AC10 plotting fill bug?

[Scott Bulmer]

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.

[Link]

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.

[Brad Elliott]

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

[Anonymous]

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")

[Brad Elliott]

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.

[Link]

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.

[Anonymous]

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

Apparently so. Have you reported it?

[Brad Elliott]

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.

[Anonymous]

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

Yes.

[Anonymous]

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.