Printing and Plotting

You can print the drawing on a printer or plotter. You can also print the drawing to a file.

Use a PageLayout to determine the output of your drawing.

To print or plot a drawing on a printer or plotter, or to print a drawing to a file:

Do one of the following:
- On the application menu, click Print > Print.
- On the menu, click File > Print.
- Type Print.
In the dialog box, under Page layout options, select an option:
- Quick print. Prints exactly what is on screen with the system default printer, default paper size, Fit to paper size selected, and Range set to Current view.
- Layout. Restores the settings for the printer, paper size, print scale and range, orientation, and offset saved in a PageLayout.
  Select a name from the list of Page Layouts. You can adjust the restored settings, if desired.
  
  Import uses a Page Layout defined in a configuration file or defined in a drawing or drawing template file.
- Previous settings. Repeats printing with the same settings you used for the previous printout.
- Manual setup. Lets you determine the current print settings.
Under Printer/Plotter:
- In Name, select an output device. Printers and plotters available on your system are listed. PDF, JPG, PNG, and SVG are also listed. These built-in plotters print to file in the specified format.
- Click Properties to set up printer property configurations. You can save them to files (.pcx) as needed. The printer property configurations you saved appear in the Printer/Plotter list.
  See Printer Property Configurations.
- If you selected a built-in PDF printer, click PDF Options to specify the properties of the PDF file. See PDF options in the Managing the Quality of the PDF File chapter.
- Select Print to file for output to a file instead of to the printer.
- In Copies, set the number of copies to print.
- In Paper size, select a size from the international standardized paper size formats and printer-specific paper formats.
- Under Orientation:
  - Click Portrait or Landscape to set the orientation.
  - Select Inverse to reverse the output direction.
Under Range, set the area to print.
1. Select one of the following options:
  - All geometry. Prints the range that is determined by the bounding box of all visible entities.
  - Drawing boundary / Sheet. Prints the range that is determined by the drawing boundaries (when the Model is active) or the range that is determined by the Sheet size definition (when a Sheet tab is active).
  - Named view. Prints the view you select. This option is available only if named views exist in the drawing.
  - Current view. Prints the drawing that is visible on screen.
  - Specify. Click Window to specify two opposite points for the print boundaries in the graphics area.
2. Select Print only within specified window to cut entities at the boundaries of the specified print range on the printout regardless of whether there is remaining space on the output sheet.
Under Multiple Sheets, select Print selected Sheets to select all of the Sheets you want to print. Click Select Sheets to specify the Sheets to print and the Page Layouts to use.

Under Multiple Sheets, select Print selected Sheets to select all of the Sheets you want to print. Click Select Sheets to specify the Sheets to print and the Print Configurations to use.

You can activate Create a single PDF document with one Sheet per page if the Page Layouts of the Sheets you selected in the Select Sheets dialog box use the built-in PDF printer as output device. This option ignores the Sheets not using the built-in PDF printer.

You can activate Create a single PDF document with one Sheet per page if the Print Configurations of the Sheets you selected in the Select Sheets dialog box use the built-in PDF printer as output device. This option ignores the Sheets not using the built-in PDF printer.

Note: The Print selected Sheets option and the Select Sheets button are available only if a Sheet tab is active.
Under Scale, set the output scale.
1. Select one of the following options:
  - Select Fit to paper size to apply no specific scaling.
  - Clear Fit to paper size, then select a scale from the Scale list.
  - Clear Fit to paper size, select User-defined from the Scale list, and set the ratio between paper units (in Millimeters or Inches) to drawing units.
2. Select or clear Scale LineWeights.
Under Offset, select Print on center of paper to adjust the output with equal margins at the top, bottom, left, and right. Otherwise, set the X and Y margins.
Note: The option Print on center of paper is not available if a Sheet tab is active. Adjust the X and Y margins of the printout as needed.
Under PrintStyle table:
- Select a PrintStyle table.
- Click New to create a new PrintStyle.
- Click Edit to modify the selected PrintStyle.
Under Shaded views, set:
- Shade print. Applies a shade mode when printing: As displayed, Wireframe, Hidden, or Rendered (available when the Model tab is active).
- Print quality. Applies a quality level when printing. The available options depend on the selected printer.
- DPI. Sets the number of dots per inch printed depending on the Print quality setting.
Under Options, set advanced printing preferences:
- Hide geometry on sheet. Specifies whether the model geometry in Viewports is printed with hidden lines removed. The option is available only from a Sheet tab.
- Print in background. The output is processed in the background so you can continue working in the drawing.
- Print Sheet last. Specifies what to print first: the model geometry in Viewports or the Sheet geometry. The option is available only from a Sheet tab.
- Save changes on Sheet. Saves the changes you make in the dialog box to the Sheet.
- Use assigned LineWeight. Prints entities in the LineWeights assigned in the Layers. This option is available only if Use assigned Print Styles is cleared.
- Use assigned Print Styles. Determines whether PrintStyles applied to Layers and entities are printed. Assigned LineWeights are also printed.
- Print stamp on. Determines whether to print a print stamp along the drawing. Click Print Stamp Settings to open the Print Stamp dialog box where you can specify the information to display in the print stamp and the text properties.
- Print transparency. Determines whether to print transparencies applied to entities.
Optionally, use the following:
- Print Preview. Lets you see how the output will look with the current settings. Opens the Print Preview dialog box.
- Save Page Layout. Saves the current dialog box settings as PageLayout. Specify a name for the Page Layout.
- Apply to Sheet. Applies the current dialog box settings to the current layout sheet.
Click OK to print the document.

Printer Property Configurations

The Printer Properties dialog box lets you specify printer specific property settings to be reused for subsequent outputs.

You can save the printer property settings in configuration files with a .pcx extension. The software stores the .pcx files in the location specified on the System Options page of the Options dialog box.

After you create a .pcx file, it is available in the list of printer configuration names in the Printer/Plotter list on the Print or Page Layout dialog boxes.

If you selected a built-in printer (PDF, PNG, JPG, SVG, or DWF), you can specify custom paper sizes.

To set printer properties for printing:

In the Print dialog box, click Properties.
On the Graphics tab, set:

In TrueType Text, specify whether TrueType text is treated as text or as graphic image. If TrueType text is processed as text, the printer may use a different font for output. Printing as a graphic ensures that the text is printed as displayed, but slows down the output and uses more memory compared to printing as text.
If you use a physical printer connected to your PC or a network, adjust settings in Raster Images in case printer and spooler resources are limited. The settings let you balance between output speed and output quality when printing or plotting raster graphic objects on raster devices:
- For Raster and Shaded/Rendered Viewports, set a resource consumption between None and Best. None disables raster image printing.
- In Trade-off, adjust the general resource consumption between Lower Resolution and Fewer Colors, with Balance equally weighting the two criteria (resolution and color).

On the Custom Properties tab:

For local or remote printers, click Custom properties to specify device driver properties.
For built-in printers such as PDF, specify custom paper sizes as needed.

On the Paper Sizes tab, specify whether to use Standard or Custom paper sizes.
If you selected Custom:
- Click Add to add a new custom paper size to the list. Specify the Size (width and height).
- Click Remove to delete the selected custom paper size from the list.
Click Filter to reduce the list of Standard and Custom paper sizes to the sizes you select in the list. To edit the list, you can use the Select All, Deselect All, and Invert buttons.
To save the printer property settings to a configuration file, click Save as, and specify a name for the .pcx file.
The next time you run the Print or the PageLayout command, the printer property configuration is listed in the Printer/Plotter configuration list of the Print or Page Layout dialog boxes.
Click OK.

Note: To delete a .pcx file, use your file explorer to navigate to the appropriate file and delete it.

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Printer Configuration Import

The Import PC3 Configuration dialog box lets you import printer configurations received as .pc3 files that originate from other CAD software.

The imported printer configurations are listed in the Printer/Plotter list of the Print or Page Layout dialog boxes.

To import printer configurations:

In the Print dialog box, click Import.
In the dialog box, specify an option:
- Specify folder. Imports print configurations grouped in a folder.
- Select files. Imports one or more print configuration files.
Click Browse to navigate to the folder or to the files.
The files from the specified folder or the individually selected files are shown in the list of .pc3 files.
Specify a Text encoding.
The default setting is System. This means that the operating system setting is used for text encoding.
Specify an option in case imported file names conflict with existing print configuration files:
- Rename automatically keeping both files
- Overwrite old file with new file
- Keep old file discarding new file
- Prompt user
If you selected Prompt user and a file with the same name already exists, you are prompted to specify one of the first three options listed above (Rename automatically, Overwrite old file, Discard new file).
Click Import.
The selected .pc3 files are converted into .pcx files.

The imported files are added to the Printer/Plotter list of the Print or Page Layout dialog boxes.

If problems appear during import, you will receive a warning or error message: for example, that the driver associated with the .pc3 file was not found on the PC.
Click Close.

Note: When you select the name of an imported .pcx file under Printer/Plotter, a dialog box opens if no printer driver can be assigned, the device cannot be found, or the driver has a problem. In the dialog box, you can substitute the missing driver with an existing driver.

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PDF Options

The PDF Options dialog box lets you manage the quality of the PDF file, the data to include in the PDF file.

To set PDF options for printing:

In the Print dialog box, in Printer/plotter, in Name, select PDF.
Click PDF Options.
In the PDF options dialog box, do the following:
To control the quality, in Quality Management, specify the options:
- Vector quality. Lets you specify the resolution of vector graphics within the PDF file. For printing from a viewer, use resolutions matching the printer output. For on-screen viewing, you can use resolutions above 2400 dpi.
- Raster image quality. Lets you specify the resolution of raster images. For printing from a viewer, use resolutions matching the printer output. For on-screen viewing, you can use resolutions above 2400 dpi.
- Merge control. Lets you specify whether overlapping lines overwrite or merge.
To control the data to include in the PDF file, in Data Management, specify the options:
- Use layers in PDF (PDF v1.5 or higher). Lets you turn on and off layers when printing or viewing the PDF file.
- Add hyperlinks. Lets you convert sheet links into hyperlinks in multi-sheet PDF files.
To manage TrueType fonts from the drawings, in Font Management, specify the options:
- Embed True Type fonts used in the drawing. Captures True Type fonts used in the drawing's annotations and includes them in the PDF file. When viewing the PDF file, the fonts are read directly from the PDF file and the PDF viewer should not substitute them. This option increases the PDF file size.
  Exceptions:
  - Fonts that are not TrueType fonts
  - Vertical Asian fonts
- Optimized. Specifies whether to use True Type font-related optimization when creating the PDF file. This may influence the output performance, but reduces the file size.
- Convert all True Type texts used in the drawing. Lets you convert all text to geometry during the export to PDF file when you cannot include your TrueType fonts in the PDF file. The text in the PDF file is identical to the text on the drawing.
- SHX text as geometry. Lets you convert SHX fonts to geometry. Thus, annotations that use SHX fonts are represented using geometric entities, such as lines and arcs. Otherwise, the SHX-based annotations appear as text lines in the PDF file using a corresponding or similar TrueType font, which lets you select annotations in the PDF file as text objects.
  The shape fonts are always printed as geometry regardless of the selection made.
  
  Note: The Search tool from the PDF viewer can locate a specified text in the file.
Click OK.