Printing scale

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othello159
Posts: 0
Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 2:49 pm

Printing scale

Post by othello159 »

I am new to cadintosh and CAD drawing.My goals are modest and for now I would like to understand how to print out drawings at different scales.I drew a 5 foot strut at 1:1 scale and, of course, can't print that on one page.But I seem not to be able to reduce/change the scale for printing.(I have not used the % scaling in the printing routine, though.)Uwe
RowlandCarson
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 10:56 am

Re: Printing scale

Post by RowlandCarson »

At 2005-05-16 11:49 +0000 othello159 wrote: >I am new to cadintosh and CAD drawing.>My goals are modest and for now I would like to understand how to >print out drawings at>different scales.>>I drew a 5 foot strut at 1:1 scale and, of course, can't print that >on one page.>But I seem not to be able to reduce/change the scale for printing.>(I have not used the % scaling in the printing routine, though.) Uwe - you can use the % box in the page setup dialogue to adjust things a bit, but it has its limits (25% & 400% I think but that may be printer-dependent).You really need to decide before starting to draw anything what is a sensible scale for it when printed out. For your 5-foot strut perhaps 1:5 might just fit it on a single page. I find that my A3 inkjet printer is really useful for those items that won't fit within A4 at a nice round scale. You can define your own scale (like 1:7.3) to make it fit nicely. And don't confuse scale with display zoom! The tool you use to adjust scaling is among the stuff at bottom left. Zooming is done with the buttons at top right, and does not affect how big it will be when printed.There is a change scale option in the CADintosh groups menu, but I haven't got around to trying that. It only applies to groups, so maybe if you put the entire drawing into one group you could then change it all at once? Try this on a backup copy of the drawing, and let us know if it works, please! Or maybe someone else here can give a better answer?regardsRowland-- : Wilma & Rowland Carson <http://home.clara.net/rowil/>: <rowil@clara.net> ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
Jon Guyer
Posts: 0
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:01 am

Re: Printing scale

Post by Jon Guyer »

On May 16, 2005, at 5:05 PM, Rowland Carson wrote: > Uwe - you can use the % box in the page setup dialogue to adjust> things a bit, but it has its limits (25% & 400% I think but that may> be printer-dependent). I certainly agree that you don't want to use the page setup scaling. That's both clumsy and possibly not as accurate as might be desired. I'm guessing from what you've written and from what I've scanned in tkat's tutorial that an alternative approach may not be evident to everybody. > You really need to decide before starting to draw anything what is a> sensible scale for it when printed out. I don't agree with this, though. In fact, I see little utility in setting a drawing scale at all. That's just so pen-and-paper. I think the advantage of doing things in a CAD program is that you can draw what you really mean. Scaling is an output issue; it's not intrinsic to the thing you're drawing. I draw everything at 1:1. I zoom as appropriate to keep the object in view and I don't worry at all about what the scale is between the object and its display on screen. As you say, zooming is completely separate from printing.I then use different printing areas with different appropriate scales to print different parts of my drawing. To do this, I select File > Area > Select Area With Page. Click on the drawing and a you can drag a rectangle showing the page that will be printed. Don't worry if it's enormous (if you're drawing watch gears) or tiny (if you're drawing office buildings). Position the page anywhere in the drawing. When prompted, give the area an appropriate name for the portion of the drawing you want to print: "everything", "corner of gear tooth", "third floor bathroom", etc. Now select File > Area > Options, select the print area you just created, and now you can specify the scale for that printout. Finally, you can select File > Area > Move Area to position the newly scaled print area as desired. Note that there's an option to "Define view with same settings" when you create the print area. Unfortunately, when you rescale and move the print area, any associated view doesn't follow, which renders it pretty useless, so I wouldn't bother to create the view (if it did follow the print area, it'd be really useful, though).You can create many different print areas, either to print at different scales, or to print detailed drawings of multiple portions of the overall drawing. For my purposes, it seems less confusing to have a single drawing with everything in it, regardless of detail, then to have different parts of the drawing have different scales (which I didn't even know was possible until you guys brought it up).
RowlandCarson
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 10:56 am

Re: Printing scale

Post by RowlandCarson »

At 2005-05-19 22:58 -0400 Jon Guyer wrote: >select File > Area > Options, select the>print area you just created, and now you can specify the scale for that>printout Jon - thank so much for pointing this out! I just had not noticed that it was possible to specify the printing scale in this way. Flowing from that, I now tend to agree with your conclusion that CADintosh drawings may as well all be made at 1:1 - although no doubt someone will come up with reasons for drafting at other scales. >it seems less confusing to have a>single drawing with everything in it, regardless of detail, then to>have different parts of the drawing have different scales (which I>didn't even know was possible until you guys brought it up) I agree that in general CAD makes obsolete many of our former practices, and in general try to have everything drafted at a single scale. My previous example of multiple scales was where I was producing a diagram for insertion into a word-processor document. For layout purposes it was handiest to have a single diagram containing both the relevant piece of metal shown "full-size" and a reduced view indicating how that part fitted into the surrounding structure.Thanks for your very helpful contribution.regardsRowland-- : Wilma & Rowland Carson <http://home.clara.net/rowil/>: <rowil@clara.net> ... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
Jon Guyer
Posts: 0
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:01 am

Re: Printing scale

Post by Jon Guyer »

On May 20, 2005, at 8:53 AM, Rowland Carson wrote: > I now tend to agree with your conclusion that> CADintosh drawings may as well all be made at 1:1 - although no doubt> someone will come up with reasons for drafting at other scales. Probably so, and I'd be interested to learn where it's useful. > My previous example of multiple scales was where I was> producing a diagram for insertion into a word-processor document. I can see the utility, and I'm glad you pointed out that it can be done. > Thanks for your very helpful contribution. My pleasure. Thanks to you and tkat for actually spelling out your learning processes. I have a sneaking suspicion that we're all secretly a bit baffled by CADintosh (although from what I've seen of the manuals and training courses for things like AutoCAD, I think abject confusion may be the nature of the beast).
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