Frustration trying to print a template at 1:1 scale
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Hi all; has anybody had much luck printing a 2d template at 1:1 scale with SU8 for Mac?
I'm attaching my model to be printed (it's very small). It should print nicely on two sheets of 11x17 paper or maybe 3 or four sheets of 8½ x 11, but when I try, the model suddenly becomes horribly distorted and not only won't print, but also can no longer be viewed.
The steps I've tried are as follows:
Place outline on red-blue plane.
Camera set to parallel projection
Resize window so that template just fills it
File > Page Setup > set for US Letter
File > Document Setup > uncheck "Fit View to Page", set 1" = 1" scale
File > Print > Save as PDFImage on screen suddenly becomes highly distorted. Pdf output is blank.
I have to close the SU window without saving and then re-open my model to get rid of the distortion.Note: I've also tried the gk_Postscript_Plot plugin, and it falls over in different ways.
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SU =/ 2D CAD
if an iMac or MacBook Air without dedicated video sub-system switch of the OpenGL support of SU by going to "SketchUp > Preferences > OpenGL" and disabling the "Use Hardware Acceleration" option.
hth,
Norbert -
This sounds like an OpenGL problem to me, too.
@unknownuser said:
I've also tried the gk_Postscript_Plot plugin, and it falls over in different ways.
In what ways? You're pretty vague with that comment. I haven't seen any problems with that plugin on either Mac or PC. In fact I just ran it now on your file and it worked perfectly.
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@dave r said:
This sounds like an OpenGL problem to me, too.
@unknownuser said:
I've also tried the gk_Postscript_Plot plugin, and it falls over in different ways.
In what ways? You're pretty vague with that comment. I haven't seen any problems with that plugin on either Mac or PC. In fact I just ran it now on your file and it worked perfectly.
I found that the output had been badly clipped. I'm away from my Mac right now, but I'll upload a snapshot of what it produced.
If it worked for you, then perhaps I have an out-of date version of the plugin. I'll try re-installing it with the latest version. I hope that's it, because it's an awesome plugin.
I'll also be upgrading to SU Make, but unfortunately, I have to upgrade my OS first.
(Aside: Why, oh why, do software manufacturers always require the latest version of the O/S to run their product? Was there some feature in MacOS 10.7 that SU really needed that wasn't in 10.6?)
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The requirement to have up to date OS is driven by Microsoft and Apple. They quit supporting older versions of the OS and often change things enough that if programs were written to run on the old OS, they wouldn't run on the current stuff. Then you'd have people griping about that. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
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OK, well those plots look perfect. I'll re-install everything tonight and we'll see what happens. Thanks a lot.
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Well, I installed SU 2014 on a different computer, but still got the same clipping issues. I can't print a usable template.
Is it possible that the problem is specific to Macs? Or that I have an old version of the plugin? Is there a newer version than the one published in June 2014?
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I don't know what is causing the problem for you. I made the file I shared on my MacBook. I don't know of a newer version of the plugin. As far as I know there's only one version of it.
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Could you take a look at the attached skp file? Here are the steps I took to generate the template:
Open file, exactly as it currently appears in the skp file. One single polygon. Parallel projection. Select Tools > GK Postscript Plot. Select letter size. I'm also including the resulting postscript files.
I tinkered with adding a rectangular bounding box to the geometry, and it generated good output for letter size, but not ledger size. Still experimenting.
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falk:
Do not use MAC nor have I tried the plugin but some info may help. Have su2014 free:
When you print from SU the screen image is what is actually printed with allowance for tool bars;
For scaled print SU uses the pixel extent of your screen and the model size to determine the size to print. Again less allowance for tool bars etc.;
Watch the scale box when you select the fit to page option and that will indicate what SU thinks scale must be based on you printer, paper size and aspect ration of you screen,etc;
For scaled printing when SU cannot fit print on one page tiled printing is done using the number of pages required ( It calculates);
SU does not have a centering algorithm like some programs so in some cases more pages are required ( Than some other programs) and it will even show blank pages. As you have done using max screen area to display model and trying to match it's aspect ration helps.
I see 9 pages ( 8 1/2 x 11 paper) to print your original op model but no blank pages, more with the registration marks. -
I don't suppose the source code to gk_Postscript_Plot is available by any chance? I could take a crack at debugging the problem directly.
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Finally got a tidbit of information that had been missing. You and I were working with different paper sizes. I e-mailed the author to see if he's got any suggestions. (You could also have done that since he has included his e-mail address with the plugin.) As for getting the unscrambled version, I don't know. Generally when plugin authors opt to make rbs files, that's because they want to maintain control.
If I hear back from him, I'll give you a report.
If you are going to do much of this sort of thing, maybe you should invest in the pro version of SketchUp so you can get LayOut. With that you can make full size patterns that will print on any size paper. For larger things there's no need to print on multiple sheets. I recently did the plans for this chair. The plans include full size patterns for all of the parts and the bending forms. It's all SketchUp and LayOut.
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Thanks for the info. I got to play with the pro version for 8 hours when I installed SU earlier this week, but I spent it learning dynamic components. Those are really awesome, but I only use SU for personal work, and can't quite justify the $600 for the pro version. (Especially since Autodesk Inventor is only like $700.)
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