Knowledge detail

Plots with hidden lines removed

 Q: Does ZWCAD support hidden-line removal plots?

A: ZWCAD supports hidden-line removal in plots. To plot 3D drawings with hidden entities removed, you should turn on the Hidden Plot option in the Plot dialog box. 

Knowledge detail

About raster output

Q: How do I add more types of raster output?

A: ZWCAD supports many kinds of raster output, and you can add them through the Add-A-Plotter wizard. Additional raster formats may be available from the Internet; we have found that most of them work well with ZWCAD.

Knowledge detail

Use STB files for printing with ZWCAD

Q: How do I use STB files when printing with ZWCAD?

A: Plot tables come in two flavors. One is the traditional color-based plot table (CTB), the other is the newer style-based plot table (STB). A drawing file can use only one type of plot table, color-based or style-based.  At present, ZWCAD supports CTB files but not STB files.

Plot styles are property that can be assigned to objects and layers in STB-flavored drawing files. When set to ByLayer, objects inherit the plot style property from layers, just as they do with colors, linetypes, and lineweight.

(In AutoCAD, the PStylePolicy system variable specifies the plot style (STB or CTB) to be assigned to new drawings. The PStyleMode system variable reports the current drawing’s plot style: 1 indicates CTB, while 0 indicates STB. The ConvertPStyle command changes the type of plot style.) Since ZWCAD does not support STB, the commands mentioned in the above paragraph are not available for now. If you come across drawings that require STB files, you might be able to use the ConvertCTB command to change STB files to CTB files, and then open them in ZWCAD.

Knowledge detail

Customizing print styles

Q: How do I customize print styles?

A: You can modify Plot Style tables in ZWCAD. In the latest update to the program, you can modify many item of Style Properties as shown below, such as grayscale, linetype, and fill style.

 You can also save the changes by another CTB (color-based plot table) file name stored in your computer.

Knowledge detail

Modifying the CTB file path

Q: How can I modify the path to the CTB files?

A: Follow these steps:

      1. From ZWCAD’s Tools menu, choose Options.
      2. In the Config dialog box, select the Files tab.
      3. Open the Printer Support File Path node, and then you can modify Plot Style Table Search Path. See the figure below.

Knowledge detail

Customizing paper sizes

 Q；How do I set customized paper sizes?

A: When you need to print drawings to different sizes of paper, you can find many different paper sizes in the Paper dropdown list of the Plot command’s dialog box, as illustrated below.

You can also customize some additional paper sizes using the following methods.

• If the plotter was added through a driver in Windows, you can customize the paper sizes as follows:

                      1.   Click the Properties button.

                       2.   Click Customize Properties. Here you can find options, including those for paper sizing. 

If you used the Add-A-Plotter wizard to add a plotter, you can customize the paper size by choosing the Customize Paper Sizes option, and then click the Add button.

 

Knowledge detail

Adding plotters to ZWCAD

Q: How do I add a plotter\printer or raster output?

A: There are two ways to install a plotter’s driver. The first method is to install the regular printer driver directly, which you can find from the Internet or accompanying the printer. This is just like adding a new printer in Windows.
The other method is to use ZWCAD’s utility tool named “Add-A-Plotter Wizard”, with which you can add drivers for printer or raster output.