The drawing looks right on screen, yet the print comes out with hair-thin lines, patchy colours, and a 3D view that is blurry and oddly heavy. Nearly every plotting fault lives in a few boxes of one dialog. This article covers how to plot in AutoCAD box by box through the Plot dialog, and checks each setting by actually plotting to PDF and reading the file back.
The picture above shows one drawing, six settings, six different results. For the full workflow from geometry to a plotted drawing set, the Institute runs an AutoCAD course for construction.
The PLOT command in AutoCAD and where to find it
The plot command in AutoCAD is PLOT. The 2027 acad.pgp and acad.cuix files give these routes.
| Route | Where |
|---|---|
| Full name | PLOT |
| Alias | PRINT |
| Ribbon | Output → Plot → Plot |
| Classic menu | File → Plot |
| Toolbars | Standard → Plot, Standard Annotation → Plot |
All of them open the same Plot dialog. There is also a command-line version, -PLOT, which asks for each setting in turn; the next section uses it to show the order of the boxes.
The seven boxes of the Plot dialog, in order
The table lists the Plot dialog boxes in the order -PLOT asks for them. The middle column quotes the 2027 prompts verbatim; the last column gives a sensible setting for an ordinary building drawing.
| Plot dialog box | -PLOT prompt | Set it to |
|---|---|---|
| Printer/plotter | Enter an output device name or [?] | A real printer, or DWG To PDF.pc3 for a PDF |
| Paper size | Enter paper size or [?] | The sheet, e.g. ISO full bleed A3 (420.00 x 297.00 MM) |
| Drawing orientation | Enter drawing orientation [Portrait/Landscape] | To match the title block |
| Plot area | Enter plot area [Display/Extents/Limits/View/Window] | Window or Extents when plotting from Model |
| Plot scale | Enter plot scale (Plotted Millimeters=Drawing Units) or [Fit] | A real scale if you measure on paper; Fit to just look |
| Plot offset | Enter plot offset (x,y) or [Center] | Tick Center the plot |
| Plot style table | Enter plot style table name or [?] (enter . for none) | A plot style table, e.g. monochrome.ctb |
Three more questions follow: whether to plot lineweights (Plot with lineweights?), the shading mode (Enter shade plot setting), and the file name when plotting to PDF.
On plot area, Autodesk's Plot dialog documentation says Extents "Plots the portion of the current space of the drawing that contains objects." Fit to Paper "Scales the plot to fit within the selected paper size", so the scale becomes an odd number you cannot measure on paper. The 4000-unit sample drawing plotted with Fit on A3 gives an effective plotting area of 420.00 wide by 210.01 high, filling the sheet's width.
Black-and-white plots: the plot style table decides the colour on paper
The sample drawing has three lines in red, green and blue. Plotting it to PDF twice, changing only the plot style table, and reading each line's colour back from the file:
| Plot style table | Colour of the three lines in the PDF |
|---|---|
None (.) | Red, green and blue, unchanged |
monochrome.ctb | All three black |
Without a plot style table, the printer receives each line's colour and treats it however it likes. With monochrome.ctb, every vector line is already black in the file you send. Plot style tables do much more, such as assigning lineweights by colour; see our article on plot styles.
Plot object lineweights: one tick changes the whole sheet
The three lines are assigned 0.13 mm, 0.35 mm and 0.70 mm. Plotting twice, changing only the answer to Plot with lineweights?:
| Plot with lineweights | Line widths read from the PDF |
|---|---|
| Yes | 0.36 pt, 0.96 pt, 2.04 pt, i.e. exactly 0.13 / 0.35 / 0.70 mm |
| No | All three the same thinnest line |
In the Plot dialog this box is Plot object lineweights. Autodesk describes it as "Specifies whether lineweights assigned to objects and layers are plotted." Untick it and every line is equally thin: walls, columns, dimensions and hatches no longer stand apart by weight.
How to plot 3D in AutoCAD: three Shade plot modes
This is the part few articles cover properly. The sample is a 1000 × 1000 × 1000 box in the Conceptual visual style, viewed from SW Isometric. It is plotted three times, once per Shade plot mode.
| Shade plot | What the PDF contains | Size |
|---|---|---|
| As displayed | No lines at all; the whole viewport is one image of 3040 × 2945 pixels | 66 KB |
| legacy Hidden | Vector lines, hidden edges removed | 2 KB |
| legacy Wireframe | Vector lines, back edges shown too | 2 KB |
Autodesk describes As displayed as "Plots objects the way they are displayed on the screen." Because the screen is shaded, AutoCAD captures the viewport as an image before plotting. The file becomes 33 times heavier, and zooming in shows jagged edges, because they are pixels rather than lines. Note also that even with monochrome.ctb, the faces in the As displayed plot stay grey: the plot style table recolours vector lines, not images.
legacy Hidden keeps the plot as vector lines and removes hidden edges automatically. It is the right choice to plot 3D in AutoCAD as a crisp view alongside technical drawings. For true 2D projections, use the FLATSHOT command.
Plotting a shaded viewport As displayed also triggers an extra question that 2D plots never ask: Save changes to page setup? Or set shade plot quality? [Yes/No/Quality]. The Quality setting, per Autodesk, "Specifies the resolution at which shaded and rendered viewports are plotted": it sets the resolution of the part that becomes an image.
A blurry plot: three measured causes
Putting the results together, a "blurry" plot usually comes down to one of three cases.
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Every line equally thin and faint | Plot object lineweights unticked | Tick it again |
| Coloured lines do not print black | No plot style table | Choose monochrome.ctb |
| 3D view fuzzy, jagged, file very heavy | Shade plot = As displayed on a shaded viewport | Switch to legacy Hidden, or raise Quality |
If the drawing sits tiny in the middle of the sheet, it is not blurry but wrongly framed: check Plot area and Plot scale.
Plotting from Model or from a layout
From the Model tab you choose the area and scale every time. From a layout, the sheet, title block and viewport scale are already set, so you just plot. For a multi-sheet set, plotting from layouts is almost always faster and less error-prone. Setting up and plotting layouts is covered in our article on layouts; for dozens of sheets at once, use the batch plot LISP.
On a layout the Plot dialog adds Hide paperspace objects, which Autodesk says "Specifies whether the HIDE operation applies to objects in the paper space viewport" and which is only available from a layout tab.
How to plot in AutoCAD from the command line
-PLOT is worth knowing for scripts and for repeating one setup many times, because every answer can be typed ahead instead of clicked. Answering Y to the first question walks through every setting. The full sequence on the 2027 release, plotting the Model tab to PDF:
Detailed plot configuration? [Yes/No] <No>: Y
Enter a layout name or [?] <Model>: Model
Enter an output device name or [?] <Microsoft Print to PDF>: DWG To PDF.pc3
Enter paper size or [?] <ANSI A (11.00 x 8.50 Inches)>: ISO full bleed A3 (420.00 x 297.00 MM)
Enter paper units [Inches/Millimeters] <Inches>: M
Enter drawing orientation [Portrait/Landscape] <Portrait>: L
Plot upside down? [Yes/No] <No>: N
Enter plot area [Display/Extents/Limits/View/Window] <Display>: E
Enter plot scale (Plotted Millimeters=Drawing Units) or [Fit] <Fit>: F
Enter plot offset (x,y) or [Center] <0.00,0.00>: C
Plot with plot styles? [Yes/No] <Yes>: Y
Enter plot style table name or [?] (enter . for none) <>: monochrome.ctb
Plot with lineweights? [Yes/No] <Yes>: Y
Enter shade plot setting [As displayed/legacy Wireframe/legacy Hidden/Visual styles/Rendered] <As displayed>: A
Enter file name <Drawing7-Model.pdf>:
Save changes to page setup [Yes/No]? <N> N
Proceed with plot [Yes/No] <Y>: YOne trap: with FILEDIA at 1, the file name question opens a Save dialog instead of waiting on the command line, and a script sending the answers stalls there. Set FILEDIA to 0 for scripted plotting, then set it back to 1 when the script has finished.
Three things often repeated that are not true
| Often repeated | What holds on the 2027 release |
|---|---|
| monochrome.ctb turns everything black | Vector lines turn black, but a shaded 3D view plotted As displayed stays a grey image |
| Fit to paper plots at true scale | Fit stretches to the sheet; the scale becomes an odd number |
| A PDF plot is always small | One shaded viewport makes the PDF 33 times heavier because it becomes an image |
Frequently asked questions
What is the quickest way to plot in AutoCAD?
Type PLOT, pick the printer and paper size, set the plot area to Window or Extents, tick Center the plot, choose monochrome.ctb, then click OK.
Why do all my lines plot equally thin?
Plot object lineweights is unticked. Tick it and lineweights plot as assigned.
How do I plot in black and white?
Choose the monochrome.ctb plot style table. Every vector line then plots black.
Why is my 3D plot blurry and the file so large?
Shade plot is As displayed on a shaded viewport, so AutoCAD plots the viewport as an image. Switch to legacy Hidden to keep vector lines.
Does Fit to paper plot at true scale?
No. Fit stretches the drawing to the sheet. Choose a specific scale if you need to measure on paper.
What is the alias for PLOT?
PRINT. On the ribbon it is Output → Plot → Plot.