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Printing Monochrome


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Our Office uses class colors to differentiate line

weights. We also use grey fills for shading walls, etc.There is no easy way to print black lines and grey fills on the same document. I'm aware of two methods, both of which have severe limitations.

(using layer colors is one). There should be an option in document preferences under black and white only, called "Monochrome only" that would print black lines and grey fills.I think not having this option is a major oversight in the program. Remember at least 85% of drawings printed in an architects office are not printed in color. Is there a reason why this option is not available?

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The black and white only option was originally implemented to help preview a document when most people only had a black and white printer. At the time many drivers did not have a black and white option, and would create a really bad looking dither when printed.

Today that is not a very common problem as printers are now much more capable at handling color information.

I will go ahead and add a feature request for a Monochrome mode in our Wish list. In the meantime I would suggest either assigning layer/class colors, or actually drawing the document as you wish it to be printed.

Matthew GiampapaTechnical Support

quote:

Originally posted by reverb:
Our Office uses class colors to differentiate lineweights. We also use grey fills for shading walls, etc.There is no easy way to print black lines and grey fills on the same document. I'm aware of two methods, both of which have severe limitations.(using layer colors is one). There should be an option in document preferences under black and white only, called "Monochrome only" that would print black lines and grey fills.I think not having this option is a major oversight in the program. Remember at least 85% of drawings printed in an architects office are not printed in color. Is there a reason why this option is not available?

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I also use layer colors, line colors, B&W and their combinations for various printing needs with the same drawing: laser greyscale, plotter monochrome, plotter greyscale and inkjet color.

Here's my solution: a vectorscript that toggles a targeted layer's colors. If applied creatively (I'll leave that part up to you), you can address practically any situation! Enjoy. cool.gif" border="0

------------------------------------PROCEDURE TurnThatLayerPenBackToBlack;CONST

targetL =('WallsWithHatchFill'); {insert layer name}

Black = 255; White = 0; Yellow = 5;VAR oldLayerH : HANDLE; oldLayerN : STRING;BEGIN oldLayerH:=ActLayer; oldLayerN:=GetLName(oldLayerH); Layer(targetL); ShowLayer;

LFillFore(Black); LFillBack(White); LPenFore(Black); {Yellow may work for MacPlot grey} LPenBack(Black); {use Black to show hatch, White to hide hatch} {for MacPlot black use layer colors 30,189,190,191,217,220} Layer(oldLayerN); ShowLayer; Setpref(10,false); Setpref(11,true);END;RUN(TurnThatLayerPenBackToBlack);

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Regarding TiTaNium sAMuRai response to this issue, I have tried using the patterns but, I think they look quite crude - Particularly large area's. Compare them to the grey tones available in the color pallete. I hope Vectorworks seriously considers adding the option "print monochrome".

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Both our laser printer and our plotter interpret the first row of patterns -- and a few others in the pattern palette -- as grey tones. Definitely, the other patterns show horribly since they are tiled raster patterns.

Nonetheless, the first row doesn't print the way it appears on screen. I don't know why, but it works to our advantage. I agree that a greyscale print option would be very helpful to our designers.

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It depends on if you are using a postscript printer. The first few patterns are in fact postscript greyscales while the rest are actual patterns.

To get your patterns to print nice looking, make sure you check the box labeled "print patterns at onscreen resolution". Otherwise it will print the pattern at the printers resolution (usually making it too small to be of any use)

Matthew GiampapaTechnical Support

quote:

Originally posted by TiTaNiuM sAMuRai:
Both our laser printer and our plotter interpret the first row of patterns -- and a few others in the pattern palette -- as grey tones. Definitely, the other patterns show horribly since they are tiled raster patterns.Nonetheless, the first row doesn't print the way it appears on screen. I don't know why, but it works to our advantage. I agree that a greyscale print option would be very helpful to our designers.

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Wow, lots of posts on this.

I am not positive as to what you are trying to do, however:

If you are trying to print black and white only, there is an option.

If you are trying to print Grayscale, your print driver should have an option for that built in.

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I think Brian has a point. All of this can be done with the printer driver.

When we are printing to a plotter (via Microspot Raster) we use Dither: Bayer (page setup) and Black Ink (Print). Coloured lines and grey lines then print as grey using a half tone pattern. The 400dpi is result is almost excellent. I'm sure we would be very happy with 600dpi.

When we a print via Postscript we use our colour printer to achieve nice greys (monochrome lasers are terrible at this, admittedly).

Reverb, you'll hate this question: why is it necessary to use class colour to differentiate line weights? Doesn't Zoom line weight do the same thing?

[set-up MacOS 9, VW 8.5]

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OOH, lemme answer this one!Zoom line thickness is constrained by the resolution of the monitor, 72dpi or something. Good paper plots are around 600 dpi. VW's 100% zoom scale is, therefore, a crude representation of lineweight.

For 99% of the time, I'm zoomed far enough out that the line thicknesses don't show up. Plan and sectional details may be a different scenario, but for most other work, it's MUCH easier to distinguish lineweight by colour, so that one need not zoom way in to see how thick it is.

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Neither the black and white option or print gray scale will accomplish what I would like to do. Using the black & white option would drop out the gray fills and using the plotters grayscale wouldprint color lines as gray.

I would like to print a document that has color lines and gray fills (from the color pallete) on screen. The Proposed "print black, white & monochrome" command would print color lines as black lines and gray lines and fills as gray.

Why do I use color to differentiate line thickness? Zoom line thickness does not work well. At normal view (100%), one cannot distinguish between .03,.15or even .50. I also use color to differentiate classes. It is very difficult to draw in black onlyon complex projects. I was reluctant to start using color initially, but now I can't imagine going back to black only - its just to difficult to manage line weights and classes.

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confused.gif" border="0confused.gif" border="0confused.gif" border="0

Okay, so ultimately what you are looking for (just trying to clarify) is a way for VectorWorks to know what you want in color, what you want in black (white is no ink) and what you want in grayscale?

If this is correct, then do you want to be able to specify each object how you want it set, each individual attribute, or have the program automatically do this through preference checkboxes?

If you could, please be as succinct as possible so I can enter this into the wish list.

That being said, if you are utilizing the program and using classes, here is your solution:

Create a workgroup reference, change the class attributes in that document and use that for printing only (if you use the same classes over and over again, save as a template a file to use over and over). Any changes that are made in the source document will be updated in the "print" document, however the class attributes assigned in the print document will maintain the settings you give it and are not updated. I.e., Yellow lines in source doc, same class changed to black line in "print" doc, line in source doc changed to cyan, "print" doc updated but the class maintains the settings for that document leaving the color black. tongue.gif" border="0

Does this mean I get the Wonder-Tech cookie? wink.gif" border="0 Seriously though, if you need more help on this please feel free to call Tech Support and ask for Brian, I will walk you through this. It actually can be done in about 30 seconds to 15 minutes depending on the number of classes you are using.

If you are not using the classes… it’s a long process of selecting multiple objects and changing them manually in the Object Attribute palette or creating a VectorScript. frown.gif" border="0

[ 11-12-2001: Message edited by: Brian O ]

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I forgot to mention, if you use standard classes for your office, you can save your print document as a template before you reference in anything, that way all the class colors/line weights/fills are all premade and simply then only need to create the reference to save time in the future. grin.gif" border="0

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