Background drawing

[Golestan]

Hi,
What is the correct way to faint-out the background of a floor plan, so I can do the MEP plan on top of what I get from an architect. The file I get from an architect usualy has many layers and many colors.
I want the paper plot (in black & white) to have faint background and dark MEP lines.

Thanks,

 

[borgunit]

You could print in "color" and the things you wish to be bold should be black while the rest would be colors (they print in greys from a B/W printer). Control it with some PlotStyle you could create. A thought off the top of my head.

"Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." — Will Rogers

 

[ptmoss]

XRef the architects drawing and change all those layers to a color or colors (I use a few of the grays) that will plot out at 50% screened. Or more or less screened as you desire. You can do your work on top of the XRef and it should look the way you want.

The XRef layers will all start with the name of the drawing so they're all grouped together, hence easy to manipulate all at once.

Of course, if your plotting is object based instead of color based then you'll need a different plan of attack (for which I can be of zero help)!

 

[IFRs]

You can print both their and your drawing to pdf files and use theirs as a background inserted on yours. Acrobat will allow you to choose the transparency of the background.