Change line width for printed drawings

You can change the line width (pen number) for printing. To do this, open the Print Drawings dialog box and go to the Line properties tab:

The base line default width is 0.01, and this can be changed using the advanced option XS_BASE_LINE_WIDTH. For example, to get the line width of 0.25 mm, enter the number 25.

Set the line width shown on the screen

The line width that you see in the drawing is not the real line width that you get in the printed drawing. There is a way to affect how the lines are shown in the drawing.

To be able to set the line width (pen number) for the drawings in a Tekla Structures model:

1. Take old printing into use by setting the advanced option XS_USE_OLD_PLOT_DIALOG to TRUE.
2. Define the line settings for the first printer in the list.

   

3. Take new printing into use by setting the advanced option XS_USE_OLD_PLOT_DIALOG to FALSE.
4. Go to the File menu and check if the Printer line widths switch is selected. This switch takes the settings from the old printer dialog settings. If Printer line widths is not selected, the line widths are only shown in black and white mode, if selected, the line widths are shown for all color modes.

   You can toggle between color modes by pressing B.

The file plotdev.bin in ..\ProgramData\Trimble\Tekla Structures\<version>\environments\default\system contains some predefined line widths for the first printer instance. These are not the same that you use for printing, unless you use defaults in the Print Drawings dialog box.

You can save printer definitions file plotdev.bin in the current model folder or in the project and firm folders, and in a folder indicated by the advanced option XS_DRIVE. Tekla Structures searches first for plotdev.bin in the model, project and firm folders, then in the folder indicated by the advanced option.

	Without line width (pen number) set up in plotdev.bin	With settings for line width for the first printer in plotdev.bin
Color
Grayscale
Black and white