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Printing/Plotting to scale


mistergwinge

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Print a .dwg file to scale? I'm on Autocad 2006, and whenever I set the scale to 1:1 and go to print, it only shows one page of the 4 required to handle the 44" by 4.25" wide drawing. I've gone through every single plotting option and nothing seems to work. Is there anyother programs, in which i can easily print my file, i can export a file that will maintain the scale as in the dwg file? Sorry If this doesn't make sense, I'm just really frustrated right now. If you need more information, let me know. Thanks

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Print a .dwg file to scale? I'm on Autocad 2006, and whenever I set the scale to 1:1 and go to print, it only shows one page of the 4 required to handle the 44" by 4.25" wide drawing. I've gone through every single plotting option and nothing seems to work. Is there anyother programs, in which i can easily print my file, i can export a file that will maintain the scale as in the dwg file? Sorry If this doesn't make sense, I'm just really frustrated right now. If you need more information, let me know. Thanks

 

Are you printing from model space or from a layout?

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I tried both, but both had the same problem. I'm leaning towards model space because I have no clue what's going on in the layout part.

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There are three variables at play here. The size of the paper, the desired scale of the drawing, and the size of the drawing.

 

You can only specify 2 of the three.

 

Let's say the size of your drawing is 1200' long x 800' high, and the desired scale is 1"=40'

 

This will not fit on an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. 1200' / 40' = 30 (meaning you need 30" of paper long) and 800' / 40' = 20 (20" high)

 

A drawing of this size and scale requires a 22x34 or 24x36 sheet.

 

If you hold the paper size and drawing size, then there will be a minimum scale factor. If you hold the scale and paper size, then there is only a limited amount of the drawing that will fit.

 

 

So...... I would advise learning how to print from a layout, but if you are sticking with MS for now, then use the above rules to figure out what is missing. If your drawing is 44" x 4.25" - then it would require a sheet of paper this size to be able to plot 1"=1"

 

A layout represents a sheet of paper. You choose the size. Then you create a viewport that fits on the sheet of paper. Then you scale the contents of the viewport. This makes the rules above easier to understand,

 

Good luck

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I'm not really sure how to do that whole viewpoints thing, but (in model space) I got it so it will print to scale, but it only shows and prints one page, not the four pages that it spans across.

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From Model Space you could plot to scale on the following sheet sizes:

 

48x36 using 1:1

 

24x18 using 1:2

 

14x8.5 using 1:4

 

11x8.5 using 1:5

 

Plot using Extents, check off Center the Plot and do a full Preview to make sure everything fits on the sheet.

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if you want to plot to 4 seperate sheets you will need to plot each of them seperately--autocad will not do this for you automattically...there is a way to print all paperspace tabs at once but that means you will need to setup 4 seperate layout sheets for each "view" you need to print....

 

i think what might be easier for you at the moment is to draw an 8x10 rectangle (those represents your printer's printable area--remember they have print margins) and place it on a layer that is non-plotable...copy this rectangle 3 more times and lay them accross your drawing with slight overlaps...then use the plot command 4 times and chose a window that corresponds to each "page" border you have drawn...

 

this should get you going for this project...

 

in the future tho you should draw 1:1 in model space then deal with the scale factor in a viewport using paperspace...

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I did originally do the model in 1:1 but layout seems to shrink it down to fit the page...

 

and thanks a lot, I appreciate the help =)

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  • 2 years later...

My experience has been that the plotter driver sort of limits the actual or full size of the drawing. Every day that I anticipate to plot out a drawing, have to go to Windows select the plotter, ask for a custom page size, etc. and set the parameters. Otherwise it will forget what was last used, and revert over to some Deskjet parameters, and thus I only get a portion.

 

Also, if I get near to some magic number as set forth by the plotter or software, the page will clip off the needed information. Used to be that the plotters would easily handle drawings up to about 400-500 inches long. No more. There is some inborn cut off point now in MS Windows that limits plot sizes, lengths, etc. May need to go back to some earlier version just to get a nice plot.

 

 

Remember, we are in the minority of users, and the plotter is seldom used or plugged into the backside of a computer anymore.

 

I sure liked the pen plotters wherein you fed in one size of paper, and then knew exactly what the size would be in a few minutes.

 

 

Wm.

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