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"Graying" a floor plan...


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We would like copy the floor plan and "gray" the lines, so we can do a framing plan over top of grayed-out plan.

I tried doing a layer link, but could not get the layer link layer to turn into a gray pattern. We would like the gray plan to update also when the plan changes.

Is their a better way of doing this?

hopefully this makes sense. Thank you

David

[ 07-21-2005, 08:48 AM: Message edited by: david p ]

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Hi David,

There are a couple ways to do this. The easiest is to go into the LAYER setup (or into layers... in the VP OIP) and change the layer itself from the dark black diamond to the light gray diamond (this is over in the left-hand columns).

That said, the problem (at least for me) with this method is that there is no control over the shade of gray, and so when printed it is usually too light.

I have a couple other, much more complicated ways to achieve what you want. So if that doesn't do it for you post back and I'll try to explain them... HTH's ;-)

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quote:

Originally posted by islandmon:

And of course you can use the Class Attributes to specify the exact grey color for the lines. When plotting B/W I use variations of red to get the greys.

Hello islandmon,

The situation we are having is to make a copy of a plan that is linked to the original plan, and then having the option to gray out the plan. So when changing the original plan you only have to change it once.

[Confused]

[smile]

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If you don't use colors in your drawings, as we do not, there is a slick way of doing exactly what you want.

Activate the document preference for "Use Layer Colors", create a layer link as you have done, and in the "Layers" dialog, set the line color of the layer your link is on to whatever shade of grey you like.

We do this with excellent results. We have our "Base Plan" layer set to black lines and grey fill, and our "Screened Base" layer (the linked layer) set to grey lines and white fill.

For the Floor Plan sheet we display the "Base Plan" Layer. For our Foundation Plan, Framing plan, Electrical Plan sheets we display the "Screened Base" layer.

Once you are using layer colors however, you cannot set individual colors in you drawing. So if you draft a la autocad, with many colors displaying in your drawing, this technique is not for you.

You can , of course, toggle "Use Layer Colors" on and off to get around this. (i.e. draft in color, then switch to layer colors when you print)

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quote:

Originally posted by PeterT:

If you don't use colors in your drawings, as we do not, there is a slick way of doing exactly what you want.

Activate the document preference for "Use Layer Colors", create a layer link as you have done, and in the "Layers" dialog, set the line color of the layer your link is on to whatever shade of grey you like.

We do this with excellent results. We have our "Base Plan" layer set to black lines and grey fill, and our "Screened Base" layer (the linked layer) set to grey lines and white fill.

For the Floor Plan sheet we display the "Base Plan" Layer. For our Foundation Plan, Framing plan, Electrical Plan sheets we display the "Screened Base" layer.

Once you are using layer colors however, you cannot set individual colors in you drawing. So if you draft a la autocad, with many colors displaying in your drawing, this technique is not for you.

You can , of course, toggle "Use Layer Colors" on and off to get around this. (i.e. draft in color, then switch to layer colors when you print)

Thank you for the help. We will give it a try!

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  • 2 weeks later...

quote:

Originally posted by PeterT:

If you don't use colors in your drawings, as we do not, there is a slick way of doing exactly what you want.

Activate the document preference for "Use Layer Colors", create a layer link as you have done, and in the "Layers" dialog, set the line color of the layer your link is on to whatever shade of grey you like.

We do this with excellent results. We have our "Base Plan" layer set to black lines and grey fill, and our "Screened Base" layer (the linked layer) set to grey lines and white fill.

For the Floor Plan sheet we display the "Base Plan" Layer. For our Foundation Plan, Framing plan, Electrical Plan sheets we display the "Screened Base" layer.

Once you are using layer colors however, you cannot set individual colors in you drawing. So if you draft a la autocad, with many colors displaying in your drawing, this technique is not for you.

You can , of course, toggle "Use Layer Colors" on and off to get around this. (i.e. draft in color, then switch to layer colors when you print)

i have sent up the drawing using the above method, but now the solid fills that are in the viewport annotation disappear.

[Confused]

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Hi David,

We do not use annotations for these sheets, so I have not encountered this.

I presume that you mean your solid fills turned to solid white, the default background color.

I think you do, however. have some limited flexibility. You can select your solid fills, and on the attributes palette, change them to any pattern, or if you want, to solid foreground (the third pattern from the top left) and they will default to solid black.

Once again though, I guess if you want your annotation fills to be other than a pattern, or solid black, or solid white, you will have to turn off layer colors.

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David - a couple of thoughts:

Workgroup Referencing + Use Layer Colours:

- Reference the plan into another drawing and have Use Layer Colours on in this drawing so that the plan can be set to a grey colour.

- When the plan changes all you will need to do is update the Workgroup Reference to see the changes.

Vectorbits "Toggle Class Colours" http://vectorbits.com/

- This Menu Item option from Vectorbits allows each class to have two separate colours with the ability to switch between the two. This could be used to temporarily change the colour of the plan elements when you need to.

- For some reason it only works on solid line types though so depending on your circumstances....

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