creating color pdf's

Hi CJ, here are the steps:

1. Load Print dialog box (File/ Print)
2. select Bentley Driver from the Printer & Paper Pulldown
3. Go to Pen table/Attach and choose the pen table you want to use or create a new pen table specific for this type of print output.
4. On the Pen Table dialog select map pen colours
5. press create if there is nothing defined in the new window
6. Select pen 0 then press ctrl+a to select all pens
7. Press Edit  & Select the 2nd pull down from top and choose define pen colour
8. The Colour will be black by default so just press ok.
9. Press ok again to return to the Modify Pen table dialog
10. Press the Levels button on the Element Select Criteria tab and select only the level you want to print red
11. On the Element Output Action tab Tick Colour and set the colour to RGB values of 255,0,0
12. If you have filled shapes on this same level and want them to print red repeat step 11 for the fill colour item below
13. Press ok and on it go to file/save (not the normal Microstation File Menu!) to save the pen table.
14. Press the red X at the top right to close the dialog box and you should be ready to print the PDF as desired.

I've attached a pen table using the above steps that you can use (remember to change the current  in the pen table 'red level' to your desired level name).

HTH

Barry

Hi CJ, here are the steps:

1. Load Print dialog box (File/ Print)
2. select Bentley Driver from the Printer & Paper Pulldown
3. Go to Pen table/Attach and choose the pen table you want to use or create a new pen table specific for this type of print output.
4. On the Pen Table dialog select map pen colours
5. press create if there is nothing defined in the new window
6. Select pen 0 then press ctrl+a to select all pens
7. Press Edit  & Select the 2nd pull down from top and choose define pen colour
8. The Colour will be black by default so just press ok.
9. Press ok again to return to the Modify Pen table dialog
10. Press the Levels button on the Element Select Criteria tab and select only the level you want to print red
11. On the Element Output Action tab Tick Colour and set the colour to RGB values of 255,0,0
12. If you have filled shapes on this same level and want them to print red repeat step 11 for the fill colour item below
13. Press ok and on it go to file/save (not the normal Microstation File Menu!) to save the pen table.
14. Press the red X at the top right to close the dialog box and you should be ready to print the PDF as desired.

I've attached a pen table using the above steps that you can use (remember to change the current  in the pen table 'red level' to your desired level name).

HTH

Barry

barry,

thanks for the reply! you are on the right track. we have working tbl file. the problem lies in a setting somewhere. what is happening is that after loading the tbl (like described) the preview shows everything color. under general setting & color: we tried all 3 options. the monochrome setting makes all black-no color red. the funny thing (beyond this whole ordeal) is the any of us can log into a different machine & it will work-in some cases! we think the tbl file is good but can not figure out why it does not work consistantly from machine ot machine......

thanks for your time & any other suggestions you (or anyone else) may have....

county-jake

THe fastest easiest most hassle free way for me to do it is to set up level overrides. I just switch level manager to display the overrides then I set all levels to color 0 except the level(s) I want red. I set that to the color red, turn on overrides in view attributes and print.

If you use level libraries and bylevel color settings, you can just change the colors in LM under the bylevel tab the same as described above, print your file and then update your levels to reset the colors.

mwlong,

thanks for the reply... is what you are saying also possible by level filters??? or maybe some sort of view window perimeters maybe? i will try your idea, like mentioned that might actually be easier.

thanks!!

anymore thoughts from anyone....

overall we did find the problem...... somehow the tbl file had all the colors "checked" instead of just the color number we designated as red so i think it was reading them all to be color instead of just the level checked....

thanks!!

county-jake

Unknown said:

thanks for the reply... is what you are saying also possible by level filters???

Not sure what you mean by this. We have level libraries that we reference to level manager. That way the levels can not be deleted or permanently changed in our working files. This allows us to modify color, weight, linestyle (bylevel or overrides). Then if we want the levels set back to original we can just update the levels in LM. A lot of times I want to print everything black except certain elements I may have questions about so I just set all colors to 0 in LM except those elements make my print (whether pdf or directly to the printer) and then update my levels to reset the file. You can not do this sort of "custom" on the fly set up with pen tables in that short of a time span.

Mike