Printing to scale

Tayler

hi everyone... i have a silly question which is no doubt a repeat but i have looked.
i have created a template to use on my woodworking. the problem exists when i try to print. it wont let me select a 1 to 1 scale in print. i am using xp pro and a hp 952c printer. any suggestions as to what obvious trick i have missed would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

tayler

Gaieus

Hi Tayler,

Make sure you follow these steps:

Go to Camera menu and select Parallel projection (disable Perspective)
Choose any of the "Standard views" (Front, Top etc.) > View menu
In the print dialogue uncheck "Fit ti page" (somewhere mid-bottom left) to enable you to select a print scale.
Also make sure to read about printing in the SU Guide.
(Note that though print scale is marked as "Pro version only", it is now available in the Free version as well)

Tayler

thanks gaius it worked.. bought a new printer for wife too lol. one other question when printing how do you make it just print the part you want and not the whole screen?? can you turn off background colours as well to minimise ink usage?

really appreciated

Gaieus

Well,

There are a couple of ways - depending on what you want to accomplish.

If you check the "fit to page" option on the left, it will print whateve you see on the screen and printing it non-scaled using the maximum print area.

If you select the scale option (and your model is bigger than one page when printing in 1:1) it will print the model tiled on several papers. Now if you the print preview from the File menu to see which part of your model is on what page, you can then enter those pages you want to print in the bottom left and leave the rest out.

Also you can always hide (or put on hidden layers) some parts of your model and only print what is left seen.

To tell the truth, I very rarely print (I don't even have a printer) but these steps and solutions seem to be quite straightforward. Use a virtual (PDF) printer to experiment (and not waste paper and ink) or just use the print preview to see what you can accomplish with printing.

If you have a Pro license, it comes with a program called Layout which has a couple of further features regarding printing (there's no info in your profile on the left about this therefore I wrote "if").

Happy printing!

Tayler

thanks gaius, yes i only just joined this forum. i am presently trying patiently to learn the program and have found this very useful. the reason i wish to print is that i intend to use this program to map out templates for my furniture making. at present i am making a hall table that requires shaping similar to a queen ann but slightly modified.

again i appreciate your help

tayler

Gaieus

There is a whole Woodworking Subforum here with lots of help concerning woodworking itself (although you may want to write your mainly SU related questions on the main SU forums for better attention).

You can join the woodworking usergroup in your User Control Panel and be able to see that subforum by default from the Board Index.

Those guys "down there" are very skilled in SU and also extremely helpful (I just wish to have more time to visit that section).

Ross Macintosh

Regarding wanting to print just part of the what you see displayed (to save ink)...

I think this undocumented tip works: Resize your SketchUp application window to effectively crop your model as you desire, then do your printing. In other words adjust the display window & the view of your model so that the window contains only what you want printed. If I'm not mistaken, it will only print what is displayed in the window. I know this works when exporting images i'm pretty sure it works similarly with printing.

I hope this tip works. [Please advise]

Regards, Ross

kjacob

Well, this is really frustrating. I've followed the steps of going to parallel projection, turning off fit to page, and using a top view of a simple 2" x 4" plate. I'm trying to print a template in 1:1 and depending on the size of the plate on screen I can get a 9 page printout, a 4 page printout, or a 1 page printout.

I just can't figure this out.

I'm sad.

Ken

kjacob

Oops, sorry. I get it now. SU is scaling the whole screen (I use a big screen iMac.)

Sorry.

Ken