Existing linetypes For Civil

Ok, just another one of my "just making sure I am not going crazy" questions for the forums. I work with a civil firm whose company standard for existing objects is to have all of the objects dashed or hidden linetypes. to me this makes no real sense, i mean the reason a linetype is called "hidden" is for an object that is behind another object. I have been the cad manager for a little over 2 years now and been slowly introducing changes to the layer naming standard and other objects. but the hidden linetypes for everything existing is really bothering me. i have always drawin objects such as existing buildings, sidewalks and curbs as a solid line but a lighter lineweight than the proposed objects. and anything underground such as utilities with a hidden line. the existing contours are drawin with a hidden linetype also but an even fainter line than the underground utilities. am I just to "old school" or is this a funkdified layering standard that i am working with here?????

I have seen a similar setup for a few places I have worked for. I never liked having all existing with a hidden linetype. To me it seemed that was harder to figure out what your looking at in cluttered areas.

I have preferred having existing linework using the same linetype as the proposed, but grayed back and thin. Makes it easier to see existing details and still allows the proposed to stand out. IMHO

Sounds like a holdover technique from days gone by.

Back in the early 90's when all we had were pen plotters. Most of the Civil firms I dealt with used hidden linetypes for existing topo and features.

In this day and age when we can assign shading to our plots.... It's kind of outdated in my opinion.

Actually, getting shaded plots with a pen plotter and a blue-line reproduction process was just as easy then as getting shaded plots with a 600dpi printer is today. the trick was to use a green ink for the shaded pen. the prevalent blueline repoduction would result in a partially exposed line, giving a nicely shaded effect.

Probably not too important to most people these days, but blueline and pen plotters are still around in the darker corners.

True but the first plotter I ever used had a 4 pen carousel.

We used a .25, .35, .50, & .70 mm pen tip all in black. Just didn't have the resources to use another color of ink.

What I really don't miss one bit about those days is plotting a drawing for 20 minutes and then having the .25 pen quit working 5 minutes before the plot finished... DOH!

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Originally Posted by seven_tech

... i have always drawin objects such as existing buildings, sidewalks and curbs as a solid line but a lighter lineweight than the proposed objects.

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I prefer to use grayscale for existing. Since many contractors are used to seeing backgrounds in gray and "ignoring" that gray stuff as not being their work, it makes sense. I find that sometimes the thinner black line is just not enough.

Either approach is lightyears ahead of using a line pattern (blech).

I prefer to use the "phantom" linetypes.

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Originally Posted by jaberwok

I prefer to use the "phantom" linetypes.

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The problem with linetypes is that you sometimes need to show something as existing but the line segment is far too short to show the dashes.

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Originally Posted by RobertB

The problem with linetypes is that you sometimes need to show something as existing but the line segment is far too short to show the dashes.

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polylines with linetype generation ON plus ltscale plus 3 different phantom types - works for me.

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Originally Posted by jaberwok

polylines with linetype generation ON plus ltscale plus 3 different phantom types - works for me.

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It wouldn't for us, because many of our symbols (electrical/telecom) are smaller than 1/8" plotted. There is no way to get a dashed linetype to show within a 1/8" line segment (or less).