LINE WEIGHTS NOT CHANGING

[Benny_G]

LINE WEIGHTS NOT CHANGING

 

I have gone through all blogs and discussions but found nothing that would help me. So apologies for another issue with the line weights. 

When I draw a line or a rectangular or I try to change the line style on imported terrain data I face the following problem: I may change the color of the line from e.g. black to pink and in the case of a rectangular I may also change the fill. But no matter what I do, the line weight is not changing. In preferences/appearance/line weights "show line weights" is on.

 

Any ideas why I may not change the line weight in any design? Your help is much appreciated!

[DBCooper]

Check your drawing sheet setup.  Make sure your scales are setup correctly.

 

More info can be found here:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00923/understanding-and-adjusting-line-weights.html

 

[Benny_G]

Good afternoon DBCopper

 

I have seen that you are semi-retired, so thanks a lot for your help. My mother tongue is German and although I would say that my English language command is not bad it is still not my mother tongue.

 

I have read the information in the link that you have sent to me. Unfortunately, there is nothing that I could find which would help me to change the weight of the lines. What honestly bothers me most is that if I change the line color there is no problem but if I try to change the weight of the line, nothing happens. Both characteristics are defined in the polyline specification or in object layer properties. But whatever I do, the color changes, the weight unfortunately doesn't. 

 

Sorry for bothering you, but I am really in trouble since the city council is asking me to adjust it.

[SNestor]

You have to turn lineweights "on" in order to see the actual lineweight of objects;

You can also toggle lineweights from the "VIEW" menu. 

 

 

[DBCooper]

I think changing it in either the preferences, view menu, or using the toolbar button will all do the same thing because it's a global setting.

 

It would probably be best for you to post a simple copy of plan with the problem so someone could take a look at it.  I'm still guessing it's a drawing sheet setup problem.

 

[Benny_G]

Good afternoon, Nestor

 

Lineweights are turned on. This does not seem to be the issue.

 

[Benny_G]

Hi DBCooper,

 

I think you are right. It has to be a more general setup problem, since this actually never worked. Please find a copy of the drawing attached. On the plan you have the neighboring plots and buildings and project. The building filled in light yellow color is existing and the red one is the project.

CA_Line Weight Issue_240813.dwg

[SNestor]

You might check your preferences;

[SNestor]

The file you uploaded is a DWG...not a .PLAN file in Chief

[Benny_G]

Hi Nestor, I know. 

 

Line weights is turned on in preferences. The issue is that even I do a zip of the file, it is 16 MB and the system does not allow me to upload it. Since the problem is always the same, I have done a new plan with a few lines. It is attached to this message. 

CA_Line Weight Issue Sample Plan_240813.plan

[KenL-sdd]

The line weights are changing. Both in polyline and layer. File upload coming

[KenL-sdd]

The line weights are working. You may need to use thicker lines.1599730367_CA_LineWeightIssueSamplePlan_with line.plan

I changed one of the line weights to 300.

 

[Benny_G]

Hi Ken

 

You are right. On the design I created it works. I guess this was a misunderstanding from my side since in the various discussions I read, the line weights mentioned were 30 or 50; but never 300. So, increasing the line weight much more, is the solution to the problem.

 

However, on the plan I worked on, it still does not change although I changed the line weight to 300. I have deleted a lot of content to get the file size below 14 MB and attached it to this message. Any idea how to solve this issue?

 

CA_Line Weight Issue Sample Plan_240813.plan.zip

[KenL-sdd]

Im going to send you a message. We can do a quick online meeting.

 

[TeaTime]

One issue is these polylines are very large, so you won't see a big change when the line weights are changed unless you zoom in.

Here's some walls around them

 

zooming in closer, that pink box is about the same line weight as the walls, which are 35

 

That pink box is not resizing like the rest though

 

because it's set to a specific weight

 

Check "By Layer" and it will resize as expected.

 

[KenL-sdd]

4 minutes ago, TeaTime said:

That pink box is not resizing like the rest though

That very well could be the issue. That is the one I set to 300

 

[Benny_G]

Hi TeaTime,

 

I guess you are right. When I zoom in very much, I may see the difference of the line weights. Since the plan I have to send to the city council will consist of large polylines, does this mean that I have to put the line weight to 1'000 that you see the difference of the line weights without zooming in?

[Benny_G]

Hi Ken, yes I guess setting the line to a weight of 1'000 solves the issue. Here in Europe is 20 minutes to midnight. Happy to do an online meeting now; if not happy to go to sleep. 

 

THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

[TeaTime]

9 minutes ago, Benny_G said:

does this mean that I have to put the line weight to 1'000 that you see the difference of the line weights without zooming in?

You can, but you shouldn't need to. You said you're working with Imported Terrain, is this terrain view being sent to a Layout page? Or are you printing right from the plan?

The reason I ask is that when they're sent to the Layout it will use "Layout Line Scaling", so regardless of the line weights in the Plan, the Layout draws them the same relative scale.

Here's a 1:25 scale view of that sample plan with a 1:100 scale, notice how the lines are the same size

[Benny_G]

Hi Teatime, actually, the cause why I have to go to 1'000 might be the difference between the imperial and the metric system. In your world it is inch and foot for the short length, whereas in your hemisphere it is millimeters, centimeters, decimeters and meters. Somewhere in the parametrization this might lead to the different relations.

 

I import the dwg/dxf files from the state (in Switzerland it is canton) and then I do the work in the plan view. The official files just provides me with the plot and the external lines of any building. On this plan I have to add my project. The issue that I did not see any difference between the lines happened here. Once I am done with the plan, I export it to the layout page and send the export page to the city council.

[SNestor]

I downloaded your smaller file...lineweights work fine for me. Made a quick video...

Line Weight Issue - Watch Video

[TeaTime]

56 minutes ago, Benny_G said:

Hi Teatime, actually, the cause why I have to go to 1'000 might be the difference between the imperial and the metric system. In your world it is inch and foot for the short length, whereas in your hemisphere it is millimeters, centimeters, decimeters and meters.

Yeah, that does add to the confusion. Line weights are a bit different than overall scale though. Even in Imperial plans line weights are scaled the same as they are in metric plans

(you can find this under File> Print> Drawing Sheet Setup)

because they represent plotted/printed line thickness. So a line weight of 1000 would be very, very large. It may make it more visible in plan view, but would be massive when sent to layout.

 

Is that the actual issue? that these lines are too hard to see and manipulate while in Plan view?

 

If so, go ahead and bump up the Line Weight so its big enough to comfortable work with, but only do that while in the Working Plan View / Layer Set.

Then when you send the view to Layout you can switch to something like the Plot Plan View where you can adjust the printed line weights. This allows you to adjust the line weights for working vs printing.

[Rickster]

I think what maybe the confusion is... I had set up line weights to correspond with my plotter, now Chief comes along with this line scaling. So all the line weights that are currently on my layers are now wrong? Drawings coming from older drawing files.

 

Dimensions were 2.

Leader lines and cad details were 3.

Property Line 8, Setback Lines 6.

Medium border lines were 4 & 6 and bigger was 8. ETC

 

Anyone had to approach line weights from this standpoint?

 

Does anyone have a set of line weights list and their sizes they're currently using or is there a sample .jpg anywhere?

 

Thanks Rick

[Rickster]

So leaving my layers weights alone, I set the line scale to inches, then played with the denominator.  I think I have settled, for my layer weights, 1/300.

 

Is this how it should be worked out?

 

Thanks,

Rick

[mthd97]

Hi @Benny_G, I think all the suggestions above are good and apply here to what you are attempting to do. To me it seems like your problem may have to do with how you imported your DWG file into Chief and how you actually mapped your layers during import ?
 

For example if you mapped all your layers to one Chief layer, then that will have the one line weight of that particular layer only. I suggest that you could map your layers individually to Chief Architect layers and change them to your desired line weight afterwards. 
 

There are training videos on line on how to do this as this may help you to define your line weights. DWG file line weight parameters are defined by the program used to create the digital drawing in and this may effect the line weight once it is imported into CA ?

 

Have fun learning !