Enabling true-color entities to plot in monochrome (CTB vs STB switch)
Do you sometimes notice see that your BricsCAD drawing entities appear in color even when you select monochrome.ctb as the plot style?
This is a common scenario and can often be quite confusing.
The solution is simple – Use a named plot style (STB) instead of a color-dependent plot style (CTB).
If the objects are assigned a True Color (or Color Book color) vs. an Index Color, they will print in their color ONLY if the drawing is using Color Dependent Plot Styles (CTB files).
True Color and Color Book colors can’t be added to a Color Dependent plot style (CTB file) because it uses Index Colors only.
To work around this, the drawing has to use Named Plot Styles (STB files).
To convert a drawing file to use an STB file, do the following steps:
- Use the _CONVERTCTB command to convert the monochrome.ctb file to an .stb file.
This brings up the Select File dialog box, browse to the ctb file you use, if it’s the monochrome.ctb select this file. Then select the monochrome.stb file or type in a new name in the File Name field to create a new .stb file. - Use the _CONVERTPSTYLES command to convert the drawing to use Named Plot Styles(stb files). Select the Stb file created in the previous step.
The drawing will now use Named Plot Styles and the True Colors will respect the monochrome.