Hatch Issue - Only Appears Black

[jkohler85]

Hi all,

I am working on a drawing with some notes. In order for the notes to pop out against the rest of the drawing I am attempting to place Black text on top of a White hatch. I am creating my hatches on their own layer, which is white as well. However they are showing up in preview as black, and when I export as pdf they remain black.

I searched through the forum and saw the suggestion to toggle on and off the option to prevent white on white and black on black layers. When I toggle this off it does appear to resolve my hatch issue but leaves the remainder of my drawing in such a bizarre state, it's unpresentable. Suddenly black lines are invisible everywhere (even though my background is white) and my work is essentially back to square one.

Can anyone help me at all? I am attaching the drawing. I am also trying to meet a deadline and quite thrown by how something that seems so easy could be such a disaster.

OS - Mac Air running Sierra 10.12.6
Q-Cad Version 3.4.6.0 (3.4.6)

Thank you,

Josh

[andrew]

If you need any elements in background color anywhere in your drawing (white in this case), you definitely have to switch off the "prevent white on white and black on black" preference.

After that, it's a question of going through your layers and changing the color of all white layers to black (except for the one containing your white text labels).

[jkohler85]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for the response.

I am confused because the layers are black but when I toggle that option off they disappear anyway.

I'm also really confused why the hatch only shows up as solid black, I tried the other color options, light grey, grey, purple, so it seems to be a larger problem or fix than that one no?

Josh

[jkohler85]

Hi,

To try and make sure I am elaborating properly here is a screen grab of the file after the option is toggled on.

You can see a row of decks is missing completely, but when I select them I confirm that their color is black and their default layer color is as well.

Attached are three screen shots, the proper looking file, and then what happens after I toggle it, and then the area that is "black" but not showing up.

Any help is appreciated.

Josh

[andrew]

The problem

The area you are referencing in your last screenshot is a block reference to block "Group-485-1". The block reference is on layer "DECKS SL" and has a fixed color assigned to it (black). So far so good. However, the contents of block "Group-485-1" also consists of block references, this time referencing block "Group-482-1" on layer "SCENERY" with fixed color set to white. Block "Group-482-1" in turn, contains polylines and lines, all with fixed color set to white.

There are a lot of white entities in that drawing (some are white because they are on white layers, others have fixed colors assigned to them). Some of the entities are nested in blocks. Now some of these white entities should be printed in black, others in white (background of labels). Needless to say, this will not work.

Where to go from here

- To make entity attributes manageable again, all entity attributes should be set to "By Layer". There are really very few exceptions to this rule in CAD.
- Make sure all layers you want to be printed black have their color set to black. In other words, avoid white layers. The only exception being the layer which you have used for the background of the labels and chosen to name "Hatch".

I've attached a drawing file with these adjustments automatically made (all entity attributes by layer, white layers made black). This might or might not be the intended result, but should for sure make it easier to manage entity attributes. If you do have entities on the same layer but with different colors, you should split those up onto separate layers. Feel free to use this automatically fixed file or make the necessary changes manually, step by step and make sure nothing is unintentionally changed in the process.

[jkohler85]

Morning Andrew,

Thanks very much both for the explanation and the fixed file, I did not come here expecting that kind of support that is incredibly kind of you.

We've unearthed another item I could use some support on, which is why several layers are married to Scenery in this file! That is something I noticed yesterday earlier in the day and could not get to the bottom of.

No need to "fix it" for me but if you can help talk me through that a little more, or the steps to unmarry them that'd be awesome.

Cheers!

Josh

[jkohler85]

Also woohooooooo!

[jkohler85]

Hi again,

Another day same issue.

I am trying very hard to be a good student here. All my layers are set to black, and my objects are all set to color by layer and yet . . . . . it's not working.

I understand part of the issue is I am using drawings with a ton of blocks but very confused again about what next steps to take.

Drawing attached.

UGH ( I love life)

Josh

[jkohler85]

File attached

[jkohler85]

Or not . . . . this time?

[Husky]

Hi Josh,

I am trying very hard to be a good student here.

Don't worry about that - we can see that.

... and my objects are all set to color by layer and yet . . . . . it's not working.

Nope - there are still blocks with fixed color attributes in white.

Husky-2017.09.27-01.png (48.5 KiB) Viewed 8200 times

Husky-2017.09.27-02.png (57.19 KiB) Viewed 8200 times

I haven't checked all blocks ...

I noticed also that you had used blocks to built new blocks. I would call that a block in block constellation. That is technically possible but I wouldn't recommend that - you'll lose the overlook.
If you need to built a new block with the content of an existing block (what is not wrong!) then do yourself a favor and explode it before you save it as a new block .... what means .... less headache!

And ...
... I've seen that the reference points at your block are way of - is that on purpose?

Husky-2017.09.27-03.png (62.57 KiB) Viewed 8200 times

Husky-2017.09.27-04.png (62.16 KiB) Viewed 8200 times

[jkohler85]

Hey Husky,

The drawings pre-date me so they contain a lot of blocks and block refs that until this thread I didn't know much about. I have been working on exploding them as I go along but since there are seemingly so many block entanglements I suppose I am struggling a little bit.

Would you suggest a way to do a universal change to them or is going in and adjusting every blocks properties the only solution.

When I say I have changed them all what I mean is that I had selected everything, opened the inspector, and there adjusted to color by layer. Though you've confirmed what I suspected it was not far reaching enough to achieve what I was hoping for.

Also, as far as the reference points being off, usually when I open a .DWG in Q-Cad it does not land on the print area, so I drag it over and move it onto that surface area. Perhaps though that's just moving the objects and not the reference points, I really am a novice CAD user at the end of the day so perhaps I'm over-complicating things, for example sometimes in doing this I add so much to the clipboard the whole program crashes.

Anyway I will take a look at the Block layers, that information should be helpful thank you, and this thread has been a great help so far.

Josh

[jkohler85]

Eureka!

I am having some kind of a break through! I see that the more block layers I explode the more control I have over the color, and slowly but surely I appear to be getting there.

Josh