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Printing scaling

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Printing scaling
I have always had a problem with the scaling of print outs. Since 2005 with every version of VariCAD and on SUSE 9.3 and now SUSE 11.0.
If I use the selection box to select just the drawing items or use "Only displayed objects" button the printed area is much bigger than the drawing. To print I need to select a smaller area inside the drawing so that the complete drawing fits properly in the page.

What is interesting is that we have 2 licenses. The
other license computer has generally printed properly.

I recently upgraded both computers to SUSE 11.0 and VariCAD 2008-3.00. The other computer prints a little more than the selection box. My computer prints much more than the selection box. I even tried before installing any printers in case it was printer driver related, but no difference.

I have noticed that the higher the resolution of the screen, the worse is the problem. Does VariCAD take its printer scaling from screen pixel position or resolution, is there a setting for this.
Has anyone else noticed this effect.
Printing scaling
I just changed my monitor temporarily and I can now confirm that if I change the resolution of my screen, even with the same monitor, it changes the scaling used for printing.
Is there a setting somewhere to configure VariCAD or an environment variable that VariCAD reads. Is it screen dpi or something?

steve
IMPORTANT ISSUE
We're having exactly the same issue. Please someone in VariCAD solve this!!. It's very annoying.
it works well for me
I have just checked it again and it worked fine for me. The printout matches my selection - there was just some border added by the printer.

As to your drawings and printing, you'd better create a sheet border (using the "BOR" command) before starting to draw in 2D. By default it is set to A3 but can be easily changed in Tools > Change Drawing Format. Then, during printing the system can take it automatically as an area to be printed.
printing problem
I had the same problems: interactive selection of a to-be-printed region produced unpredictable outputs. The only reliable solution I could find is to print the whole page, without scaling
1) put a sheet border as suggested by Marek, and put everything inside it
2) make a print File > Print > Print, VariCAD drivers, select 'Postscript print' and 'Output to file', specify the full pathname for the file (/home/user/print.ps, for example). Check 'Entire drawing' and 'No additional scaling'
3) convert the postscript file to pdf (in case of linux)
gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sPAPERSIZE=A3 -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=print.pdf print.ps
(replace A3 by your papersize)
4) print this pdf file

Printing the postscript file directly was ok on some printers, but produced offset and clipped output on other printers.
printing problem
I think I have the printing bug worked out (by accident today).

If I make a long and thin rectangular selection, the printed area in preview matches the selection and expands the height equally to the proportions of the page.

If I make a tall and thin rectangular selection, the printed area in preview expands in height and width so it is much bigger than the initial selection. I think there is a bug in the calculation of printed area based on height.

My solution is to always use a long and thin selection.

I still have not identified where varicad obtains the maximum printer size from as I do not think it is coming from my printer settings and it never matches my printer.
printing problem
With Opensuse, if I print to file and use a file name ending in .pdf, a pdf is automatically created without having to convert a ps file. Its in PDF-1.4 so is not so suitable for older acrobat readers.
Printing scaling
Printing scaling seems even worse in the latest release (2009 1.0) of VariCAD. I cannot post the screen snaps here but have put links. If I take the drawing
http://server2.pt-global.com/PTSSP6-GWcable.dwg and do a default print with the dialogue
http://server2.pt-global.com/defaultPrintDialogue.jpg I get the print area (shown in the preview)
http://server2.pt-global.com/defaultPrintPreview.jpg . If I use a print area defined by selection box and just select the drawing area I get the following print preview and area selected.
http://server2.pt-global.com/definedbySelectionWindowPrintPreview.jpg . Others seem to have experienced this problem, it is really frustrating and quite a put off for VariCAD as we have this issue printing EVERY drawing. We use linux, is the problem restricted to linux or seen in windows also.
Printing scaling
Since i tested and buy VariCAD i always had this problem too.
Now that i'm going to leave other cad software, i still have problems with print scaling. I tested the Ver. 2009 1.04 on OpenSuse 10.2 with HP4700dn, OpenSuse 10.2, 11 and 11.1 with Brother 4170, Opensuse 11.1 with HP 1018, Opensuse 11.1x64 with HP1018, and HP DJ1220c.... all with the same problem.
Many times i have 2 or 3 drawing loaded in one, and i need to print only one of them before creating the final version, so it's illogical to draw rectangular area around what i have to print in that moment, and also because i just have my company sheet border (it's a must!). I think the selction area of the printing tool is not working properly. I hope VariCAD team will modify it to work not relatively on their sheet border, but regarding the selected area with the selection tool, otherwise the area selection tool will be unuseful. Thanks Good Luck
Printing
The recommended way is to choose the right drawing format and make sure everything fits inside the sheet border. (Use the BOR command.) Then you can just choose print and it works.
The above is also suggested for every new 2D drawing you create in VariCAD. Before starting, select the right format and use the BOR command to have it displayed. (By default it is set to A3 for mm and B 17x11 for inches. But it can be set just as you need (see Tools > Change Drawing Format). Then, you can print without any problems.

If you use the option "Defined by selection window", please note that if width/length ratio of the paper in the printer is different from the width/length ratio of your drawing, the system prefers the size of the paper and needs to adjust the printed area.
For example, if the ratio of the paper is 3:4 and the ratio of your drawing is 1:5 (of course, these are extreme values just to demostrate differences), then it is obvious that after adjusting the printed format, you may see unselected objects on the printed paper or so.

Again, before starting, select the right format and use the BOR command to have it displayed.

Marek
Printing scaling
I now use a work around. On my company drawing border (landscape) I have 2 small tick marks each side may be at 1/3 and 2/3 height. Then when I use print by selection box I select an area just outside the company drawing border box on the sides so that I enclose the full width of the drawing but just the middle third of height. This then prints correctly and saves the trying and re-trying.
I have also tried moving the drawing into a varicad defined boarder but this is not always practical, it is also dificult if I just want to print out a section of a drawing for checking.
Printing scaling
I tested the Steve Edmonds work around, but it doesn't work. The problem is that we have about 2000 - 3000 drawing made with autocad, and some don't have integer ratio related to standard sheet sizes (A4, A3 ...). Anyway with all other cad the selection window is what you want to print, and it fit (it really fit) on your paper size. In VariCAD it seems to scale your selection area, to the nearest integer scale, NOT FIT! so the result is a very small drawing and dimension are not so clear (especially when they are many and near 0.1 mm or less). Printing to pdf file gives a bad quality, and anyway is illogic and time consuming for normal use (except if u need to export to pdf for someone).
I also tested the BOR: after setting its size (standard one or custom), when i click BOR to insert it, VariCAD automatically close with my drawing too, and without saving!!!
Hope in next update the selection window (in printing) and the fit option will work like in all other cad. Regards
Printing scaling
Sorry you are having so much problem also. It is the most urgent bug needing fixing in my opinion.

There may be another solution. That is to change the resolution of your screen. We have one installation of VariCAD that has no problem printing and always prints as you would expect. The screen is 1280x1024.
My screen is a wide LCD 1920x1440 and I can't print properly. If I change my screen and resolution I can get printing correct. It is not a good option for me but may be if you try different screen resolutions you can get printing ok.
print scaling
Hallo together,
As my college has got the same problem yesterday, (on a wide-screen notebook) I told him the following solution, until varicad has corrected the printig dialog:
You can resize only the varicad window to the aspect ratio of the paper.
Here you can use the printing border function to draw the papersize.
Then varicad can print the visible part of the drawing, and this is also the part you want to print.

But a better solution would be, that the print dialog not only zooms the drawing in the drawing area and then print the visible part.
As this will fail in the case of widescreen monitors, where the drawing area's aspect ratio is far away from the one of the paper.

A better solution would be, to use printing dialog to define the 2 corners of the printing area (as other cad-systems do) and respect this input.
The "VariCAD" way works ok on 1280x1024 resolution displays, but not on the newer video-playback screens....

Best regards,
Stefan

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