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Print/Plot
File > Print/PlotUse this command to setup ZW3D for plotting and select a printer to output. You can plot in a variety of formats, to a device attached to your local workstation, network or to a file. The Plot Setup Form documented below contains many new features including the ability to preview the plot job based on the current settings, new attribute priority settings and the ability to calibrate the configuration to your plotter.
- Modify the default plot setup configuration for your plotter (see below for each tab on the Plot Setup Form).
- Click the Preview button, users can pick Fit width or Fit page to change the display method, also can pick Zoom in or Zoom out to change the display size. In the sheet level, users can pick Previous page or Next page to switch the sheets.
- Click the Print/Plot button, users can save the settings and output to a local or network plotter.
- If you change your mind and don't want to print, click the Cancel button.
Print Setup Form - General Tab
Use the General tab to specify the printer/plotter name, select from the available printers/plotters, define the print/plot destination, color and format. You can plot to a device, a command or a file. You can plot in color or black and white. ZW3D supports a number of Vector plot formats including EMF (default), HP-GL, HP-GL/2 and EPS; and Raster or Pixel Based formats including PCL 5, TIFF and BMP.
Printer / Plotter
- Name
Select from the available list of printers/plotters. It can a printer/plotter connected directly to your computer or it can be located on a network. As long as the printer/plotter is listed here, you can print to it.
- Status, Type, Where
Information about your selected printer/plotter.
- Print to file
Check this box to print to a file. When you pick Print/Plot, the File Browser is displayed. Select or enter a file name to print to.
- Number of copies
Enter the total number of copies that you wish to output.
- Size
Select from the list of paper sizes. Make sure the same paper size in loaded into your plotter in the same Paper orientation shown on this form.
- Source
Select from the available paper sources for your printer. Automatically Select will attempt to find the proper paper source for your print.
- Units
The Units is set by the Units in Preferences command from Edit menu.
- Custom
Check this option, users can enter the Width and Height of the custom size paper.
- Width, Height
If "Custom" is checked above, enter the Width and Height of the custom size paper.
- Portrait, Landscape
Select the desired paper orientation (Portrait or Landscape).- Rotation
Pick 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees of rotation. Plot rotation is measured counterclockwise about the plot origin.
- Use default paper margins
Use this option to automatically determine the default values for all paper margins.
- Top, Bottom, Left, Right
If Use default paper margins is not selected, enter the size of the paper margins in the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right input fields.
- All sheet / Current sheet / Specified sheet
These options are available only in the sheet level. Users can specify the printed sheet.
- Layout
In the sheet level, only the area in the drawing border can be printed.
- Window
Users can select the printed area by window picking. Click the Select button to pick the printed area again. At this point, the Scale to fit option is not available.
- Display
Print the printed area.
- Scale to fit
If Layout or Display is selected, this box can be checked. Check this box to scale the plot to fit the selected paper size.
Print Setup Form - Advanced Tab
Use the Advanced tab to set advanced features of the plot setup. This tab contains six additional tabs for Attributes, Color, Line Style, Line Width, Device and Calibrate settings. Refer to each tab below.
Use the Attributes tab to specify additional plot attributes such as geometry x,y scale and line width and line style scale. You can set three levels of plotting priority and specify the plot tolerance. There is also additional data that you can plot with each plot job such as file name, path, time and date.
- Optimize
The HP-GL/2 plot format allows for the following optimization techniques. Check the optimization methods that you wish to enable.Color
Vectors are sorted by pen color rather than the order in which they were received.Endpoint
(Bidirectional plotting) swaps successive vector endpoints to minimize pen-up moves.Geographic
Sorts all vectors by their geographic area before moving to another area.
- Geometry x scale, Geometry y scale, Line width scale, Line style scale
Enter the plot scale for the geometry x axis direction, geometry y axis direction, line width and line style for all geometry (i.e., 1=Full Scale). If you want all geometry, line widths, and line styles to scale uniformly, set all to the same scale value.- Color
Select Colored, Grayscale or Black and White if you want the plot in Colored ,Grayscale or Black and White.
- Print background
Check this box to print the background.
- Print drawing border
Check this box to plot the drawing sheet borders. Otherwise no borders will be plotted.- Print stamp
Check this box to print the additional information. Click the Stamp Info button, users can set the file name, file path, print information(size, rotation and scale), time ,date, users strings and stamp position.
- High, Medium, Low
These options allow you to set three levels of priority for plotting based on Color, Line Style and Line Width. Make a selection for each.
- Arc step size
Enter the arc step size for plotting arcs, circles, and curves measured in degrees. This setting is used for plotting only.
Use the Color tab to map ZW3D colors to specific plotter pen numbers, set the pen speed and the maximum pen distance. You can also set the line style and line width for each color of use the default ZW3D attributes.
- Color
Lists the ZW3D default color number and color for plotting.
ZW3D supports true 2-color mapping (e.g., black on white). For the pixel-based plot formats TIFF and BMP, only color numbers 15 and 16 are enabled. Color 15 represents the foreground color and 16 the background color.
In ZW3D, set your background color to black or any other solid color. Also, the gradient background and background image options on the Background tab of the ZW3D Configuration Form should not be enabled (i.e., not checked). You can then set color 15 and 16 to your desired two colors.
You can also set the background color to white while using other color plot formats by setting color 16 to pen # 15.
- Pen #
Your plotter's pen number. Enter the Pen # for the assigned color or margin.
- A Pen #
Your plotter's alternate pen number. The alternate pen is used when the same primary pen has been used continuously for the Max Pen Distance without being swapped out. Enter the A Pen # for the assigned color or margin.
- Speed
Your plotter's pen speed measured in centimeters per second. Enter the pen Speed for the assigned pen.
- Line style
Left-click and drag to select a line style to assign to each pen. If Ignore is selected, this attribute is ignored and the assigned ZW3D line style is used. This refers to the default line style defined in the Line Attributes Form at the time the geometry was created.
- Line width
Left-click and drag to select a line width to assign to each pen. If Ignore is selected, this attribute is ignored and the assigned ZW3D line width is used. This refers to the default line width defined in the Line Attributes Form at the time the geometry was created.
- Max pen distance
The maximum distance a pen will travel in a single run. When this distance is reached the A Pen # (Alternate Pen Number) is used.
Use the Line Style tab to customize the output of the ZW3D default line styles. You can specify the exact lengths of the line and space segments that make up each line style. You can also customize the output line widths and colors assigned to each line style or use the ZW3D default line widths and colors.
- Line style
Refers to the default line styles defined in the Line Attributes Form. Geometry assigned to each of these line styles will be plotted based on the definition in this form.
- Line style definition
Defines the pattern for each line style. Refer to the note Defining Line Style Text Strings below.
- Line width
Left-click and drag to select a line width to assign to each line style. If Ignore is selected, this attribute is ignored and the assigned ZW3D line width is used. This refers to the default line width defined in the Line Attributes Form at the time the geometry was created.
- Color
Left-click and drag to select a color to assign to each line style. If Ignore is selected, this attribute is ignored and the assigned ZW3D color is used. This refers to the default color defined in the Line Attributes Form at the time the geometry was created.
- Use adaptive length line styles
This setting is specific to HP-GL and HP-GL/2. The line patterns are automatically adjusted to make sure two lines always meet at corners.
Defining Line Style Text Strings
The line style text string is a series of numbers separated by commas. It defines the pattern for that line style. Lets look at an example.
The first number (15.600) defines the overall length of the pattern. The second number (3.00) defines the length of the first solid line portion of the pattern. The third number (3.00) defines the length of the first broken portion of the pattern. The remaining numbers define the lengths of the solid/broken portions remaining in the pattern. The pattern begins with a solid length and ends with a broken length.
Line Style Definition Example
Use the Line Width tab to customize the output of the ZW3D default line widths. You can specify the exact line widths and customize the output line styles and colors assigned to each line width or use the ZW3D default line styles and colors.
- Line width
Shows the default line widths defined in the Line Attributes Form. Geometry assigned to each of these line widths will be plotted based on the definition in this form. You can change the line widths values here to override the default line widths.
- Line style
Left-click and drag to select a line style to assign to each line width. If Ignore is selected, this attribute is ignored and the assigned ZW3D line style is used. This refers to the default line style defined in the Line Attributes Form at the time the geometry was created.
- Color
Left-click and drag to select a color to assign to each line width. If Ignore is selected, this attribute is ignored and the assigned ZW3D color is used. This refers to the default color defined in the Line Attributes Form at the time the geometry was created.
Use the Device tab to set advanced features of the plot setup including plotter origin, software clipping, the plotter device unit and plotter control strings. You also use the Device tab to load/save your own custom plot setup configuration files. This allows you to personalize a setup configuration to your needs and then load it when you need it. There are also default setup configuration for a number of popular plot formats.
- X offset, Y offset
Use the X and Y Offset values to fine tune the placement of the plot on the paper.
- Enable software clipping
Clip geometry to the set paper margins.
- Plot software clip area
Similar to the Plot paper margins option. Refer to the Plot tab.
- Device unit
For vector based plots (e.g., HP-GL, HP-GL/2, EPS) the device unit refers to the smallest distance recognizable by your plotter. Set it to the valued specified by your plotter user's manual.
- Dots Per Inch (DPI)
For raster based plots (e.g., PCL 5, TIFF and BMP) the DPI refers to the highest resolution your plotter is capable of producing. The actual resolution of the plot is based on the screen resolution within your monitor's graphics window.
- Image size (pixel)
This will be the image size measured in pixels based on the current paper size and the DPI settings (see Dots per inch above).
- File size (MB)
This is the size of the file measured in megabytes (MB) if you output the plot to a file.
- Plot prefix
Plotter command codes that should be sent before the plot file. Refer to your plotter user's manual for available command codes. Pick Yes or No to enable or disable the plot prefix.
- Plot suffix
These are plotter command codes that should be sent following the plot file. Refer to your plotter user's manual for available command codes. Pick Yes or No to enable or disable the plot suffix.
If you have a roll-feed plotter you can disable the page advance command code by emptying the Plot suffix input field or by selecting No next to Use suffix.
- Available files
ZW3D contains preset plot setup configuration files for many of the supported formats. You can also save and load your own configurations. All settings currently active in the all of the Plot Setup Form (i.e., all tabs) are saved with the configuration.
This makes it convenient for example when the majority of your plot jobs use the same size paper or the same plotter. You can personalize and save the configuration to your needs and then load it when you need it.
- Setup file
Use this input field to load or save plot setup files. You can customize the plot setup, enter a name (do not enter a path) and then use the Save Setup File option below to save the current setup.
- Load Setup File
Load the plot setup file currently displayed in the Setup file input field.
- Save Setup File
Save the current plot setup to the file whose name is currently displayed in the Setup file input field. If the file exists pick OK to overwrite it or Cancel to close the form without saving.
- Make Default
Make the plot setup file currently displayed in the Setup file input field the default setup at startup.
- Delete Setup File
Delete the plot setup file currently displayed in the Setup file input field. Pick OK to confirm the deletion or Cancel to close the form without deleting the file.