Printing Tiled Plans - Free Program
 

I got fed up with trying to print tiled plans from gifs or jpegs and I couldn't find anything that would do it for free, so I wrote a little tiling program.

I call the program Tile Print and it is free for personal use.

You load a picture, zoom to a portion where you know a dimension, draw a line with the mouse and enter the size. For example if you know the distance between ribs is 3", then draw a line between 2 ribs and enter 3 inches into the scale box. If you want it to be 200%, enter 6 inches. If you want it to be 50%, enter 1.5 inches etc. Then just click the print button and Tile Print will scale, tile and print the picture.

Tile print supports the follwing formats: Bitmaps (*.bmp;*.dib), GIF Images (*.gif), JPEG Images (*.jpg;*.jpeg), Metafiles (*.wmf;*.emf) and Icons(*.ico;*.cur).

Please keep in mind that I wrote this in a few hours, so don't be surprised if you run into a few bugs.

You can download it from at http://donatelli.net/downloads/tileprint.zip

My printer has a print preview function, so I can show you what a split up plan might look like.

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

This is that a picture would look like.

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Here's how a set of "Roughneck Too" plans came out after printing and taping them together.

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Andrew, I downloaded the program and it only took about one second to download and I'm on dialup. nothing happens when I try to open it. I don't think it downloaded. - Lynn

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Bipe Flyer:

The same happened to me, It downloaded in a second, but when I tried to open it nothing happened. I went to the Donatelli site, but I couldn´t find the link. Maybe needs some registration, I don´t know.

Regards.
Claudio

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Whoops sorry, the link is fixed now. The file is 2.27Mb.

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Bipe Flyer,
Worked for me! Can I put that link on my site so other people
can download it? Most of my stuff is now in PDF format, and sadly,
converting files out of PDF takes real Acrobat to do it.
Did you write that in VBA?
Thats what I like to see, real DIY attitude!
Did you try to include .tiff formats into the programs abilities?
(I know pdf's are out of the question!)
Dave

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

B/F,
i have a ?s about the program...if i scan a copy of a plan from a magazine...will i be able to tile it up to the normal size???or can i tile it to any size i want???

if this is true,i think you have a gold mine here and don't even know it...:D

john

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Dave,

I'm going to add a "Tile Print" page on my web site. When that's done I'll send you a link that you can use.

It is written in VB6.

Support for tiff format would require purchasing or licensing an activex control or a dll, so I don't think I'll be adding it. You can open a tiff file in another program and then copy and paste it into Tile Print. Acrobat is a whole other kettle of fish.

List of current bugs/things to be added:
Can't change paper size/default printer in NT or XP.
Metric units
Drag and drop files
Mousewheel support

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Yes, you can take any picture, scanned or otherwise, and scale it to any size you want.


Darn, I knew I should have asked for money.:D

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

b/f you are a genius,da man,my hero,and da bomb:D:D:D

john

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Thanks Bipe!
Yes, scanning an old plan and printing on 8 1/2 x 11 sheets, that is a boon! I tried your suggestion, opened a tiff in Imaging, copied the whole thing, pasted into your program, scaled and printed just fine. No luck using that method with a pdf (I just had to try it!).

For some reason I have to print twice, the first time throws one sheet (upper left) 2nd time I get the whole works. Probably a problem specific to my machine or network though.
Good Work BipeFlyer, This is something that has been needed for quite some time now.
Dave

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

To get a PDF into Tile Print. Open the PDF file in Acrobat, zoom to 100%, click "Edit" > "Select All" (Ctrl-A), then click "Edit" > "Copy" (Ctrl-C). Open Tile Print and click the paste button or click "Edit" > "Paste" (Ctrl-C).

I might add an option to save files.

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

I added a feature to save files which should come in handy for pasted images. Currently it only supports bitmat (.bmp) files. I will look into adding other formats. You can download the latest version at the same link.

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Guys,
I haven't tried the Tile print utility yet but it sounds like a winner.
Try this...when you are copying and pasting out of PDF's try zooming in after you select the image...
Select the image at whatever zoom level allows you to comfortably "pick" the image with the image select tool then zoom in to 400% prior to copying and pasting. The image resolution should be significantly improved depending on the resolution of the original image...YMMV.

Hmm...Doesn't work in Acrobat Reader 6. Acrobat Reader 5 works if you can find it...

Griz

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Thanks for the tip Griz, but I tried that and it didn't work well.

The resolution at 100% will be the resolution of the origial image before it was put into the pdf file. Anything more than that becomes pixelated. You may get clipboard errors and it will slow down printing considerably.

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Andrew, you're SCARING me man! Ain't no human beings I know of can understand all this computer wizardry. You sure you're not related to one of them visitors that landed at Roswell back in the 50's? ;) They say that's where all this stuff comes from....back-engineered alien gizmos.

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Hey Bipe,
This is what I get when I try to paste a PDF into Tile Print:
Are you using Acrobat Reader or a real version of Acrobat?
I tried it with Acrobat Reader 6 and Acrobat 5, no luck with either.
But, I have figured out how to create tiled pdf's (see the post on the Match Stick).
I am planning to "chop up" the pdf's on my site that are bigger than letter size
so they can be printed in tiles.
Dave

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Milton,
http://www.donatelli.net/images/alienwriting.gifhttp://www.takas.lt/forum/images/smiles/alien.gif




Dave,
I'm using Acrobat reader. Try clicking the "Graphics Select Tool" button on the toolbar before selecting and copying. In keystrokes it's "G', "ctrl-A", "ctrl-C" then in Tile Print "ctrl-V"

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Bipe Flyer:

Excelent !!! It works OK, I have several plans in .gif format and now I can scale them to the right size. GOOD WORK !!!

Regards.
Claudio

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Gort, Klaatu Verata Nicto!

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

b/f
WoW that is cool and worth its weight in gold!:D
so... after you print the pages, do you have to cut the edges still to match them to each other
chuck
(rob &chuck)

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

Bipe,
Well, for me the trick was to use Acrobat Reader 5, not 6!
5 will paste the picture into Tile Print, I can't get 6 to do it at all.
With 6, I just get the icon like the screen shot I posted earlier.
Great little applet Bipe man!
Dave

RE: Printing Tiled Plans
 

I know where that phrase originally came from, but the only movie that I've actually seen it used in was Army of Darkness.

Printing Tiled Plans - Install Issue
 

The install program is complaining about some system files being out of date on my XP Professional SYstem with Service Pack 2 and all updates as of about an hour ago. What system files is the install program contemplating overwriting, and is it checking dates or actual file revisions?

Thanks in advance!