The widths actually look correct based on Rhino’s current rule for determining print output widths. The current rule is when widths are defined in pixels, use print weight when printing. I realize this is not obvious and even Mary wrote up a bug report as she thought it was wrong as well.
What did you expect the thickness to be when printing for the above image? Maybe we can figure out what is expected and adjust the printing system to allow for this.
Running Last Night’s Build Rhino 8, 8.4.23362.18001
1- Create a Linetype 100 Pixel Thick and Assign it to an object
2- Attempting a print to Rhino PDF both in Raster and Vector Format with 300 DPI
3- The Expected result would be a thick line that is 1/3 of an inch.
Instead, I get a hairline width instead.
Ok; so you need some sort of way to completely ignore print width for an object/layer and just directly use the pixel width when printing. Is that correct?
We had this in the print dialog at one point where you could specify:
use print weight
don’t use print weight and here’s a scale to apply for pixel width items.
People found that confusing so we removed the controls and went with the use print weight for pixel width linetypes rule. We can always try hooking up the UI again to see if it was a mistake to remove it.
I might be a fan of the new Line Type Potential, ever since the “_TestFancyCurves” Days. I think that, since we chose this path, we should make the Print Width / Print Preview obsolete (Legacy), and maybe keep Backward Compatibility? or have a Linetype upgrade command?”
The usage potential of the new Thickness Settings can be broken into 3 use cases.
1- Set RealWorld Dimensions for Curves, this is great for Pathways, Streets, Pipes, Duct, Conduits… etc. It can serve as a superior alternative for AutoCAD’s Polyline Widths. so, Let’s Say you define a Street Line with a Thickness of 20 Feet, your model will show you a 20’ Thick Curve in Model Units, and on the Layouts, this value gets scaled to match the Detail’s Viewport Scale.
2- Set A Consistent Print Thickness independent of the scale, (This is the Current Case in V8) usually in mm, you specify a 0.5mm thickness of the Lines, this will show up 0.5mm in Model, Layout and the Printing output.
3- Set a Pixel Width for Raster Outputs and Viewport Captures. Great use for getting line thickness properly controlled according to the desired exports. This tread id discussing that, Define a raster output thickness and forget,
I would appreciate having more explicit settings / switches on the Linetype Panels & the Print Settings to ensure that the user’s desired outcome for the previous 3 situations is achieved.
This is the way Rhino works now, with the exception current defects (bugs) and the pixel width Linetypes. Outside of this, you should not be seeing differences in printed widths between model and layout. If you do, I need a small file to see it here.
#3Pixel width in Enhanced Linetypes are intended for screen capture only.
This is why objects assigned to Linetypes with Pixel widths do not Print Preview or Print.
They are not used by the printing mechanism currently. However they were in the beta and feedback was that was too confusing.
I believe it is also confusing to see the pixel thickness on the screen and not know why it is not printing. This defies the WYSIWYG assumption that we have had for a very long line.
So this is the predicament we are in right now.
Since I know now that Pixel widths are not indented for printings, and mostly what I do is print to PDF or hardcopy, I will steer clean of Pixel widths. If you do a lot of screen captures, then maybe that is what you prefer to use.
Let us know if this helps.
Thanks,
Mary Ann Fugier
maybe there should be a “output behaviour” property for the linetypes ?
(next to the width / weight ?)
I don t like the idea of setting something in the linetypes but still depend on the print settings.
A output behaviour could also be dependent on wether it is print, pdf export, viewcapture, …
Beside the 3 mentioned use cases, there could be an additional output behaviour “defined by print dialog” …
I Agree as well, even If I’m doing screen captures, I still prefer to set my line according to either 1) Model Dimensions or 2) Paper Dimensions . So I hope the confusion will be clear once the focus is shifted towards Items placed under use cases 1 & 2
@tay.othman
As far as I can tell, printing linetype model width works in Rhino 8 with one exception:and that is being able to preview model width on the Layout. (I can post a model if you want to try it.)
Also be aware that you can print model widthorpixel width, they can not be mixed into the same print. You pick this in the Print dialog.
You can print:
Print and Print Preview model width with the Print dialog option, when you pick Linewidth in Model lengths.
What is missing: Previewing Model Widths on the Layout is not possible right now.
So you have to head into print, not knowing if the printed output will really look the way you want. So 1980’s here .
This IMO makes it unusable for those that have adopted Layouts.
If you, print from model, you might be ok with the way it is now.
A model linewidth of 6" in an inches model on a layout with a detail scale of 1/4"=1’ or 1=48 looks like this. The bottom view port is a linetype with a 1" width. So it is previewing 1" on the layout units, not 1" in the model units.
If we can get an option to preview the Model width on the Layout, I think this will be ready to go. This is an Open issue RH-79366
I am looking for a test command or an advanced setting to resolve with deficit in Rhino 8.
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