Tiling a plan for printing
10-22-2003, 08:58 PM
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Tiling a plan for printing
I have seen several posts about tiling the page so you can print the pages and tape them together for a large plan. I have autocad 2002 and do not know how to do that. Can anyone help? Also, how do you smooth out the many lines and curves you have to make when tracing over a plan with autocad where you have a large curve that is not consistent? I have looked around but either I am looking in the wrong places or.... but I cannot find any help. When you trace over a plan, do most of you only do one side and then mirror for the otherside?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Don
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Don
10-22-2003, 09:53 PM
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RE: Tiling a plan for printing
The tiling option should be in the page setup where you select the paper and any scale factors just prior to printing. With my TurboCAD that's where I do it. There should be something where you select how many columns and rows of pages to do it. Play with the paper oriented as portait or landscape to reduce the number of total pages required. Also there's a little check box to select "Print Crop Marks" where it puts little CG type marks in the corners that you can trim the paper to and use as alignment marks. I would imagine that AutoCAD has all this as well? Or if it's too "Pro" to provide anything so pedestrian then you can come over the the Dark Side with the rest of us pedestrian TurboCAD users that enjoy this feature.... 
For tracing only use straight lines for drawing straight lines. For curved lines use a Spline or Bezzier curved line tool. Use snap options or single key snaps or automatic snaps (I hear that AutoCAD has this feature) to join the beginning and ends of the curves to the straight lines that are meant to join to each other. The Help SHOULD have something about those two curve tool names now that you know what they are called.
ALWAYS only do one side of symetrical shapes or plans then mirror along the center line to draw up the other side. First rule of CAD..... Never draw the same thing twice if you can copy it somehow. Not to mention that you will always have some fudge factor mistakes related to the thickness of the image lines compared to the width of the CAD lines so you're often guessing about where the center is and clicking slightly off all the time. Mirroring ensures true symettry in the two halves. Similarly if you correct one side don't do the other. Just delete the whole side and mirror again. Make that expensive computer EARN its keep ! ! !
For tracing only use straight lines for drawing straight lines. For curved lines use a Spline or Bezzier curved line tool. Use snap options or single key snaps or automatic snaps (I hear that AutoCAD has this feature) to join the beginning and ends of the curves to the straight lines that are meant to join to each other. The Help SHOULD have something about those two curve tool names now that you know what they are called.
ALWAYS only do one side of symetrical shapes or plans then mirror along the center line to draw up the other side. First rule of CAD..... Never draw the same thing twice if you can copy it somehow. Not to mention that you will always have some fudge factor mistakes related to the thickness of the image lines compared to the width of the CAD lines so you're often guessing about where the center is and clicking slightly off all the time. Mirroring ensures true symettry in the two halves. Similarly if you correct one side don't do the other. Just delete the whole side and mirror again. Make that expensive computer EARN its keep ! ! !
10-23-2003, 07:36 AM
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RE: Tiling a plan for printing
What I have been doing to print my plans tiles from autocad is. I draw a single 7.25" x 10.25" box, then copy and pase it using the onsnap so that they line up. This way when you plot your drawing, you can use the window feature and print each tile individually, the glue or tape then together. Plus, if you need to reprint one page, you can figure it out easier. See the examples below. Sorry for the fuzzy images, but I exported them kinda funny from autocad 2000i
Jacob
Jacob
10-23-2003, 09:52 AM
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RE: Tiling a plan for printing
If you are in Fontana, just write your drawing file to a disk and take it over to the engineering offices for the City of Fontana on the west side of Sierra, and give the disk to Bob Porter for them to plot out full size. The is another fellow in an office near the Sizler restaurant who is currently drawing plans also. If you are trying to do this at home, go to WWW.CADALOG.COM and there was a discussion on how to set up multiple (numbered) views, such that your drawing can be run off on a home deskjet.
If you are trying to copy and represent from model A/C plans, you have to build upon the idea that the curved lines were made up from multiple arcs using highway curves. If you are working off a digitized drawing, just tap the nodes, and build upon three point curves. Remember to be tangent where the curves meet straight lines, and tangent to the next curve. If the plan is quite old, the draftsman may have wandered the pen a bit, and you will then have to decide what is appropriate as to position of the line in the area.
I do not use the mirror function but to a limited basis. It alters the plot file routine, and thus slows the progress at the time of plotting or cutting. The only thing mirrored may be the general exterior of the A/C in the top views.
Wm.
If you are trying to copy and represent from model A/C plans, you have to build upon the idea that the curved lines were made up from multiple arcs using highway curves. If you are working off a digitized drawing, just tap the nodes, and build upon three point curves. Remember to be tangent where the curves meet straight lines, and tangent to the next curve. If the plan is quite old, the draftsman may have wandered the pen a bit, and you will then have to decide what is appropriate as to position of the line in the area.
I do not use the mirror function but to a limited basis. It alters the plot file routine, and thus slows the progress at the time of plotting or cutting. The only thing mirrored may be the general exterior of the A/C in the top views.
Wm.
10-23-2003, 09:18 PM
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RE: Tiling a plan for printing
Bruce:
Thanks for the information. I will have to go into the print commands and see if I can figure it out. Thank you for taking the time to explain and not belittle me for not knowing the answers to my questions, or where to find them.
Thanks again.
Don
Thanks for the information. I will have to go into the print commands and see if I can figure it out. Thank you for taking the time to explain and not belittle me for not knowing the answers to my questions, or where to find them.
Thanks again.
Don
10-23-2003, 09:30 PM
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RE: Tiling a plan for printing
Wm.:
Thanks again for your responses to my questions. Rather then bother your friend at city hall, I will try the printer in Colton on Valley that I have used on regular prints. I have not checked but she has helped me with prints for my job and modeling in the past.
I still have to work out the curve item! I am trying but I need to except that which is not perfect as the norm.
I am not sure what the plot file routine
, but I am trying.
Thanks again.
Don
Thanks again for your responses to my questions. Rather then bother your friend at city hall, I will try the printer in Colton on Valley that I have used on regular prints. I have not checked but she has helped me with prints for my job and modeling in the past.
I still have to work out the curve item! I am trying but I need to except that which is not perfect as the norm.
I am not sure what the plot file routine
, but I am trying.Thanks again.
Don
10-24-2003, 09:35 AM
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RE: Tiling a plan for printing
No problem. I have also done it like this, I use continuous form feed paper and set my printer like I am printing a banner.
eg. The company I work for used a lot of 11 x 14 pin feed paper. I just cut the pin hols off one side and then cut it 12 7/8" wide and 5 sheets long. Now I have a page that is 12 7/8" x 55". My printer at work can handle the 13 inch wide paper and up to 50" long.
I then follow the same process that I followed above and print the same plan on 4 strips of paper instead of 32 seperate tiles. It makes lining up the pages easier.
I have included some pictures of the laser plans that I have done this way.
Jacob
eg. The company I work for used a lot of 11 x 14 pin feed paper. I just cut the pin hols off one side and then cut it 12 7/8" wide and 5 sheets long. Now I have a page that is 12 7/8" x 55". My printer at work can handle the 13 inch wide paper and up to 50" long.
I then follow the same process that I followed above and print the same plan on 4 strips of paper instead of 32 seperate tiles. It makes lining up the pages easier.
I have included some pictures of the laser plans that I have done this way.
Jacob
10-24-2003, 08:30 PM
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RE: Tiling a plan for printing
Jacob
I tried that a few years ago, but the standard Windows printer driver would not permit anything longer than about 24 inches. What driver do you use or how can the Windows printer set-up be altered to let it do as you mentioned? I asked the folks at Computing.net how to create a banner print, and all I got back was that certain softwares would handle such and others would not. They mentioned it was up to the software to over ride the print files. I would think only way then is to export the CAD drawing file into a graphics software, if it will handle it.
There has to be more to this than I read so far.
Wm.
I tried that a few years ago, but the standard Windows printer driver would not permit anything longer than about 24 inches. What driver do you use or how can the Windows printer set-up be altered to let it do as you mentioned? I asked the folks at Computing.net how to create a banner print, and all I got back was that certain softwares would handle such and others would not. They mentioned it was up to the software to over ride the print files. I would think only way then is to export the CAD drawing file into a graphics software, if it will handle it.
There has to be more to this than I read so far.
Wm.
10-24-2003, 10:44 PM
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RE: Tiling a plan for printing
Coos, I've done a few banner prints of plan stripes using my HP Deskjet 952c. The printer drivers support banner printing without the need for it to be native to the software.
Now so far I've done the striping of the plans on my own by producing separate files of the stripes. I take my full sized regular file and add cut lines at the correct intervals. Then I use the Split Entity tool to separate any lines that cross the cut lines. Any curves are then fine tuned at the break if required and I cut and past the strip along with the cut lines to new files for printing. I then rip off some sheets of old sprocket feed fan fold, pull off the sprocket strips and put the 2 3 or 4 sheet stripe into the printer.
Come to think of it this method would work for any printer that supports custom paper sizes. Just split the plan into stripes as above and then TELL the printer that the paper is 8.5 x 22, 33, 44 or even 55 inches. I suspect most printers will support custom paper sizing.
There I go doing things the hard way again...
Now so far I've done the striping of the plans on my own by producing separate files of the stripes. I take my full sized regular file and add cut lines at the correct intervals. Then I use the Split Entity tool to separate any lines that cross the cut lines. Any curves are then fine tuned at the break if required and I cut and past the strip along with the cut lines to new files for printing. I then rip off some sheets of old sprocket feed fan fold, pull off the sprocket strips and put the 2 3 or 4 sheet stripe into the printer.
Come to think of it this method would work for any printer that supports custom paper sizes. Just split the plan into stripes as above and then TELL the printer that the paper is 8.5 x 22, 33, 44 or even 55 inches. I suspect most printers will support custom paper sizing.
There I go doing things the hard way again...
10-25-2003, 10:23 AM
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RE: Tiling a plan for printing
Bruce:
It must be that the drivers for Canon, Epson, Xerox, do not support this mode in an "AS-is" condition. The selection in the windows printer options will only let you select 8 1/2" by 11"' of 14" sheets.
Back on my old computer with 3.1 loaded up, the graphics software used to support the same printers in banner format. In a stand-alone format, they will not using the supplied drivers. I have never hooked up a H-P printer to any of my computers, and maybe they will support the format. I still have a roll of paper from when I used to run off banners on the older 3.1 machine. Same printer run in later Windows using "any" driver and same software will not run banners.
Wm.
It must be that the drivers for Canon, Epson, Xerox, do not support this mode in an "AS-is" condition. The selection in the windows printer options will only let you select 8 1/2" by 11"' of 14" sheets.
Back on my old computer with 3.1 loaded up, the graphics software used to support the same printers in banner format. In a stand-alone format, they will not using the supplied drivers. I have never hooked up a H-P printer to any of my computers, and maybe they will support the format. I still have a roll of paper from when I used to run off banners on the older 3.1 machine. Same printer run in later Windows using "any" driver and same software will not run banners.
Wm.
10-25-2003, 10:35 AM
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RE: Tiling a plan for printing
I was doing the 13 x 50 Printer at work on my HP Deskjet 1220C. I can do 8.5 x 40 on my Epson C82 at home. I you go into the printer properties in the printers folder, you can set either a user defined or custom page size, depending on the print driver that you are using.
Jacob
Jacob
