Do I still need to convert .ctb files to stb to change plotted line weight in the layer manager?
I am changing line weights in the layer manager and plotting with a CTB file and its conforming.
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Do I still need to convert .ctb files to stb to change plotted line weight in the layer manager?
I am changing line weights in the layer manager and plotting with a CTB file and its conforming.
Lineweight has been a property for the last 21 versions of AutoCAD.
No CTB or STB installed with AutoCAD has Lineweights assigned in them.
When I started using AutoCAD over a quarter century ago we assigned Lineweights to colors because there wasn't any other way.
Haven't done that since R14 many years ago.
I'm not surprised to hear this.
Every time I get pulled into a CTB vs STB debate someone always seems ready to jump up and down about how bad CTB is because it's color based plotting (in fairness CTB users are also hesitant to change just because change is scary), but I've been drafting for 10 years now and have never paid any attention to changing colors to get different plot styles despite always being CTB until recently. After spending some extensive time reviewing and playing in both of those files here is what I can say the difference is: CTB gives you 255 styles you can't delete or rename. STB allows you to make, name, delete your style names. That's it. In other words the difference between them is far more minimal than people seem to realize, but I'll be damned if I can convince anyone of that.
Edit: I guess that's half lie. The CTB files I have always used are all set to use object properties except colors 250-254 which used screening because those colors are all different shades of gray. So I guess I technically cared about the color in the sense of if I wanted to shade an object I changed that color, but it's actually a really great visual for knowing the object is going to be faded when you plot it.
Last edited by CCarleton; 2020-08-06 at 06:56 PM.
I think ours just screened them back, but they were still actually set to black color. I haven't looked in a while though.
As a side-note: I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but is there any way to create a visual way of knowing if something is shaded back with an STB file? I have been trying to stay open minded about going STB, but not being able to look at an object and know it's shaded because it's gray is really annoying sometimes.
On that we agree completely, there's no longer a need to assign a lineweight to a Plot Style in the last 21 versions for either a CTB or STB.
The only difference is one assigns the Plot Style according to the drawing color and the other assigns the Plot Style you select.
As NCS 5 has 9 different lineweights multiplying that by every Plot Style you already need would be a lot of Plot Styles.
While I'm happy being able to plot in 2 million colors at 20 different lineweights and various shades with only 6 STB Plot Styles as long as whatever CTB or STB works for you there's no need to change. Most of what I plot is Black, White or Grayscale anyway.
Sure you can set check "Display plot styles" in any Page Setup but this lisp by Tim Creary makes it a lot easier: https://forums.augi.com/showthread.p...owPlotStyles#3
I usually work on the Model tab with it toggled off and keep it checked on all my layouts for the WYSIWYG effect.
Yes the naming is almost the only difference between CTB and STB, except for one very minor thing one can do with a CTB that can not be done with a STB, and that is define the lineweights of the various "components" of dimensions and multileaders. The entire dimstyle style can only be set to one layer, but each component can be assigned a color, (no option to set lineweight like in Civil 3D styles) thus each dimstyle component in a CTB dwg format could be set to a different lineweight via assigning different colors. (extension, dim line etc.)
This would take a hybrid defined CTB that allowed for lineweights to be drawn from layers and color lightweight options.