Allplan 2013-1: Plotting layouts, Pen and color assignments

Plotting layouts, Pen and color assignments

You can use this dialog box to assign Allplan's pens and colors to pen thickness and color settings of the printer/plotter. The settings are saved for the current printer or output channel.

For more information on color printing, see Printing color layouts.

The settings you can make in this dialog box depend on:

The output device used: you can only assign colors when a color printer is selected and the driver supports color output.
The settings for pen control and number of pens.
The Color stands for pen option in Show/Hide: if Color stands for pen is active, the dialog box displays the colors that are assigned to Allplan's pens 1 to 15 in the Options, Desktop environment, Pen colors. Otherwise, all 256 basic colors are displayed.

Pen thickness

Allplan pen Plotter pen

This is where you set how Allplan's internal pens 1-15 are to plot. Allplan's pens are shown in the area on the left. The area on the right is where you set the thickness to be used when the pens plot.

Note: When you select the Show effect of "Color stands for pen" option, the color assigned to each pen (in Options, Desktop environment, Pen colors) is displayed.

Display

Show effect of "Color stands for pen"

When this option is active, the colors that are assigned to Allplan's pens 1 to 15 in Options, Desktop environment, Pen colors, are displayed in the sequence of Allplan's pens.
When this option is not active, all the 256 basic colors are displayed in ascending order.

When you open the dialog box, the setting of this option is equivalent to the setting of the Color stands for pen option in Show/Hide.
When you change the setting of this option, Allplan displays a message announcing that the setting in Show/Hide is used.

Show redefined properties only

When this option is active, the two assignment areas at the top and on the right only display the pens and colors to which a different thickness or color has been assigned.
Clicking resets all pen and color assignments to Allplan's defaults.

More settings

Print in color / Line colors using shades of gray / Line colors in black

You can specify how lines (and other 2D design entities like text and dimension text) are to plot. Fills and bitmap areas always print in color on color plotters/printers.
With the Line colors using shades of gray setting, the program internally converts the colors to shades of gray. Therefore, you cannot select actual gray scales in the list box.

Use a specific pen for everything

When this option is enabled, the entire layout is plotted using a single pen, which you specify here. The number of pens in the list box depends on the Number of pens specified in the general settings on the Settings tab.

When you open the dialog box, the setting of this option is equivalent to the setting of the Use one pen only (number:) option on the Settings tab.

Gamma correction

You can specify how much lighter the printout is to be in comparison with the on-screen view. You can enter any value between 0 and 1.

= 0.5 neutral

>0.5 lighter than in the original

<0.5 darker than in the original

Colors

Allplan color Plotter color

You can specify how Allplan's colors are to plot. The area on the left displays Allplan's colors in the sequence of Allplan's pens or in ascending order. The area on the right is where you set the colors to be used for plotting.
You can select one of the 256 basic colors in the list box or define a RGB color by entering values for Red, Green and Blue.

Note: If Show effect of "Color stands for pen" is active, the dialog box displays the colors that are assigned to Allplan's pens 1 to 15 in the Options, Desktop environment, Pen colors. Otherwise, all 256 basic colors are displayed. When color stands for pen is active, you can define different plotter colors for a color that has been assigned to several Allplan pens.

Tip: You can save the settings in this dialog box in the plot profiles. For more information, see Plot profiles.
In addition, you can use the Print... button to output a list of the pen and color assignments to any output medium. When the Show redefined properties only option is enabled, the list only includes the pens and colors to which a different thickness or color has been assigned.