Printing to a pdf file plot file or printer

See also Printing to a .pdf file, plot file or printer on page 281
Printing configuration files on page 285
6.1 Printing to a .pdf file, plot file or printer
To print to a .pdf file, plot file or printer:
1. Open the Drawing List and select the drawings that you want to print.
2. Click File --> Print --> Print Drawings .
3. Select the desired drawing from the list of Drawings on the top.
The drawings are shown one by one in a preview. The preview shows the drawings always
up to date.
4. Use Next and Previous to scroll through the set of selected drawings.
5. Select the printing option:
•
PDF file: Converts drawings to PDF format.
•
Printer: Sends the drawings to the selected printer.
•
Plot file: Converts drawings to print files in a format suitable for the selected printer
and saves them in a specified location.
6. If you need to change Windows printing settings for a printer or for a plot file, click the
Properties button.
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7. Define the printing settings. The available settings depend on which printing option you
have selected:
•
File location: Enter the location for the .pdf or plot file, or use Browse to browse
for the folder.
The \Plotfiles folder under the model folder is the default value.
•
Open folder when finished: Opens the .pdf or plot file folder in Windows Explorer
after the printouts have been created.
•
Open file when finished: Opens the .pdf file after it has been created.
•
Output to single file: Prints the selected drawings to a single .pdf file.
If you do not select this option, each drawing will be printed in a .pdf file of its
own.
•
File extension: Allows you to specify a file name extension for the plot file. The
default is plt.
•
File prefix: Allows you to enter a specific prefix in the file name.
•
File suffix: Allows you to enter a specific suffix in the file name.
When you enter a prefix or suffix, the file name preview displayed under the File
prefix and File suffix boxes will reflect the change immediately.
The file name can be controlled by a couple of advanced option switches for
customizing print file names, except when you generate a single combined multiple
drawings .pdf file.
•
Fit to paper: Fits the drawing to a specific paper size.
•
Scale: Defines the scale to force the printout to a specific scale.
The Scale value will turn red if the drawing cannot fit on the specified sheet.
•
Center drawing on paper: Centers the drawing on the sheet (or sheets).
•
Print on multiple sheets: Allows you to print on multiple sheets and specifies the
direction of printing the sheets. Select either Left to right, top to bottom or
Bottom to top, right to left.
When you use Print on multiple sheets, select a particular paper size.
•
Paper size: Defines the paper size or use automatic size.
With the Auto setting Tekla Structures selects the paper size that has the least
wasted area when the scaled print is fitted to the printable area on the sheet.
Printers are often unable to print on the full area of a sheet, and leave borders. The
printable area is determined for the selected printer when the option Printer or Plot
file is selected. In the case of creating a .pdf file, the printer is not known so the
output is sized to the full sheet. However, when printing a .pdf, the same problem
exists and the drawing content is fitted to the printable area of whatever printer is
being used. The printable area is show with white background and the non-printable
border is shaded gray in the preview image below.
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•
Orientation: Defines the orientation or use automatic orientation.
The Auto setting means that the orientation that wastes least space is selected
automatically.
•
Color: Select if the output is to be Color, Black and white or Grayscale.
•
Number of copies: Defines the number of plot file or printout copies to be printed.
•
Embed fonts: If selected, the fonts will be embedded in the .pdf file.
This ensures that fonts may be reproduced on a system that does not have them
installed, but increases the file size. In certain cases fonts may automatically be
embedded. When using non-Latin fonts it is recommended that embedding is
selected, otherwise the .pdf may not be displayed correctly. When fonts are
embedded, in order to keep the file as small as possible, embed only the subset used
in the document, not the full range.
8. Go to the Line thickness tab and map drawing colors to line thicknesses.
Line thicknesses are expressed as a multiple of the advanced option
XS_BASE_LINE_WIDTH value. The default value is typically 0.1 mm. This means that
the line thickness value 5 would result in a line width of 0.5 mm.
9. Click Print to print the drawings in .pdf format or as plot files, or send them to a
printer according to the settings you defined in the dialog box.
Example Below is an example of printing to multiple sheets. The option Bottom to top, right to left
is selected. The numbers indicate the printing order of sheets.
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Printing to a .pdf file, plot file or printer
In the next example, the option Left to right, top to bottom is selected.
See also Printing drawings on page 280
Printing drawings
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Printing to a .pdf file, plot file or printer