Unable To Use Convertpstyles In Autocad For Mac

If you are unable to specify a point on the ray, press Ctrl key and right-click. Select all the snap settings. Example 2: The steps are listed below: Draw a circle on the drawing area in AutoCAD. Click on the RayIcon, as shown in the below image: Or Type Ray on the command line and press Enter. Specify center point of a circle as the starting. The course is designed to get you up & running with AutoCAD quickly by teaching you the things you need to know without long-winded explanations of techniques and commands that are no longer used. As a CAD engineer with over 25 years of industry experience, I have taught many people to use AutoCAD. A DWG file is preset to use STB or CTB, never both: you started your file with the wrong template file most likely. Look up CONVERTPSTYLES command in HELP about changing a DWG file, or open your CTB based template file and INSERT this problem one into it, EXPLODE, then SAVEAS. In Windows on your Mac, click in the right side of the taskbar, click the Boot Camp icon, then choose Boot Camp Control Panel. If a User Account Control dialog appears, click Yes. In the One Finger section, select any of the following: Tap to Click: Lets you tap the trackpad to click.

  1. Unable To Use Convertpstyles In Autocad For Macbook Pro
  2. Unable To Use Convertpstyles In Autocad For Mac Os
  3. Unable To Use Convertpstyles In Autocad For Mac Download

AutoCAD provides the ability to assign how things plot/print such as lineweight, color, dithering etc. using a feature named Plot Styles. You have the choice to use the default color-dependent or named plot styles, but your drawing can only be one or the other.

  • Color-dependent plot styles (CTB)
  • Named plot styles (STB)
Convertpstyles

It can be debated as to which is better but I will leave that for you to decide which works best for you and the people you exchange DWG files with. About 95% use CTB most likely because that is not only the default but the way they have always done it. If you want to share your reasons for using one plot style method over the other please feel free to post a comment to this blog post.

AutoCAD comes with drawing templates for both CTB and STB drawings. If you need to convert an existing drawing from one to the other you can use the following commands at the AutoCAD commandline.

To Convert Drawing Plot Style Modes:
To convert a CTB mode drawing to STB mode or a STB mode drawing to CTB mode use the command CONVERTPSTYLES.
To Convert Drawing Plot Style File such as Shaan.ctb to Shaan.stb:
To Convert a CTB Plot Style file use CONVERTCTB. Dont let the name fool you, CONVERTCTB will work to convert a CTB to STB to a STB to CTB.

More on the two plot styles:

The majority of AutoCAD users are using the default plot style of color based plot styles also known as color-dependent plot styles (CTB). CTB plot styles has been the default since the early days of AutoCAD supporting plotting/printing. It comes from the days when we had pen plotters and there was 255 numbered pens available which correlated to the physical pens. With a CTB plot style table you can specify the color, lineweight, linetype, screening, and so on that objects of a specific color will have when plotted.

With AutoCAD 2000 came the style based plot styles or named plot styles (STB) option was added allowing you to assign plot styles including color, lineweights, screening to an object regardless of colors or layer set to the object. Some users mention the benefits of STB are less pen styles to manage or they can have project phased styles.

AutoCAD Online Help on Plot Styles Use a Page Setup to Specify Plot Settings

Some visual flashback on the evolution of color in AutoCAD

Here is the early AutoCAD ACI colors.

Convertpstyles

The AutoCAD Color Wheel.

The current True Color Wheel with 16.7 millions colors. Luckily we do not create 16.7 million pens in the CTB plot style dialog!

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD generally supports two type of fonts TrueType with TTF extension and shape font with SHX extension. TrueType is Windows native font type which comes ready-made with your windows installation but shape fonts are AutoCAD specific fonts which are installed along with AutoCAD.

In this article, I will explain methods of installing both the types of fonts and the best practices for transferring files containing these custom fonts. You can download TTF and SHX fonts used in this article from this link.

I have created this video which explains this tip clearly. However, if you prefer to read the article instead then scroll down.

Installing Truetype Font:

Unable To Use Convertpstyles In Autocad For Macbook Pro

To install the TrueType or TTF font simply right-click on it and select Install from the right contextual menu as shown in the image 1 below. For installing this font, you need to have administrator access on your PC.

Once the font is installed close the AutoCAD window completely and restart a new AutoCAD session, the font will now be among the list of fonts.

Unable To Use Convertpstyles In Autocad For Mac Os

Installing Shape Font:

Installing a shape font is a little bit different from installing a Truetype font. In this case, you need to copy paste the SHX font file in the font directory of AutoCAD installation. You can find the path of SHX fonts using options window.

Type OP on the command line and press enter, then select File tab and expand the Support File Search Path tree and you will see the path where SHX fonts are installed as shown in the image 2 below.

Go to “C:Program FilesAutodeskAutoCAD 201XFonts” folder where X represents the version number of AutoCAD and copy paste the SHX font file. You will need administrator privileges for copying this font.

Once the fonts are copied restart the AutoCAD session and you will have your SHX font in the list of AutoCAD fonts.

Transferring files with custom font:

The fonts mentioned in the article above are installed on your local PC and when you use them in your drawing it will remain visible only on your PC. If you transfer this AutoCAD file containing custom font to the recipient who does not have this font then AutoCAD will display a substituted font or it will not display text at all.

To get rid of this problem you need to ensure that fonts are always captured with your drawing.

You can do that by E-transmitting your drawing with the font and if you are transferring the file as PDF then you should ensure that TTF fonts are captured in the PDF file and shape fonts are converted into geometries because PDF’s does not recognize shape font.

To transfer the drawing with fonts, save your drawing then type ETRANSMIT and press enter. Click on transmittal setups button on the Create Transmittal window and select Modify. In the Modify Transmittal Setup window select the Include fonts check box as shown in the image 3 below and click on OK to close all open windows.

Unable To Use Convertpstyles In Autocad For Mac Download

Your transmittal package will now contain any additional fonts used in the drawing.

If you are transferring drawing using a PDF plotter then ensure that fonts are either captured in the PDF or they are converted into geometries.

To do this select the PDF plotter like DWG to PDF.pc3 from the Plot window and select the PDF Options button and then ensure that “Capture fonts” option is selected for TTF fonts or “Convert all text to geometry” option is checked for shape fonts as shown in the image below.

If you have questions related to this tutorial let me know in the comments and don’t forget to show your appreciation by sharing the article using buttons shown below.

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