How should CAD be set up during printing to make one’s drawings visible and the drawings look attractive?

To make the drawing clearer, increase the line width； To make a drawing look good, it’s necessary to set up the layers first; it’s a matter of color coordination. Personal recommendation: thick solid line – white, thin solid line – yellow, dashed line – blue, hatched line – green, center line – red, double dash line – pink; such layer settings yield a great drawing quality. When setting up printing, select “Window”, choose the paper size (A4, A3...), and then select centered printing

Follow the specifications for drawing: lines should be as thick as required, the size of the text should be appropriate, and the font size in labels, material lists, and instructions should be consistent. The proportional layout of the front view, sectional views, and other views on the drawing should be appropriate. What is more important in a drawing is that its content be clearly expressed.

Just use the window selection in the printing settings

The main thing is to set up the layers properly – items of the same type are placed on one layer, which makes it convenient to adjust things like line width and color. Then, the line widths of the main lines are increased to make them thicker or thinner, thereby highlighting the key elements.

Making a printed drawing look good is not a matter of print settings, but rather of layer settings during drawing, as well as the combination of line thickness, line style, arrow sizes for annotations, and text size. When creating a drawing, if the line style and thickness are set according to standards, the printed result will have a sense of depth; it will be easy to tell which elements are primary and which are secondary, and the structure will be clear at a glance.

Reposting the three most fundamental principles for using AUTOCAD software: “clarity,” “accuracy,” and “efficiency.” I’ve received a task and am about to start drawing; I’m not sure what everyone would do as the first step. There are probably many people who start drawing right away, but that’s not correct. Various settings should be made, including layers, line styles, fonts, labels, and so on. It is essential to make various settings; only when these settings are appropriate can a solid foundation be laid for our subsequent drawing work, making it possible to achieve clarity, accuracy, and efficiency in what follows. Let’s talk about layers first. It can be said that the definition of layers is the most crucial setting in the entire AUTOCAD software, and I’ve found that not many of our company’s employees have their layer settings organized in a clear and systematic manner. Sometimes, when I open the DWG files of certain colleagues, I see dozens of layers; upon closer inspection, I find that most of the elements are on layer 0, which is really amusing. As for whether elements should be on different layers or on the same layer, there are countless similar issues – things that should be on one layer but yet aren’t. What are the principles for setting layers? First, as long as it is sufficient, less is better. Regardless of the specialty or the stage of the drawings, all elements in the drawings can be organized and structured according to certain rules. For example, in architectural drawings, in the case of floor plans, elements can be divided into columns, walls, axes, dimension markings, general annotations, lines indicating doors and windows, furniture, etc. In other words, for the floor plans in architecture, layers are defined based on elements such as columns, walls, axes, dimension markings, general text, door and window lines, and furniture. When drawing, each element is placed on the appropriate layer according to its category. Once all the elements in the drawing can be properly categorized, the foundation for layer settings is established. But, is the more detailed the element classification, the better? No. For example, on a building floor plan, there are doors and windows, as well as lines representing steps and stairs; should these be divided into layers for doors, windows, steps, and stairs? No. Too many layers can actually cause inconvenience in our subsequent drawing process. Just like doors, windows, steps, and stairs – although they are not of the same type, they all relate to lines, so they can be managed using the same layer. Therefore, the first principle of layer settings is to keep it as simple as possible while still being sufficient. Two meanings: 1. Sufficient ； 2. Streamline. The situation varies for each major, so everyone can think for themselves about what is relatively the most reasonable approach. Second, the use of layer 0. Many colleagues like to draw on layer 0, as it is the default layer and white is the default color for that layer; therefore, sometimes the display screen appears completely white. Doing this is absolutely not advisable. Layer 0 cannot be used for drawing; then what is Layer 0 used for? It is used to define blocks. When defining a block, set all elements to layer 0 first (except in special cases), and then define the block; this way, when the block is inserted, it will be on the same layer as that at which it was inserted. Third, the definition of layer colors. Layer settings have many attributes; in addition to the layer name, there are also color, line style, line width, and so on. When setting up layers, we need to define the corresponding color, line style, and line width. These days, many colleagues choose the colors for layers based on their personal preferences, using whatever color they like; this approach is not reasonable. When defining the colors of layers, two things need to be kept in mind: first, different layers should generally use different colors. By doing this, we can make a clear distinction in color when drawing. If two layers are the same color, it is difficult to determine which layer the element being manipulated is on when displaying it. The second point in defining layer colors is that the choice of color should be based on the thickness of the line width during printing. When printing, the wider the line width setting, the brighter color should be chosen for that layer ； Conversely, if the width of that line is only 0.09 mm during printing, then the color for that layer should be color number 8 or a similar color. Why do we have to do this? This allows the thickness of the line to be visually reflected on the screen. For example, take a look at the attached figure. The column layers (ZU) and wall layers (WA) are the thickest when printed; one of them is colored yellow and the other cyan – these two colors are quite bright in AUTOCAD. The line width for the filler layer (h) and the furniture layer (fur) during printing is set at 0.13 mm; therefore, darker colors No. 8 and No. 83 are also used when selecting colors. The benefits of doing this will become apparent to everyone as they use it over time. (Haha, let me explain: when printing on sulfuric acid paper, it is displayed in grayscale, so brighter colors appear lighter when printed, which is suitable for thicker lines.) ； Dark colors produce a darker print, suitable for finer lines ； The images printed in this way have clear black, white, and gray tones; they are crisp and easy to understand, and it also saves ink. As a cheap imitation, ^_^) Additionally, white belongs to layer 0 and the DEFPOINTS layer; we should not allow other layers to use white. Fourth, the settings for line shape and line width. Before discussing the linear settings for layers, let’s first talk about the LTSCALE command. Generally, the value of LTSCALE should be set to 1, so as to avoid confusion when exchanging drawings. There are three common line types: the first is the continuous line, the second is the ACAD_IS002W100 dash-dot line, and the third is the ACAD_IS004W100 dashed line. Options such as hidden and dot, which were used in the previous 14 versions of CAD, are not recommended. There are also particular considerations regarding the setting of line width. One of the key factors in determining whether a drawing is attractive and clear is whether it has distinct layers. In one diagram, there are thin lines with a width of 0.13, lines of medium width at 0.25, and thick lines at 0.35, which adds variety. At a glance at the printed drawings, it is possible to distinguish different types of elements based on the thickness of the lines: where the walls are, where the doors and windows are, and where the annotations are. Therefore, when setting the line width, we must specify the thickness clearly. If a drawing with only one type of line width can still be described as passable, then it’s incorrect when the lines for doors and windows are thicker than those for walls. There is one more thing we need to pay attention to. Currently, we have two options for printing diagrams: one is to print them at a specific scale, in which case we can use line widths of 0.13\0.25\0.4 and similar thicknesses. If we print in A3 format without following the proportional scale, the line width should be set 0.09\0.15\0.3 smaller than that used when following the proportions, so that the smaller images appear clear and distinct. When setting layers, there are mainly the above aspects to pay attention to. Additionally, when drawing, there is one more thing to keep in mind: all the various attributes of the elements should preferably be tied to the layers. Don’t use this wire; it belongs to the WA layer, its color is yellow, and its shape has changed to a dashed line. Try to keep the properties of elements consistent with those of the layers; in other words, make the element properties Bylayer as much as possible. This helps to improve the clarity, accuracy, and efficiency of our graphics.

When using a black-and-white printer, make sure to change the color of everything to white; otherwise, some colors will appear pale when printed.