The H-Factor

Hydratec delivers four plot style files with our software: Hydragray.ctb, Hydracolor.ctb HydraLayerGray.ctb (all color dependent plot styles) and Hydragray.stb (named plot style). These are found in the HES\HydraCAD\Ver50\Programs\Version5# folder, depending on your version of the software. 

To use these files it will be necessary to copy them into the AutoCAD plot styles folder and then choose the one you want to use.

1. Use My Computer or Windows Explorer to navigate to the HES\HydraCAD\Ver50\Programs\Version57 (or Version56) folder
2. Locate the following highlighted files

        2a. Select the four files and then right-click and pick Copy

        3. Right-click on the AutoCAD command line and pick Options… (another little tip!)

       4. Pick the Plot and Publish tab. Then, pick the Plot Style Table Settings button

       5. Pick the Add or Edit Plot Style Tables button. This will open up the Plot Style Manager (STYLESMANAGER) and the folder where AutoCAD stores it's own plot styles. Right-click in that folder and pick Paste. Close the Plot Style folder. Pick OK to leave this dialog and OK again to close Options.

        6. To assign plot styles to either Model space or Layout tabs, right-click the tab you want to configure for and pick Page Setup Manager (PAGESETUP). If you are in Model space you will see *Model* as an option. If you are on a layout tab you will see each layout tab as options. Pick the option you want and pick Modify. You can then pick Plot style table (pen assignments) to select the one you want.

More, from AutoCAD's help:

Color Dependent Plot Styles

Uses color-dependent plot styles in both new drawings and drawings created in AutoCAD Release 14 or earlier. Color-dependent plot styles use the numbers from the AutoCAD Color Index to create a plot style table with a .ctb file extension. Each color is defined by a name or number ranging from 1 to 255. You can assign each color number to a different pen on a pen plotter to achieve different property settings in the plotted drawing. If this option is selected, a plot style is created for each color setting. You can also select this option by setting the PSTYLEPOLICY system variable to 1.

This setting is saved with the drawing. Once a drawing is saved with Use Color Dependent Plot Styles as the default, you can convert it to Use Named Plot Styles using the CONVERTCTB and CONVERTPSTYLES commands.

Named Plot Styles

Uses named plot styles in both new drawings and drawings created in earlier versions of AutoCAD. The drawing is plotted according to the property settings that you specify in the plot style definition. The plot style is defined in the plot style table attached to the layout. Named plot style tables are files with the file extension .stb. You can also select this option by setting the PSTYLEPOLICY system variable to 0.

This setting is saved with the drawing. Once a drawing is saved with Use Named Plot Styles as the default, you can convert it to Use Color Dependent Plot Styles using the CONVERTCTB and CONVERTPSTYLES commands. However, once you use CONVERTPSTYLES to convert a drawing from using a named plot style table to a color plot style table, you cannot use CONVERTPSTYLES to convert it back to using a named plot style table.

Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?

Simply put, a ctb lets you map objects of a particular color to a pen. That pen can then have a color assigned to it. We have Red, White and Magenta object all mapped to Pen1, which is Black, for example, in the Hydracolor.ctb. In the Hydragray.ctb, the same thing happens except that the pens are all mapped to different shades of gray instead of colors.

The stb file lets you define a particular style and map certain layers to that. Styles can be mapped via the Layer Manager dialog box.

Next I will talk about how to edit those plot styles. Right now I am bushed from typing so much.