the paperless society and plotting is still a requirement of the job. But we can still try to plot efficiently. Here are some hints for doing that: Ask yourself, Do I really need a plot? If the answer is an unqualified YES then go for it. If you need to discuss one portion of a plan, can you plot an 11x17 window of just that area? Plan ahead each print takes time and the time to print all your drawings needs to be included in your plans. Pick the least busy time to plot to avoid losing your project (or parts of it) in the paper shuffle. Create PLT files first so if you lose a sheet in the shuffle, you can simply resend the PLT instead of re-processing the drawing. Use a program like PrintExec or the PUBLISH command to package your plot jobs. Places to go for more plotting tips: AutoCAD Help has a ton of information, although some of it can be confusing. AutoDesk s Printing and Plotting Discussion Forums: CADDigest s plotting tutorials: 20

23 Summary and Review Questions Hopefully by now you have a better understanding of the behind the scenes aspects of plotting. With so many page setup options, pen table options, print/plot devices, paper sizes and we only hit the highlights, completely ignoring the PUBLISH command, plotting to image files (like JPG, TIF) and DWF s - it s a wonder we can ever get anything to come out right. For your review, try answering these questions: 1. What is the difference between Model Space and Paper Space? 2. What is a Layout? 3. List five properties that can be set within a plot style? 4. How do you access the Plot Styles window? 5. List two ways to access the Plot Style Table Editor. 6. Identify the plot scale or drawing scale for the following: a. ¼ =1-0 b. 1/8 =1-0 c. 8 d Name 4 methods for plotting efficiently. 8. List two advantages for using Named Page Setups. 9. List three methods for creating a new layout tab. 10. Name the two types of Plot Styles. 21

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