9 replies to this topic

[Steve Pirtle]

I would like to know if there is a way to change the thickness of some of the lines on my elevation drawings on the drawings themselves to pronounce the outline of the main body of the structure. Thanks for any input. Steve

[Henry Buckner]

There's a couple of ways to do that, but what I do most often is edit the line, enter the width I want, check solid fill and "repeat edit" until done.

[Bryan Schultz]

I would change it in Pen Settings. 

System Options/Pen Settings - You can change the pen width and color. For any drawings already started, you will have to change it on each drawing. Drawings Options/Pen Settings.

[Henry Buckner]

Yes, that's the other way.

[Mark Petri]

You can also change it by layer in your saved elevation drawing. Once you get everything looking how you like it and any other typical notes, etc. you use every time you do an elevation save it. Then rename a version as a master drawing. When I was using 3D drawings for my elevations I had master drawings I would move to each new project folder. Then I'd cut and paste the saved 2D elevations into copies of that master drawing for each view and all layers were set for the line weights, styles, etc. That way I only had to change my master drawing if I wanted anything different and not spend so much time changing each drawing. Tom Roman is the "master drawing master"! It is something he and a few others perfected long before plan sets and other improvements. I suspect Tom still uses that technique a lot.

 

I still use the same technique for sections (those don't clean up in live views well in my opinion). But, now I use live elevation views with settings in my rendering styles that I like enough to work with.

[Dennis Asher]

I also do it with pen settings.  When you change the actual width of the line to 1" for example, that line will actually dimension as 1" wide.  If you do it in pen settings then the line retains it's 0" width so it's easier to dimension to.  I keep mine set so I only actually see the width on the plan set page but if you want to see it on the drawing you can go to "Drawing Options" \ "Display Print Pen Style".  I do mostly control it at the "layer" level as Mark pointed out above.

[Keith Almond]

You can take this scenario a step further:

 

When you generate a section or an elevation it automatically generates multiple layers. If those generated layers already exist in your standard layer setup, then they willl take on the attributes of your default setup.

 

So what you want to do is generate a section and elevation, set all the layers to print with pens/colours that you prefer on each, and then save those layers as your standard layer setup.

 

Next time you generate anything, it will populate into your standard layers and automatically set alll the pens and colours to your defaults.

[Keith Almond]

We've been through pen setups multiple times. There are 16 available pens that you can setup to print in the widths and colours that you want. It seems a real shame that most people seem to have ALL the pens set the same.

 

This is my standard setup:

 

 2016.07.29_12h03m12s_001.png   10.73KB   11 downloads

[Mark Petri]

You can take this scenario a step further:

 

When you generate a section or an elevation it automatically generates multiple layers. If those generated layers already exist in your standard layer setup, then they willl take on the attributes of your default setup.

 

So what you want to do is generate a section and elevation, set all the layers to print with pens/colours that you prefer on each, and then save those layers as your standard layer setup.

 

Next time you generate anything, it will populate into your standard layers and automatically set alll the pens and colours to your defaults.

This too is a great option now that we have unlimited layers and building options. Back when master drawings were being taught we were limited with those features.

[Steve Pirtle]

Thanks folks these ideas worked great and I used Henry’s to get me out of a bind which I loved but have already gone back in and starting changing the settings on my program !  Thanks all Steve