can I recreate a .ctb file for a .dwg that no longer has one?

[dlilborn]

I am building templates for a fellow who would like to work in a CAD environment like his old office. He saved .dwgs from that office, and so I have the layers he is used to using. But he never saved the .ctb files to go with them.
Is there any way I can build a .ctb file from the .dwg? The dwg shows lineweights bylayer (default) and plot styles bycolor, so I can't simply test each layer for lineweight. Do I have anyplace to go with this?
thank you
Donna

[david_peterson]

I don't think you can really build a .ctb file from a dwg without know what color is what lineweight since that's what the .ctb file does.
You can set up a .ctb file based on layers and colors and information provided by "the fellow". He'll need to know the order heaviest to lightest colors. Then you can start to make an educated guess as to thicknesses.
Will you ever get it to match exactly? It's possible, but doubtful. If his old office still exists, I'm guessing he should be able to request it. .ctb files aren't exactly industry secrets. You send one along every time you use the etransmit command. Or if the office doesn't exist, I'm guessing a former co-worker may have a copy.
Hope this helps.

[dlilborn]

Thanks, David, it did help to hear your perspective. My thinking has been the same as yours, but I posted the question just in case someone knew something I didn't. So I am thinking I will press him to request the .ctb from his old office. I was contemplating taking a pdf of one of his old dwg's and measuring the width of each line, probably have to do that by bringing it into CAD, but that sounds like a whole pile of unnecessary work.....
Donna

[dgorsman]

Rather than measuring, just eyeball it: "thick" "thin" "medium-thick" etc.

On a somewhat more contentious issue - does he actually have the rights to be providing those drawings from his previous employer? Are they aware he (and now his new employer) has copies of those drawings? They may be OK with it but better (and usually cheaper) to ask permission than seek forgiveness.

[dlilborn]

I haven't got a reply for you, I don't know anything about his relationship with his previous employers.

[dlilborn]

more than a year later, I was searching my old posts for something else, and now I can say how I ended up solving this. Somebody e-transmitted me a file from the "fellow"'s old employer, so then I had the .ctb. (and a missing .shx, too, I should note). I then edited that file to reflect the fact that he was almost exclusively creating .pdfs, which , in my experience, do not reflect subtle line weight differences. As to the rights to these files, who knows? If I edited a file that was sent to me for a specific use, and use it for something else, what is that about? As Dave Peterson said above, they aren't exactly industry secrets.

[Coloradomrg]

If I edited a file that was sent to me for a specific use, and use it for something else, what is that about?

Might not be a secret, but it is company property. CTB's and the like probably aren't all that important, but the drawing files he brought with him could be. You could be opening yourself up for a very expensive legal issue, definetly something you should work to avoid. I know what I would recommend to the company principals here if I found one of our details showing up on another companies drawings...

I have been the cad "guru" for my company for nearly 13 years. Without written permission I would be STEALING if I took all of the work that I've created on the clock. I keep a backup disk of all of my customizations at my home just in case the system goes wonky or if something were to happen to the physical storage, but I would never take it to another company with me without written permission.

[dlilborn]

I agree that the drawings, the details, borders, everything on the clock is certainly company property, not to be used without permission, including the .ctbs. The work I did for this person, in helping him set up his office, is on him, legally. Did he ask permission to use his previous company's files? I asked him and he said it's cool. what does that mean? When I set up my own office, I recreated the CAD environment I was used to from my previous employer , line weights, layer names, etc, from memory, guessing as I went, because I didn't keep any copies of CAD files, for the reasons you mention about ownership and stealing. I did, I would like to note, keep .pdfs of my own work, to use as portfolio pieces, which, in landscape architecture, is customary.