A PrintStyle is a collection of overrides for LineColor, LineStyle, LineWeight, dithering, screening, gray scale, end styles, join styles, and fill styles, and assignments to pen-plotter pens. DraftSight provides the ability to assign how things print such as lineweight, color, dithering etc. using this feature.
You have the choice to use two types of PrintStyle tables: 1. Color-dependent or 2. Named .
However only one style can be used for a drawing.
Default location of Print style files:
‘C:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Roaming\\DraftSight\\1.2.263 (latest folder)\\Print Styles’
Assigning print styles to drawing:
Print styles are assigned to a drawing. Hence choose the print style at the time of drawing creation.
To select print style for current drawing go to, Tools>Options>System Options>Printing>Default settings and change the Default type to desired style.
You need to restart DraftSight for changes to take place.
If you are working on any old drawing, to check the print style of current drawing go to Properties palette>PrintStyle>Table (make sure nothing is selected), If the list shows CTB files, color-based print style have been assigned to the drawing. If the list shows STB files, named print styles have been assigned to the drawing.
Creating customized Print style table:(.ctb/.stb files)
For creating customized print style table go to File>Print>Additional Options>Print Style table and click on ‘New’ tab, specify the name for table and click on ‘Edit’ to assign desired settings to this table.
For Color Dependent t Print Styles:
Color-based printstyle tables map pen colors and lineweights to entities based on the color of the entities.
To edit the default settings, select one or more colors in the Print Styles list, then make changes to one of the settings on the right hand side. Refer below image, right hand side shows the settings assigned to print style. The LineColor determines the color that the object will print to.
For color plots, select "Use Entity LineColor". For black and white drawings, select black. Change the screening number if you wish to apply shading.100 determines no screening. To edit default lineweight values click on ‘Edit LineWeights’. Unit system can also be changed from Format LineWeights Dialog box.
For Named Print Styles:
Named print style tables map pen colors and lineweights to entities based on a specific printstyle that is assigned to the entity.
This style contains the same printing properties as a color based print style (pen color, lineweight, screening, etc.), however the color of the entity does not control the printing properties at all. To change entity’s appearance after print, change its style instead of its color.
Hence you will see names of printstyles instead of colors in left pane of Print Style table editor. If you are creating new style by default it will take name Style#, you can rename it using ‘Rename style’ option. Select print style from left pane and make desired changes.
Since print styles are an entity propertes, it can also be assigned to layers.
To assign the print style to layer, go to Layer Property Manager >PrintStyle and select print style from drop down.
After making all the settings in Print Style Editor click on Ok to save the settings. Make sure you have selected option ‘Use assigned Print Styles’ (from Print>Additional Options) so that you can use created print style table.
(Note: Command PrintStyle is used to manage Named PrintStyles. If you are using color dependent print style,after using command PrintStyle DraftSight will pop up error message saying “Printstyle are mapped to n entity’s color when using color based printstyles. Change the entity color to change the print style.” Refer iQuestion link for more details: https://swym.3ds.com/#community:70/iquestions:13647)
