HPGL Pen Assignment Dialog

The Pen Assignment Dialog specifies attributes (color and width) to the pens used in an HPGL file, either directly or by means of an EasyCopy Pen Profile.

To open the dialog you must select Pen Assignment in the Image menu.

There are 256 pens. Pen 0 is always fixed: white (invisible) and a defined width of 0.25 mm. It is not shown. Pen 1, 2, ... 255 can be defined in this dialog and (optionally) saved in a profile. These pens are shown in the scrollable table in the left-hand sid of the dialog.

EasyHPGL will use a set of default pens or pen definitions in the HPGL file (if any) as long as you do not select a Pen Profile and do not change any pens or their order. If you select a profile or make changes it will no longer take pen definitions in the HPGL file into account.

Changing the Color of a Pen

Select the pen you want to change by pressing the corresponding row in the table.

Set the desired RGB values directly in the fields R, G, and B, or press the Colors button to open the Color Selection dialog.
Yoy will see that the new color is reflected both in the sample to the right of the RGB values and in the table.

Changing the Width of a Pen

Select the pen you want to change by pressing the corresponding row in the table.
Type the desired width in millimeters, inches, or points in the Pen Width field near the right-hand side of the dialog.
The width is always displayed in millimeter units in the table.

Changing the Order of Pen Definitions

Select the pen you want to move by pressing the corresponding row in the table.
Press the up or down arrow to move the pen up or down.
If you move pen number i up it becomes pen number i-1, and the previous pen number i-1 becomes pen number i.
If you move pen number i down it becomes pen number i+1, and the previous pen number i+1 becomes pen number i.

Using a Profile
When you open this dialog the first time there is no profile used (the Profile drop-down menu displays (none).

You may select a profile from the menu. The selected profile will be loaded and its pen definitions will be shown in the table.

EasyCopy is installed with these predefined profiles:

Autodesk: This profile corresponds to the default settings when an HPGL file is made by an Autodesk® product like AutoCAD®.
CorelDraw: This profile corresponds to the default settings when an HPGL file is made by CorelDraw® version 8.

You can make your own additional profiles (refer to Creating new profiles below), or your System Administrator can make additional profiles available to all users of an EasyCopy installation.

When such additional profiles exist they also appear in the drop-down list.

Reset All
Press this button to get back to the default state (no profile selected, no pens changed).

The default pens correspond to the Autodesk profile.

There is one important difference between choosing the Autodesk profile and the default state: Pen definitions in the HPGL file itself will only apply in the default state.

Creating New Profiles

Press the button Create New to create a new EasyCopy Pen Profile.

The following prompt appears:

Type a unique name (as you want it to appear in the profile drop-down menu), and click OK.

You will now have a profile of the specified name, and this new profile will be selected.

Its contents will be the same as the pen definitions you had before you pressed Create New. If you want to specify further changes you may do so, but they will only be written to the profile if Save Changed Profile is checked when you exit the dialog by pressing OK.

The profiles you create will be saved in your home directory. They are thus a kind of personal settings.

If you are logged on as System Administrator the profiles will be saved in EasyCopy's system directory, and thus be available to all users.

Saving Changes to a Profile
If you have write permissions to the selected profile (this will normally only be the case for the profiles you have created yourself) changes in the pen attributes and pen order will by default be saved when you press OK and exit the dialog.

You can prevent that changes are saved if you disable Save Changed Profile.

The Save Changed Profile is not available if you do have write permission.

Removing a Profile
Press Remove Profile to remove the selected profile. This button is is only available if you have write permissions to the profile (this will normally only be the case for the profiles you have created yourself).