Printing Your Drawing - DataCAD

1 Printing your Drawing Printing in DataCAD offers you many different options, so you can always get the result you need. You can set the plotting scale for your Drawing , customize pen widths for plotting, and assign colors and weights to different plotter pens. You can plot your Drawing , or a part of it, using a quick layout; or you can place multiple details on a single sheet using multi-scale layout. DataCAD s print preview allows you to visually check your plot before you send it to your plotter, or you can do a quick check plot to make sure your final plot will be correct. You can even choose to print a single sheet that you ve set up, or you can define and then plot several sheets at once. 19 In this chapter: Assigning colors and plotter pen widths Laying out your Drawing on sheets Previewing your print Checking your print Printing details and drawings Batch plotting | CHAPTER 19: Printing your Drawing 380 Printing basics The first time you print a Drawing , you need to set several Printing options, including the printer or plotter you ll use, the paper size and orientation, and the layout orientation of the Drawing .

2 These settings become part of your Drawing when you save the file and will be remembered the next time you print the Drawing . You can always change these settings by simply using the Print setup option in the File pull-down menu. To print a Drawing : 1. Decide if you want to print the text, dimensions, hatching, and line weights in your Drawing . If you do, make sure ShowTxt, ShowDim, ShowHtch, and ShowWgt, respectively, are toggled on in the Utility/Display menu. Keep in mind that your Drawing will print as it s displayed. 2. Click on Print in the File pull-down menu, or click on Plotter in the Utility menu in the Menu Window. Depending on whether you ve printed this Drawing before or not, one of two things may happen now: If you ve printed this Drawing before, the Plotter menu is displayed in the Menu Window.

3 Click on setup in the Plotter menu to display the Printer/Plotter Settings dialog box. If this is the first time you ve printed this Drawing , you are prompted with A printer has not been selected for this Drawing . Please click OK to open the Print setup dialog box and assign a printer to this Drawing file. Click on OK to close the message box and display the Printer/Plotter Settings dialog box. 3. In the Printer section at the top of the dialog box, use the Name drop-down box to select the printer you d like to use. 4. Go to the Paper section of the dialog box and use the Size drop-down box to select a paper size. The paper sizes available in the Size drop-down box are read from your printer driver. If a size you want is not listed, then your printer doesn t support it or the driver may not be configured to display it.

4 You can change the driver properties by closing DataCAD and opening the Printers dialog box from the Control Panel in Windows. Choose the next closest appropriate size, select User-Defined if listed, or use a different printer. Notice that the Effective Plotting Area dimensions, displayed directly below the Size drop-down box, change depending on the Size of paper you choose. The effective plotting area is the printable area for the paper size you ve selected, as defined by the printer manufacturer s driver. Any part of the Drawing extending outside this area will not be printed (see Figure ). Printing BASICSPRINTING basics | 381 Some printer drivers, such as LaserJets and older plotters, don t support user-defined paper sizes, even though that option remains listed in the Size drop-down box.

5 One way to check is to select User-Defined for the paper size, and enter a width and length for the paper size. If the Effective Plotting Area dimensions don t change based on the size dimensions, then the selected printer s driver doesn t support user-defined paper sizes. Select another paper size from the drop-down box. Limits of 24 x36 sheetEffective plotting area, as reported by Windows driver inprint set-up for the selected printer ( )Limits of Drawing must be within effective plotting areaNon- Printing region Figure : Example of printed sheet showing the edges of the sheet, the non- Printing area, the effective plotting area, and the extents of the Drawing 5. Set the orientation for your printed sheet by clicking on Normal or Rotated. 6. Go to the Copies section at the bottom of the dialog box and enter the number of copies of each sheet you d like to print.

6 7. Go to the DataCAD Layout Orientation section at the bottom of the dialog box. Click on Normal to print the sheet as it appears on screen or click on Rotated to rotate the sheet 90 for plotting. The Rotated option in the DataCAD Layout Orientation section rotates the geometry for the print only; it does not rotate the Drawing itself. 8. Click OK to close the Printer/Plotter Settings dialog box. The Plotter menu is displayed in the Menu Window. 9. Change the plotting scale by clicking on Scale. A value menu is displayed, and you are prompted to Enter new scale . 10. Use the value menu to select a new scale, and press (Enter). | CHAPTER 19: Printing your Drawing 38211. Determine if you have lines in your Drawing with a line weight above 1. If so, you can change the amount of space between pen passes when Printing these thicker lines (see Figure ).

7 Click on PenWidth in the Plotter menu, and use the value menu to enter a width. Figure : Lines drawn with a line weight of 4 and printed with a pen width setting of 12 (left) and 95 (right) 12. Use Pen Table to assign each pen in your plotter to a line color in your Drawing , as well as to set the width and color density for each pen. To change Pen Table settings, click on PenTable in the Plotter menu; the Pen Table dialog box is displayed. Change the settings as necessary and click on OK. See Using Pen Tables later in this chapter for more information. 13. Plot your Drawing or detail at a rotation angle by clicking on Rotate in the Plotter menu. Depending on the plotting history for this Drawing , one of two things may happen: If you haven t plotted this Drawing before, or if you used the QwkLyout option the last time you plotted it, you are prompted to Select center of rotation.

8 Click in the Drawing Area to enter the center of rotation for your plot. You are prompted to Enter angle of rotation . If you used the MltLyout option the last time you plotted the Drawing , you are prompted to Enter angle of rotation . 14. Use the value menu or type an angle, and press (Enter). 15. Lay out your Drawing on a sheet by using the QwkLyout option; lay out multiple details on a sheet by using the MltLyout option. See Laying Out your Drawing later in this chapter for more information on using the QwkLyout and MltLyout options. 16. Toggle Preview on to preview your plot before you actually send it to the plotter; toggle Preview off to skip the preview and send the sheet directly to the plotter. (The Preview toggle can only be used with the Plot and Partial options in the Plotter menu.)

9 See More About Previewing your Plot below for details.) 17. Plot the sheet using one of the following: To plot the sheet, click on Plot in the Plotter menu. If you toggled Preview off in the previous step, the sheet is plotted; if you toggled Preview on, the DataCAD Plot Previewer window opens, allowing you to preview the plot before sending it to your plotter. To interrupt a plot in progress, press (End). Printing A CHECK PLOTPRINTING A CHECK PLOT | 383 To plot the sheet to a file, click on ToFile in the Plotter menu. A dialog box is displayed. Enter a filename for your plot (.PLT) file and click on Save. Plot files are saved by default in your DataCAD \PLT folder. To plot only a part of your Drawing , click on Partial. Choose a selection method from the Partial menu and then select the part of your Drawing you want plotted.

10 If you toggled Preview off in the previous step, the selection is plotted; if you toggled Preview on, the DataCAD Plot Previewer window opens, allowing you to preview the selection before sending it to your plotter. More About Previewing your Plot Previewing a plotting sheet before actually Printing it allows you to verify that you re using the proper paper size and plotting scale, that your Drawing is positioned properly, and that such things as hatching, dimensions, and line overshoot are displayed as you want them. From the DataCAD Plot Previewer window, you can change the view of your preview and then plot, copy, or save it. Click on Close to close the Plot Previewer window, without actually plotting your preview, and return to your Drawing . Click on Plot to plot your Drawing , just as it s displayed in the Plot Previewer window.