Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
section, you may need to map display colors to plotted lineweights. AutoCAD groups
plot styles into plot style tables, each of which is stored in a separate file.
Color-based plot styles live in
color-dependent plot style table
(CTB) files, and they map
the 255 AutoCAD display colors to 255 plot styles. AutoCAD automatically attaches the
color-dependent plot styles to every object, based on — you guessed it — the object's
color. (Are those AutoCAD programmers brilliant, or what?) Color-dependent plot style
tables mimic the old color-mapped-to-lineweight plotting approach of AutoCAD R14 and
earlier releases; this remains the most common method in most companies.
Named plot styles were introduced in AutoCAD 2000, and are object properties, just like
color, linetype, and lineweight. Named plot styles live in (wouldn't you know it?)
named
plot style table
(STB) files. After you've created a named plot style table, you create one
or more plot styles and give them any names you like. Then you can assign the named
plot styles to layers or to individual objects. (See Chapter 6 for more information about
object and layer properties.)
To use the plot styles in a plot style table (whether they're color-dependent or named),
you must attach the plot style table to model space or a paper space layout. The at-
tached plot style table affects plotting only for that layout or for model space. This ap-
proach lets you plot the same drawing in different ways by attaching different plot styles
to different tabs.
You can attach a plot style to model space or a paper space layout by selecting its image
in the Quick View Layouts panel and opening the Plot dialog box, or by right-clicking
over an image and choosing Page Setup Manager, then clicking the Modify button.
Choose the plot style table name in the Plot Style Table (Pen Assignments) area of the
expanded Page Setup or Plot dialog box. See the section “Controlling plotted lineweights
with screen colors,” later in this chapter, for an example.
When you start a new drawing in the usual way — that is, by using a template
drawing (see Chapter 4) — the template drawing's plot style behavior determines
whether you can choose CTB or STB files. If you want to change from color-de-
pendent plot styles to named plot styles (or vice versa) in a particular drawing,
use the CONVERTPSTYLES command.
Creating plot styles
If you're lucky, someone will provide you with the plot files you need. If that's the case,
you must put the CTB or STB files in your Plot Styles folder in order for AutoCAD to re-
cognize them. (To find the location of your Plot Styles folder, open the Options dialog
