Ghosting existing on plans

[Anonymous]

I'd like to create drawing sheets that have greyed out or ghosted lines for all existing features. I can think of two ways to do this. Anyone have an opinion which is better and how to solve my dilemmas with each? Is there another better way I haven't thought of?

My two ideas are these: 1) use trace reference, although I can't figure out how I would separated out just existing info and I also can't figure out how to change the printed line weights/colors of the reference 2) tile up two views one on top of the other in the layout, one grey scale with existing and one black/white with new. The potential problem here is that I don't know how this will translate when I convert to AutoCAD (AutoCAD files are a requirement of the client).

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

[Anonymous]

I forgot to change my signature. I am now using v12.

[Erika Epstein]

Regarding 2, try sending the consultants one to check, this is always the real test. It should be fine; I have done this kind of layered drawings on layouts before without problem.

[Karl Ottenstein]

You pretty much need some kind of layer control in any case to distinguish existing vs demo vs new - whether multiple layers in the same file (what I've generally done - although layer bloat is annoying) or via hotlinked files (Eric Bobrow's approach, discussed in other threads).

So, given layer control, you can easily have a separate view for 'existing'. Simply assign the drawing created from that view a different pen set, and stack it with your other view(s).

If you'd rather display all elements in a single view, then it requires some specific pen assignments in your pen table so that you use certain pens for existing things that will be mapped to gray (etc) in the pen set used for printing.

Cheers,
Karl

[Karl Ottenstein]

Also, download the free eDrawings (since you are on Mac) as another way of previewing the generated dwg to make sure it looks like you want it to. As Erika said, the real test is sending a sample.

Cheers,
Karl

[Arcadia]

Just show all existing, new and demolished in the one view using different wall types for each. I show demolished walls with a dashed outline and set them to display as wire frame in 3D. Existing show as just a black outline/white fill wall, and new with a hatched or solid black fill. Then you can seperate the items on layers as well so you can show a drawing without the demolished.