Reference Guide
Reference Guide
Reference Guide
Reference Guide
Reference Guide
Reference Guide
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Used to adjust printing settings and create a print file, or to print directly to a system printer. Opens when File > Print is chosen. A Show Preview button to the right of the icon bar lets you expand the dialog box to display a preview image. A further Show Details button at the lower right corner of the preview image lets you expand the dialog box to display additional settings in the Print Size/Scale and Print Position group boxes. The title bar of the dialog box displays the name of the printer driver file being used.
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Basic Print dialog box. | |
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Print dialog box expanded to show preview image. | |
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Print dialog box, fully expanded to show all settings. | |
Option menu that lets you choose the area to print.
By default, raster references are not included in the fitting of views. Raster references are included when the configuration variable MS_PLT_FIT_RASTER_REFS to 1.
Once calculated, the print dialog's fit design range remains unchanged until “Update from View” is selected, which forces the design range to be recomputed. If the design range could not be calculated for any reason (such as no elements being present), the print area mode reverts to view.
Only file-based elements are examined in the design scan. Transient elements, such as the shadowed sheet definition border, are not included.
If you are not using sheet or fence print area modes, the configuration variable MS_PLT_AUTO_FIT_VIEW can be set to either 1, or 2, to force the Print dialog box to default to “Fit Master” or “Fit All” respectively, instead of view.
A read-only control. This checkbox indicates if the effective view mode (wireframe, hidden line, smooth, and so on) requires that the view be output to the plotter as a single raster image. The effective view mode is a combination of the real view mode and the presentation states of any reference files. If any reference presentations are anything other than wireframe or wiremesh, the effective view mode is raster. If the Rasterized checkbox is set, vector features such as pen tables, the vector color mode, and .plt pen records are not honored.
Sets the view to use for printing.
Displays the pen table, if one is loaded.
(Windows printer only) Lets you set the number of copies to be printed.
Option menu that lets you select the output format — Monochrome, Grayscale, or Color. Available options depend on the capability of the selected printer.
Lets you choose the printer driver to use:
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Lets you choose the paper size from a list of available paper sizes for the selected printer.
(Windows Printer only) When Full Sheet is off, displays the Usable area, or printable dimensions (width x height) for the selected Paper. When Full Sheet is on, displays the Total area (width x height) for the selected Paper.
Lets you choose the orientation of the paper — Portrait or Landscape.
This control lets you quickly reverse the X & Y values of the paper size record without having to edit the printer driver file. This is necessary for printer.plt, and helpful for some PostScript-to-PDF workflows, but not desirable for most HP-GL/2 and HP/RTL workflows. To reduce confusion and to prevent any accidental swapping of the X & Y sizes, the orientation control is disabled for Bentley printer drivers, by default.
You may control this behavior for Bentley printer drivers only, using a configuration variable, MS_PLTDLG_ENABLE_ORIENTATION.
Valid values for this configuration variable are:
0 — orientation always is disabled for Bentley drivers (default).
1 — orientation always is enabled for Bentley drivers.
This variable does not apply to system printers.
(Windows Printer only) If on, is the same as having /fullsheet specified in the sysprinter record. As well, it changes the “Usable area” field to “Total area”.
If off, only the printable portion of the sheet is considered.
For example, when printing to a letter size sheet, typically 8.5 x 11 inches, the maximum print size may be only 8 x 10.5 inches. If full sheet is enabled, the maximum print size is the size of the sheet (8.5 x 11 inches).
When full sheet is enabled:
Form offsets (set by the /offset switch in the .plt file) are ignored.
Borders are not printed. The border controls in the Print Attributes dialog box are disabled.
Windows Page Setup margins are not supported.
Some geometry may get clipped (by the printer) if it falls into the unprintable area around the edges of the paper.
Key-in: print fullsheet <on | off>
(Bentley Driver selected only) Lets you select the rotation of the printed output.
(Show Preview displayed only) If on, the region of the design to be printed is displayed in the preview image.
(Show Preview displayed only) Clicking the Preview icon, below the preview image, refreshes the preview image.
(Show Preview displayed only) If on, displays the defined sheet, with margins.
(Show Preview and Show Details displayed only) Sets the scale of the printed output. By default, this is displayed as master units to paper units. You can use the Method setting in the Scale Assistant to change this display to paper units to master units.
Additionally, you can define the default scale display using a configuration variable, MS_PLT_SCALE_METHOD. Valid values for this configuration variable are:
1 — default scale display is paper units to master units.
2 — default scale display is master units to paper units.
With this configuration variable set, the scale display still may be changed via the Method setting in the Scale Assistant. When the Print dialog box is closed and then reopened, however, it will revert to that set by the configuration variable.
(Show Preview and Show Details displayed only) Clicking the Scale Assistant icon opens the Scale Assistant dialog box, which lets you select the scale for the printed output.
(Show Preview and Show Details displayed only) Sets the X, or width, dimension of the printed output, in printer units.
(Show Preview and Show Details displayed only) Sets the Y, or height, dimension of the printed output, in printer units.
(Show Preview and Show Details displayed only) Sets the horizontal distance in printer units from the lower left corner of the printable area to the lower left corner of the page. The default X Origin and Y Origin settings center the printed output in the printable area of the page.
(Show Preview and Show Details displayed only) Sets the vertical distance in printer units from the lower left corner of the printable area to the lower left corner of the page. The default X Origin and Y Origin settings center the printed output in the printable area of the page.
(Show Preview and Show Details displayed only) If on, the printable area is centered on the page.
Opens the Windows Page Setup dialog box, which is used to set the paper size, orientation and margins of the printout for printing to the Windows system printer. If the selected printer driver file is not the Windows system printer, this menu item is disabled.
Opens the resizable Preview window, which lets you preview the proposed printed output.
Effect is the same as clicking the Preview icon.
Where the selected printer is the Windows system printer, the printed output is sent to the printer.
Where the selected printer is not the Windows system printer, the Save Print As dialog box opens, to let you save the print file to disk for later submission to the required printer.
Effect is the same as clicking the Print icon.
Selects “printer.plt” as the print setup file, which uses the Windows system printer.
Opens the Select Printer Driver File dialog box, which lets you select a printer driver file.
Opens Windows Notepad with the current printer driver loaded, for editing.
Reloads the current printer driver to include any changes. For example, after editing the printer driver, you need to reload it to take advantage of any changes that you have made.
Closes the Print dialog box.
Opens the Select Print Configuration File dialog box, which lets you choose a previously saved print configuration file.
Saves the current printing configuration for future use. If the printing configuration has not been saved previously, then the Save Print Configuration File As dialog box opens, which lets you specify a name for the print configuration file. By default, the print configuration file is given the name of the design file, but with a “.ini” extension.
Opens the Save Print Configuration File As dialog box, which lets you specify a name for the print configuration file that you want to save for future use.
Opens an option menu that lets you select the printer measurement units used for the printing dialog box. Choices are: inches, feet, mm, cm, dm, or m.
Automatically fits the selected view or fenced area into as much of the printable area as possible.
Effect is the same as clicking the Maximize Print Size icon.
Opens the Print Attributes dialog box, which lets you set various printing attributes.
Effect is the same as clicking the Print Attributes icon.
Opens the Raster Options dialog box, which lets you set the parameters for raster reference plotting.
Updates the preview area.
Opens the Create Pen Table File dialog box, which is used to load new pen tables and activate pen table processing.
Opens the Select Pen Table File dialog box, from which you can select the pen table you want to load.
Opens the Modify Pen Table dialog box, which is used to define a newly created pen table or modify an existing one. If no Pen Table currently is loaded, then the Select Pen Table File dialog box opens, to let you select a pen table first. On selecting a pen table, the Modify Pen Table dialog box then opens.
Detaches the currently loaded pen table, thereby disabling pen table processing.
Opens the Import AutoCAD plot style table dialog box, which lets you select a CTB file to import.