Expert: Bill DeShawn - 11/20/2008

Question
I created many layouts and used layer states to show different layers, using VP freeze. The problem now is I need all layers to be black in all layouts, as I want to have everything in black so printing in black and white doesn't have some objects looking faded. I changed all the layers to black, but of course the VP color is still different for each layout. I don't know what the best way would be to change all the layout VP colours.Maybe if there was a way to apply a layer state to multiple layouts, as I could change my layer states to all VP black but having to restore each layout one at a time would be really time consuming. Thanks in advance

Answer
Joey:
By your description, I am guessing that you are using color-dependent plotting.  To make things plot the way you want to, it's better to create ctb files that plot the colors as black.  Go ahead and leave Dither and Grayscale on, Pen # and Virtual Pen # can be Automatic.  Screening should be 100% if you don't want any gray objects.  Use object Linetye, Adaptive can be off, you can select the lineweight for the object color right there.  Use object line, join and fill styles.

If you need something gray, just adjust your shading.  This is better than changing your layer colors because it will be ready to use every time you need to plot that way.  Use page setups and save away drawings in a page setup folder that you have reserved specifically for pagsetup drawings.  Use the SAVE command / not the SAVEAS command to save a copy of your current drawing.  Name the pagesetup drawing as you would the pagesetup itself.  For example: if your plotter is an RW240 and you plot to a window on 24x36 at a scale of 1:48, and in Paper Space, name your pagesetup like this:
RW240_W_24x36_48_PS and name your drawing the same.  Use the PSETUPIN command to retrieve page setups from page setup drawings.

The approach you were taking, might work for one drawing, but next time, you'd have to set the layer filters up all over again, and the next drawing, again, and again, and again.  Page setups and plot styles are a much more efficient way of doing the job and a huge time-saver by comparison.

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Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn