Expert: Bill DeShawn - 3/6/2006

Question
Hi
im quite new to Autocad and am trying to print of a printer some drawings. Some print great onto A3 but some drawings print just lines as if the drawing has been resized?

Can you help?

regards

Answer
First, you need to create a PC3 file if you haven't already.  It's best to use a PC3 file for AutoCAD instead of printing directly to the printer.  Then you can tell the printer to merge objects instead of printing everything by draworder.  You create the PC3 file in the _PLOTTERMANGER folder.  When you plot, you choose the PC3 file, not the printer.  I actually choose to hide system printers so that I only see PC3 files when I am ready to plot.  Then you choose a paper size.  You chose A3.  Then you enter a scale in the space provided.  The scale must be such that the desired portion of the drawing will be able to be seen on the chosen paper size.  Don't cancel the plot command until everything is set correctly.  Use the preview, and then exit the preview to make adjustments to the plot.  Once the preview is finally correct, exit the preview, but not the plot dialog and then go to page setups in the dialog.
Where it says: Page Setup and name: or Page Setup Name: , click on Add....
Then type in a page setup name.  Next time, you can just pick the page setup name and everything will be all set and ready to go.
When choosing the plot area, the easiest method to understand is to pick a window.  But if you understand about limits or extents, you can use one of those.  Just remember that if the drawing you want to see on paper doesn't fit on the paper selected, you either have to choose bigger paper or you have to make your drawing fit on the chosen paper size.  Sometimes you have to select a different scale, and sometimes you have to print to fit the paper (not to scale).

I hope what I've said helps you, but if you need more information, write again, and we'll continue the dialog.

Keep in touch
Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn