Altium Printing pcb pdf problem

[joy_shukla]

hi i want to print pdf of the pcb in altium summer 2009..
the problem here is holes in this pdf are of gray color .. i want it to be white ..
in dxp 2004 there is a layer called "pad hole layer" so i used to change the color of this layer to white .. & it was working fine .. but in altium summer 2009 there is no layer called pad hole leyer ..

i change color of the layer by below sequence
file->page setup->advanced->preferances

in this menu i change the color of the layers ..

pls help

 

[joy_shukla]

By changing color in that pannel , we can change the color in the view .. i need white color in the print out not in on view configuration .. Thank you

 

[joy_shukla]

hi
i tried what you said , but it's not working ..
In altium 2004 there was a "pad hole" layer in preferences .. in altium 2009 , there is no layer like this in print out preference .. that is the problem .. Thank you

 

[justinc]

Post is old, but following lines might still be useful.

I first printed to pdf (with PrimoPDF), and then converted pdf to eps with gs (conversion to ps with "pdf2ps" would probably work too).
Holes had RGB color of [30 70 104], and there were line like "30 70 104 rG" in the eps file. So I replaced those lines with "255 255 255 rG" using sed program.
This was done using Cygwin.

Commands:

cd /cygdrive/c/something
gs -dNOPAUSE -dNOCACHE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=epswrite -sOutputFile=PCB-Prints.eps PCB-Prints.pdf
cat PCB-Prints.eps | sed 's/30 70 104 rG/255 255 255 rG/' > PCB-Prints-2.eps

Regards, Justin

 

[Rakoribs]

hi i want to print pdf of the pcb in altium summer 2009..
the problem here is holes in this pdf are of gray color .. i want it to be white ..
in dxp 2004 there is a layer called "pad hole layer" so i used to change the color of this layer to white .. & it was working fine .. but in altium summer 2009 there is no layer called pad hole leyer ..
i change color of the layer by below sequence
file->page setup->advanced->preferances
in this menu i change the color of the layers ..
pls help

I know this is an old thread, but as the question was also of interest to me, someone else may find this answer useful in a similar google search.

This is how I have just managed it (on DXP10, patched up to date as of Nov 2012):-

1. I don’t use the same colours assigned on my pcb design as on my pcb layer print out pdf's.
So, start by making a backup copy of the pcb (.PcbDoc) & cam outjob (.OutJob) for reference of original layer print colours used.

2. On your pcb design (.PcbDoc) - set the colours assigned ("View Configuration", bottom left corner coloured block, just to the left of the layerset button).
On the "System Colours" section (bottom right hand side) there is "Pad Holes" & "Via Holes" assignments - change these to the colour you want in your pcb layer prints.
White, to show there is no copper there, black to make them stand out, or maybe dark blue if you use black for the silkscreen on the pcb print pdf (as I do).
Using dark blue, I can see what are specifically drill holes in the print.

3. In the .OutJob - I'll assume you have already setup your pcb layer pdf print line entry (in "Fabrication Outputs" section).
Double click on the line entry to get the "PCB Print Properties" > Preferences (colour assignments for prints available here).
Click the "Retrieve Layer Colours From PCB" and the holes will now print in the colour you chose in the .pcbdoc.
Although there is no preferences option for via/pad holes, the colour change still comes through okay.
If you don’t normally use the same colours in your .pcbdoc as in your pcb layer pdf prints - you'll have to edit the other colour assignments to match your preference.

My problem now is that i still can't show via's in an SMT pad for pcb layer prints, so you can't show they are there in a pcb print.
There is no option to do this, the via 'pad' & 'hole' (hole tickbox) are covered over by any other present layers like copper or paste.
This 2004 "pad hole layer" would have been useful for this as I could have set it up as the highest priority layer in the pdf print.

Regards, Mark.

EDIT: Beware, it turns out that the "Preferences" for .outjob pcb print colour assignments isn't saved with the outjob file - it is a global system setting and the changes made will be in affect for all other projects outjob pcb prints as well.