Print to printer

14.2. Print to printer

The Print command enables to print

the current drawing, or

The current plot layout.

To print to a file, you must configure the target printer or plotter first and define the Page setup, just as if you were going to send print output directly to the plotter

The Print dialog sends the drawing to the current printing device.

Printer

On the top of the dialog you see the type of the printer the paper size and the printable area. The dimensions of the printable area of a particular sheet of paper are simply the dimensions of the paper minus the minimum margins required by the printer.

You can select here the type of the printer tool.

Set

The Setup button displays the MS-Windows standard Printer Setup dialog.

Here you can set up the printer properties.

If You would like to print in file, switch on the here appearing Print to fileoption.

There values are valid for the current printing only!

If you wish to use your new setup continuously, please use the MS-Windows standard Printer dialog (Start menu – Setting – Printers).

2We recommend, that define the sheet size and orientation in the below found Paper size part.

Tiling support

Here you can divide the drawing on several pages.

Define the new paper size. You can define a custom paper size as well.
Click OK to return to the Print dialog. The Tiling button displays the number of pages needed in X and Y direction (e.g. your A4 printer can print an A3 size drawing as 2 pieces of A4 paper, adding the margin!).

&See chapter 14.1.1. Start prepare printing.

2As you wish to use the default paper size of your printer please choose the DEFAULT item in the Paper size list. Any other choice will indicate you need more than one paper to complete the printing.

Paper size

Define the paper size, orientation and number of copies. According to the here defined values, the paper size and printable area information refresh in Printer part.

Orientation

It’s for define the position of drawing. You can select Default or Rotated drawing.

!Don’t confuse the orientation with paper orientation. The first concern to the drawing and the second to the paper sheet.

Window

This area lets you select the optimal enclosing box or the current window size of drawing to print

Entire drawing

Shows and prints the optimal enclosing box of the drawing.

Window

Shows and prints only a part of drawing that actually appears on the current window.

Print screen

Shows and prints only the selected part of the drawing. When you choose this option the Print dialog closes and the program and activate the drawing to select a part of the drawing with a selection rectangle. Later the program returns to the Print dialog.

Printable area

Shows and prints only the selected part of the drawing with predefined size.

First choose a printing scale.

Choose the paper size.

When you choose this option the Print dialog closes and the program and activate the drawing to select a part of the drawing with a predefined selection rectangle. It fits to the selected paper size multiplied by the scale factor. Later the program returns to the Print dialog.

!We recommend using this option when you print only a part of your drawing!

2The Printable area option uses the paper settings of default printer. So if You use the paper settings in Printer dialog window, or Rotated drawing option it gives incorrect result. We recommend in case of Printable area option using, set the paper in Windows – Control panel – Printer settings window. This problem is not in case of PDF printing.

Scale

You can define the scale factor in the following ways:

Scale

Choose a predefined scale factor: e.g.: 1:100

The Scale to Fit calculates the best scale to fit the current paper size.

User defined

Enter the scale value in the edit box: 1: 15

!We recommend using for plot layout the scale 1:1!

Scaled line width

Scales the line width when activated.

Line width active

If the check box is switched Off state, all the lines are printed with zero line width. It can reduce the printing time significantly.

If the check box is switched On, the program prints all lines with the defined line width.

Shift

X and Y

Entering the value in the edit boxes: the X and Y fields let you shift the printing origin.

Center point

It moves the drawing center point into the paper center point.

Color

There are different possibilities for printing. You can choose:

All color in grayscale

All color in black

User defined
Here you can change colors and associated line width.

Print all text in black

Pen Color assignment

In this dialog you can assign to colors of the drawing, another color and different pen width.

You can save your settings with the Save setting button and later you can reload it with the OPEN button.

The Change all color to checkbox assigns the same color to each color in the list.

Preview

Preview feature helps you to be ensuring that your print is as you would like it. Then, when you are satisfied, click OK to print.

The white rectangle represents the paper. The drawing size is represented by the gray rectangle. The rulers on the top and side helps you to move the drawing graphically.

!If the drawing window exceeds any boundary of the paper size, that part will not be printed!

Preview

Display the print on the screen as a preview.

Scale

You can define the scale factor.

Offset

Center point

It moves the drawing center point into the paper center point.

X and Y

Enter the value in the edit boxes: the X and Y fields let you shift the printing origin.

Update

Update the preview using the latest scale and offset values.

Okreturn the Printing dialog window.

Sets

You can save the printing settings to sets, and the sets to template file.

&See: description of sets in chapter 3.2.3. Using sets of properties

Printing

Start printing clicking on the button.