Currently ProE/Parametric have "use_software_linefonts" config.pro option to force WYSIWYG plotting of linestyles into hardcopy. The linestyle you use in the ProE feature or drawing will be the linestyle you see on the hardcopy. Unfortunately, there's nothing similar for the "Export" function, meaning that neither PDF nor PVZ can reproduce the linestyle used inside of ProE. CAD users can choose from many different linestyles, but this information is lost during the conversion to PDF/PVZ. We wanted to migrate from AutoCAD to ProE for manufacturing overlay design, but are struggling to do that without WYSIWYG PDF output.
For PDF, I'm using the old fashioned workaround of dedicating a specific drawing color to a specific linestyle, and then hard-coding the dashing through a pentable assignment that matches my needs for the one specific linestyle. This approach is extremely inflexible and limited. It requires consistent upfront training of users to avoid using that specific color for anything unless they desire a dashed line. Users ALL need to understand that their PDF and PVZ will not match their ProE model and drawing...
Creo View Adapter has no workaround that I'm aware of, since it does not allow for the same type of configured linestyle via pen mapping, so there's no way to get a specific linestyle displayed in the PDMLink viewable.
My ideal case would be to either always export as-is linefonts or to implement something like "use_software_linefonts" that could be leveraged by both automated PDF export and Creo View Adapters.
Example below shows ProE drawing. Model "sketch" features had used "dashfont_s_s" linestyle for all horizontal lines shown dashed here. User is happy with drawing display within ProE window. Notice different colors assigned here to demonstrate the default condition and pen mapping workaround.
PDF example below uses pentable to give acceptable short-short dashes as intended by using "dashfont_s_s" in ProE feature. Red arrows highlight manually changed line colors to match "highlite_color," drawing a specific mapped pen assignment:
pen 4 thickness 0.005 in; pattern 0.08 0.08 in; highlite_color
Yellow arrows show default "section" line color, still giving unacceptable default long-dash result.
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