Once you’ve finished your drawing and are ready to print it, you can set up the layout and appearance of the printout using the Print Options and Print Setup tools in the File menu. A summary of the different print settings is given below.
Note: If you want to have your plans printed professionally, you can export the document as an Adobe PDF (.pdf) file. The PDF will retain the print settings you have chosen. It’s worth checking with your printer to see which file types they process – you can also export to other files, such as AutoCAD Drawing (.dwg) files.
Note: If you create Views of a drawing using the View button, you can set up print settings for each particular View.
The Print Options settings control how large the drawing is and where it appears on the page
| Option | When should I use it? |
| Scale To Fit | Select the Scale to Fit option when the scale of the drawing is not important. The drawing will be stretched or shrunk to fill the page |
| Actual Scale | Select the Actual Scale option when you want the drawing to be printed to scale, e.g. 1:100 or 1:20. After you have selected the Actual Scale option you can select the desired scale from the drop down box. Note that when you use the Actual Scale option, the drawing will not automatically fit on the page. If, when you preview the printout, you find that the drawing is too large to fit on the page, select a smaller scale or larger paper. When Actual Scale is selected, the Centre On Page option (see below) becomes available |
| Centre On Page | Select the Centre on Page option when you want the drawing to appear on the centre of the printout. |
| Monochrome | Select the Monochrome option when printing using a black and white printer. The Monochrome option does not use shading and thus pale colours such as yellow and light grey should appear clearly on printouts. |
| Paper Size | Select the Size of paper you are printing onto e.g. A4 or A3. |
| Paper Source | Select the appropriate Source for the paper e.g. Manual Feed, Tray. These options will vary according to the chosen printer. |
| Orientation | Select whether you wish to print the drawing Portrait or Landscape. |
| Margin | The Page Margins are quite critical as they affect the position of the drawing on the page. If you have selected the Scale to Fit option in the Print Options, the wider the margins, the smaller the drawing will be. You may wish to enter a small Margin of say 20mm all the way around the page. When attempting to print a drawing exactly as it appears on screen (i.e. you have selected the Actual Scale option in the Print Options and set the scale to be the same as the onscreen scale), enter a margin of 0mm on all sides. This will ensure the full extent of the page is used, and the printout of the drawing should appear as it does on screen. |
Click Print Preview to see how the plan will look when printed out.
To print the drawing using a printer other than your default printer, go to the File menu, click Print and select an alternative printer from the Print dialog box.
Troubleshooting
If after you’ve set up the print options, the print preview shows the drawing to one side of, or even off the page there may be an erroneous item (which may not be visible on screen) somewhere on the drawing area which is affecting the position of the drawing. Return to the drawing page, zoom out, and drag your mouse over the drawing area to select any items which are there. If you find any erroneous items, delete them. Preview the document and the drawing should appear correctly on the page
If elements of the drawing (e.g. roofs, dimension lines etc.) are not appearing on the print preview you may have set some Layers to not appear on printouts. Return to the drawing page, press the Layers button, and in the Layers dialog box, tick the print tick box next to the Layers which didn’t appear in the print preview. Preview the document again and the missing elements should appear.
John Rees