topic Re: AC10 plotting fill bug? in Installation & update

AC10 plotting fill bug?

Scott Bulmer — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 22:44:17 GMT

I guess this is where these items are being reported.

When either of the two 25% fills are set with the background pen as transparent (0), the fill plots as solid black. All other fills that we have tested are fine with the transparent background pen. Also, the 25% fills plot fine with other background pens set. Our plotter is an HP700 monochrome.

I don't recall if this was the case in AC9.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Link — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 23:37:35 GMT

Yes, these fills seemed to have changed don't they? I have not read or heard of any official GS changes, but you can see just by zooming up to them on screen that they are behaving differently.

I also tried plotting to a plt file (with different plot setups) and placing them back on a layout and all my tests had these fills appear as solid.

Maybe someone else can come up with some answers?

Cheers,
Link.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Brad Elliott — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 23:26:04 GMT

I am having the same problem. But I also have the problem with the 50% fill.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 16:10:45 GMT

Link wrote:
...these fills seemed to have changed don't they?

Yes they are now true bitmap halftones rather than vector dots (25%) or lines (50% & 75%).

Is the problem that they are printing properly but turning solid black when plotted (HPGL)?

Plotter drivers used to be a bit quirky about bitmaps, but I thought that was sorted out long ago. I have had no problems printing these fills so perhaps it's finally time to give up on HPGL. I know all the advantages of plotting (line weights, file sizes), but the future is PDF. Even HP is giving up on HPGL. It is now an extra cost option on their "large format printers" (they no longer make "plotters")

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Brad Elliott — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 16:29:39 GMT

Matthew,
I should not have brought this topic over to the Spool Folder thread. But we can finish the discussion here.

It is a plotting bug and it needs fixed.

Yes, I understand pdf is the future and that is where we are headed. I use it all the time for smaller scale work. But we are not there yet, and until the technology catches up (file size/internet speed/print quality/exact scale/etc) I will be sticking with HPGL.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Link — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 01:36:30 GMT

Is the problem that they are printing properly but turning solid black when plotted (HPGL)?

I don't think so, prn files also had solid fills.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 15:19:47 GMT

Brad wrote:
It is a plotting bug and it needs fixed.

Apparently so. Have you reported it?

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Brad Elliott — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 20:31:27 GMT

Is there an actual bug reporting process? I would love to know about it.

If you mean report it to my rep and have him forward it on, since this came up very late last week I am sending it to him after the 4th.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 07:43:23 GMT

Brad wrote:
If you mean report it to my rep and have him forward it on...

Yes.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 02:01:44 GMT

This may or may not be related, but goes well under this heading anyway.

I have a fill representing long run roofing assigned to the material on my roof, which seems to be having trouble expressing itself. It is simply parallel lines at 120mm crs. In my elevation as I zoom in it APPEARS to go from bitmap display to vectorial, although that is not necessarily what actually happens, just what appears to happen. So as I go from distant, scrolling/zooming-in the lines are far too dense, until I get to 900ish% zoom, then they suddenly display correctly. This happens in both Model and Layout views of my elevations.

The net result of this is that when I print, the roof surface prints solid black. Other fills in the same views, both assigned to materials and 2D overlays, seem o.k. This is very puzzling. Display and printing was OK in AC9.

Any advice appreciated.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Link — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 06:19:10 GMT

900%!!!

How small is it??!

Can you upload a mod of it mate?

Cheers,
Link.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 22:06:29 GMT

That's only the zoom on the screen. I have to get that close to see the fill correctly. It's a large building, 1:200 scale for A3 output (still at sketch plan stage). As for a mod, I will see what I can do, working on something else at present.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

matthewjj — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 05:51:52 GMT

We are having similar issues with certain composites anything with a 25% fill plots solid black but prints out okay. Printing is an okay short-term solution but the quality is not what it is with plotting. We are using an OCE TDS600.
We have found a couple of work arounds:
1. Changing Wall background fills to white will allow us to Plot okay.
2. Printing instead of plotting works without having to manually change all wall in a project. This is not a satisfactory long-term solution.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

kevin b — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 14:11:08 GMT

Was definitely not the case in AC9 as we have details that use the same fills that were fine in AC9 and not in AC10.

The transparent background does seem to be the problem, changing it to white brings back the original intended results.

In Addition to the 25% fill also effects the Gypsum Board fill (which is more or less the same fill) Have not tried other but I'd wouldn't be surprised if it didn't effect any of the similar fills (ie. small tightly regular spaced dots)

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Brad Elliott — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 15:25:26 GMT

This is an acknowledged bug. It was not fixed in the 966 update. The recommended workaround is print or change the background fill. The negative for this of course is that the fill is no longer transparent.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

matthewjj — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 20:02:23 GMT

All fills 25%, 50%, 75% and anything similar (Gypsum, etc.) are having this problem.

We need a fix A.S.A.P.!

Printing does not provide the necessary quality we need when reproducing drawings and changing ALL fills with affected fills is EMBARRASSING!!!

We cannot deploy AC 10 to 60 architects and say "BY THE WAY, CHANGE ALL YOUR FILLS TO HAVE A WHITE BACK GROUND!!!"

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

TomWaltz — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 20:35:23 GMT

Suddenly I am really glad I never used the 25%, 50%, and 75% fills...

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

andrewzarb — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 08:07:47 GMT

I think the 25% fill bug is actually a half baked feature.

Those percentage fills were always a bit of a joke, insomuch as you couldn't get an exact shade. They now work (on screen anyhow) as you would expect a shade to work.

Unfortunately they don't plot , not nicely anyway" and look rather awful and opaque when printed as a PDF with Amyuni. Hopefully this "feature" will be completed soon.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Link — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 06:15:14 GMT

This problem is an official bug. I’ve heard that if you choose any other pen as background (including pen 91 white) then it does not plot black. Of course, it will not be transparent.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: AC10 plotting fill bug?

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 17:43:41 GMT

Where can you control the SCREEN PERCENTAGE? I see the 25% grey, 50% Grey - This feature does not work the way the industry standard works. As far as I can see. Can anyone else fill in the facts about grey scale in ArchiCAD 10?

On my printed output, I would like to specify a newspaper type screen percentage. In traditional printing grey tones need to be screened for the press, 300 lines is a high amount per inch. Newspaper is about 60 lpi. So a 60 lpi grey tone (printed) would have a course dot pattern. All I can get is a very fine dot pattern- Looks like 150 lpi . Where can I control this output in the publisher?