Certain vector images, such as AutoCAD DWG/DXF, HPGL, Calcomp 906/907, and DGN files, contain lines known as vector pens. You can control how these vector pens appear when a vector document is displayed, printed, or rasterized. For example, you can distinguish colored pens when printing to a black and white printer by assigning the pens new widths and patterns.
Vector pens in HPGL and Calcomp 906/907 files can have color, width and dashing patterns applied to individual pens using INI file settings. These settings are applied when the documents are loaded, and can either be in a predefined INI file, or set using a series of functions.
If you want to define settings to individual pens, and these same settings can be used for display, printing, and rasterization, then INI file settings will meet your requirements. For details, see Selecting vector pen settings.
After a document is loaded, you can assign a pen mapping table to it. Pen mapping tables are used to translate specific vector document pens during rasterization, display, or print. Pen mapping overrides any INI file settings.
If you want to define different settings for display, printing, and rasterization for individual pens in a specific document, then use pen mapping tables. For details, see Mapping vector pens.
Next, any pen mask tables that have been loaded into memory can be applied. Mask tables, however, are not applied to a specific document but rather to a specific type of output: display, printing, or rasterization. Mask table settings override both pen mapping tables and INI file settings.
If you want to map vector pens of a specific color to different colors or patterns for a specific type of output--display, printing, or rasterization--for all documents, then mask tables will meet your requirements. Pen mapping tables give you the highest level of control over vector pens. For details, see Defining vector pens using mask tables.
Finally, any display, print, or rasterize command that is applied to a document, either through user interaction or through API commands, overrides all of the other settings. For example, if you set the display to Monochrome, this turns all of your vector pens black and white, even if you have defined the pens as a different color for display.
See also