This is classic AutoCAD. OK, so a few days ago I was using Civil 3D 2007 to layout some storm drains and create profiles. Well, as you might know, you can now have background masking as part of the object labels. I have installed C3D 2007 on my computer and a couple of other users machines but we have not rolled out the product completely, so any designs that are done in 2007 format have to be converted back to AutoCAD 2004 format so anyone else can work with the drawing files.
So everything works well with my design and it's time to save and "Export as 2004 format". No problem. Did the export and let the CADD technician I was working with know that the drawing was ready to be setup in the Grading and Drainage Plan for printing. Everything is working great, drawing looks fine on the screen, even the background masking is working! The technician comes back to me about 15 minutes later, with a puzzled look, and was telling me that the text was printing out as black blobs. What? How could this be? It looks fine on the screen. "Must be the plotter", I thought. We've seen this problem before and it had to do with the print driver, or, was it the dreaded Wipeout plot issue resurfacing. OH NO!!!
We sat down together at his desk and looked at the drawing. Looked fine. Looked at the print preview, black blobs where the text labels were. Hmmmmmmm... "Let's do a crossing on the text to see what's there", I asked. Did the selection crossing and low and behold there appears to be a selectable, invisible, rectangular object behind the text; 2 objects selected. Now mind you, we maintain a black background within the drawing space for both paper space and model space for all of our AutoCAD configurations.
We listed the entity in question and it lists as a Solid HATCH with a color of "0,0,0", or black. What??? We changed the drawing space background temporarily to "White" and sure enough there were black, Solid, hatches behind every text label that had been defined with a background mask in Civil 3D 2007. During the conversion process, AutoCAD converted all background masks to a solid, black hatch. Too funny!!!
The fix was easy. We just "FILTER"ed out all hatches on that layer and erased them. But now we have to repeat this step everytime we use the "Export to 2004..." option. I tell you, it's always something, huh?
4 comments:
I don't know if you take questions re: Civil3D on your blog, but I'll give it a try.
Would this be an issue if you were switching between Civil3D and plain AutoCAD '07? What happens in general to the Civil3D objects when you switch (or say copy/paste) between base AutoCAD '07 and Civil3D '07?
Thanks.
Sure, I'll be happy to try and answer your C3D or CADD-related questions.
You will need the latest Civil 3D object enabler installed for plain AutoCAD in order to be able to view the entities within the object. You should be able to copy and paste between '07 versions.
There is a big difference between SaveAS and Export to... The SaveAS option keeps the objects intact whereas the Export to.. option "explodes" object data to entity level based upon the current style set for each object.
We just went through this same thought process last week. We ended up filtering the hatch and changing the color to #255 (which for our company plots black at 0%) which works like a wipeout.
Good Post David. One of our techs here had the same problem the otherday. Since you beat me to posting it:) I'll link your notes on my blog as well.
Mark Reagan
http://3dtexas.blogspot.com/
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