Printing in the right sizes?
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Hi everybody.
I made a new balsa boat blueprint using SketchUp. All i need is to print it than put in on the wood and cut. But the problem is i can never print it in the right sizes.
Example: the shape is 22cm long but when i try to print it prints in the sizes of what i see on my screen. İf i zoom before printing it prints even bigger.
All i need is to print the blueprint in the same sizes of the model.
I'll be happy for the answers. Thank you. -
pegasus85,
You can print at a scale of 1:1 or any other scale you desire. However, your paper and printer have to accommodate the end result. Before printing go to File/Print Setup and choos your printer, paper size and paper orientation (portrait or landscape) that best suits your model's aspect ratio. Click OK. Before going any further let me say that the Google SketchUp (Pro) User Guide is misleading, inaccurate and incomplete when it come to printing instructions. Also, there is a printing behavior that I consider a bug when it come to printing to scale. So if you are going to print to any scale, including 1:1, first resize you drawing window so there is a minimum amount of unused drawing area on all sides of your drawing. If you don't you will end up printing on multiple pages when you only need one.
Next, go to File/Print Preview. Uncheck "Fit to page" and "Use model extents". You can figure out if the paper you are using is large enough for a 1:1 printout, or conversely, figure out the scale you need to use to print on one page by putting a 1 in both "In the printout" and "In SketchUp" boxes and the same units in the drop down boxes beside them. If you want to print 1:1 then you need to print on paper at least as large as indicated in the "Width" and Height" boxes under "Page size". If your printer doesn't handle a page that size then use these numbers to figure out a printing scale that works. Its simply a ratio problem. Place the new scale in the "In the printout" and "In SketchUp" boxes with the correct units in the drop down boxes and check to be sure that new scale will fit on your paper size.
Here is an example. I have a model, it is simply a rectangle 10" x 20". I am using Letter paper (8.5" x 11"). The model is longer in the horizontal direction so I choose to use landscape instead of portrait orientation which I set up under File/Printer Setup. I minimize the blank drawing area all around my model by resizing my drawing window. In File/Print Preview I uncheck "Fit to page" and "Use model extents". Next I place a 1 in each of the "In the printout" and "In SketchUp" boxes with inches selected in the drop down boxes next to them. I momentarily check the "Use model extents" box and notice that the paper size requirements are 30" Width and 20" Height. I know this to be wrong since my model, with no dimensioning, is 20" Wide by 10" High. I uncheck the "Use model extents" box again and now my paper requirements are 21.052632" Width and 11.014592" Height. This is much more reasonable and consistent with the size of my model. By the way, I think there is another bug in the Print Preview menu because this last calculation is not performed by SketchUp unless you check and uncheck "Use model extents" box. Now, with a little calculation (21.052632/11 and 11.014592/8.5) I can come up with a scale factor that will print to one page with the maximum use of that page. I have to use something larger than the larger of these two calculations. I could use 1:2, which is a good scale factor and slightly larger than either result. I plug 1 into "In the printout" and 2 into "In SketchUp" and notice it will fit on my paper. Now I click OK and I have an accurately scaled drawing.
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Thank you for your help. I tried everything you wrote but sadly nothing worked
Everytime when i tried it always printed a few cm shorter or longer. I'm new on Sketchup and that blueprint took my 1 week to desing it. And if i can't print it in right size it will be useless. I wish there was a patch or something like that to solve this problem. I believe that i'm not the only one with this printing issuses.
But thank you again for the help. If i can find a solution i'll share it on here
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Hi All,
Chiefwoodworker forgot some of the important steps to printing to scale
- Select Parallel projection (Camera menu)
- Select one of the standard views (Camera menu or toolbar button)
- Set your scale in the print dialog and print
This should get you a correct print within the tolerances of your printer.
To avoid page tiling, the best general idea is, as Chiefwoodworker said, to make your SU window match roughly the proportions of what your printer's print area, and to zoom in SU so that the window contains what you want to print, and what will fit on a single page to the desired scale.
Anssi
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Ahhhh! My bad. Thanks Anssi for adding those first and critical steps. I was too focused on getting the scale right.
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I am afraid my printer doesn’t print 1 to 1 either. I don’t think SU software has the printer control to that degree. So whether one can print or not, it’s the function of your printer capability. I think. I know my CorelDraw is capable of driving my printer to print 1 to 1. SU can't.
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ridix,
Yes, SketchUp can print 1:1. I do it all the time for my shop drawings. If printing 1:1 requires a paper size larger than you have in your printer (or your printer can handle) then you have to select "All" in the "Tiled Sheet Print Range" and it will print it on multiple pages which you can then tape together.
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