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Print preview - annotations seem small


tjb0012

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Hey everyone! I am quite new to AutoCAD and I have the 2013 civil 3D version. I am doing a site plan for school, and would like to print it out so that everything shows up clearly.

 

I would like to print it on a 24x36 sheet, so I have set up my page to that size. When I maximize my viewport to the page borders so that the viewport is at its largest and scale the viewport so that the entire site plan fits in the viewport, everything shows up so small in the print preview screen. The annotations show up as black bars and I can only read them if I zoom in. I have limited access to printing so I want to make sure I get it right! Will I be able to read the annotations and hatching once it has printed? Even though I can't read them in the print preview or layout without zooming in?

 

I am using annotation scaling, so maybe my text height is wrong? Maybe I need a larger sheet than 24x36? My viewport and annotation scales are set to 1"=20' and box drawn around my site would be about 100' x 300'.

 

Any help would be appreciated!

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Depending on your monitor, the plot preview you see on screen is likely less than half as big as the plot will be, so it's normal for the text and dimensions to appear small. When using Annotative scaling, you set the text size to the size you want it to plot, so as long as your Annotative scale matches your plot scale, you should be good. Also, you may try plotting to PDF before sending a plot to the printer, this will give you a chance to review your setup without wasting paper.

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Thanks! Yes I am doing it on a 14" laptop so not very big.

Do you or does anyone know of a zoom command/scale that sets the layout to the clarity of the printed version and allows you to pan around to view the entire layout?

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No problem. Make sure you're in Paperspace (or a locked Modelspace viewport) and Zoom > Extents to maximize the layout. Now hold a ruler up to your screen and measure the size of the "paper" (probably something around 6"H x 9"W on a 14" monitor) divide the on screen measurement by the corresponding dimension of the actual paper (24"W x 36"H) . In this case it would be 36" (paper) divided by 9" (screen) = 4. So just increase your screen display by 4x by typing Zoom > 4x at the command line and you should see a close size approximation of what will be printed.

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most ppl i know plot to PDF, inspect the result, then print the PDF.

plotting straight to paper can fill your shredder container pretty quick

 

 

edit: actually.... i rarely use print preview unless setting up a page for the first time or changing someone else's page settings, which i guess is what you're doing.

 

 

as usual, please ignore all of the above :-)

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