Print to a PDF file, plot file (.plt) or printer

Tekla Structures
2021
Tekla Structures

Print to a PDF file, plot file (.plt) or printer

You can print drawings and selected drawing areas to PDF files or to plot files (.plt) to be sent to a plotter or printer, or print drawings on a printer. You can also modify the output line colors and line widths (pen numbers). You can print to a single printer or to multiple printers, or print one drawing to multiple sheets.

Print a drawing

  1. On the File menu, click Printing > Print drawings.

    This opens the Print Drawings dialog box and Document manager.

    You can also start printing in the following ways:

    • In Document manager, select the drawings, right-click, and select Print, or click the Print button.

      The order of drawings matches the order they appeared in Document manager at the point in time when the Print Drawings dialog box was opened.

    • When a drawing is open, select File > Print drawings.
    • Press Shift+P on the keyboard.
  2. In the upper-left corner, ensure Use one printer is selected.
    This is the default option.
  3. Load the desired printing settings from the settings list.

    You can also give the settings a new name. In this case, you need to give the new name before you modify any settings, otherwise your changes will be lost. For more information about the printing settings, see Printing settings and search order.

  4. In Document manager, select the drawings that you want to print.

    Any out-of-date drawings are detected and you are asked whether to include them in the output or not.

    You can also print locked drawings that are up to date. If a locked drawing is not up to date, you cannot open or print it, and a failed printout will be reported. You can print any unlocked drawings unless the status of the drawing is Original part deleted.

  5. To show a preview of the drawing, click Click here to load a preview.

    The preview shows the drawings always up to date. We recommend that you check the preview while you change the printing settings.

    If you have selected to print several drawings, the drawings are shown one by one in the preview. Use Next and Previous to scroll through the set of selected drawings.

  6. Select how to print:
    • PDF file: Converts the selected drawings to PDF format.
    • Printer: Sends the selected drawings to the selected printer.
    • Plot file: Converts the selected drawings to print files in a format suitable for the selected printer and saves them in a specified location.
  7. Define the printing settings on the Options tab. The available settings depend on the printing option that you have selected:
    Option Description

    File location

    Enter the location for the PDF file or plot file, or use Browse... to browse to the folder.

    The \Plotfiles folder under the model folder is the default value.

    This option is only available if you have selected PDF file or Plot file.

    Printer or plotter Select the printer or plotter. Click Properties... to adjust printer properties.

    Include revision mark to file name

    Add the mark of the latest revision of the printed drawing to the print file name.

    Revision number is used by default. If you always want to use the revision mark instead, set the advanced option XS_​SHOW_​REVISION_​MARK_​ON_​DRAWING_​LIST to TRUE. If the revision mark is still not displayed, check the following advanced options and include REVISION_MARK in the value:

    XS_​DRAWING_​PLOT_​FILE_​NAME_​A, XS_​DRAWING_​PLOT_​FILE_​NAME_​W, XS_​DRAWING_​PLOT_​FILE_​NAME_​G, XS_​DRAWING_​PLOT_​FILE_​NAME_​M, or XS_​DRAWING_​PLOT_​FILE_​NAME_​C, depending on the drawing type.

    This option is only available if you have selected PDF file or Plot file.

    Open folder when finished

    Open the PDF file or plot file folder in Windows Explorer after the printout has been created.

    This option is only available if you have selected PDF file or Plot file.

    Open file when finished

    Open the PDF file after it has been created.

    This option is only available if you have selected PDF file.

    Output to single file

    Print the selected drawings to a single PDF file.

    If you do not select this option, each of the selected drawings will be printed in a PDF file of its own.

    This option is only available if you have selected PDF file.

    File name

    Give a file name to a PDF file. The file name is needed if you are printing to a single file.

    The PDF file name can also be controlled by a couple of advanced option switches for customizing print file names. These switches do not work for single combined multiple drawings PDF file.

    This option is only available if you have selected PDF file and Output to single file.

    File extension

    Specify a file name extension for the plot file. The default is plt.

    This option is only available if you have selected Plot file.

    File prefix

    File suffix

    Enter a specific prefix and/or suffix in the PDF or plot file name.

    When you enter a prefix or suffix, the file name preview under the File prefix and File suffix boxes will reflect the change immediately.

    The file name can also be controlled by advanced option switches for customizing print file names.

    This option is only available if you have selected PDF file or Plot file.

    Fit to paper

    Fit the drawing to a specific paper size.

    This setting does not work if you have selected Scale.

    Scale

    Force the printout to a specific scale.

    The Scale value will turn red if the drawing cannot fit on the specified sheet.

    This setting does not work if you have selected Fit to paper.

    Center drawing on paper Center the drawing on the sheet (or sheets).

    Print on multiple sheets

    Print on multiple sheets and specify the direction of printing the sheets. This is particularly useful if your drawing contains several drawings. Select to print from Left to right, top to bottom or from Bottom to top, right to left.

    When you use Print on multiple sheets, always set a particular Scale.

    The preview shows how the drawing is divided into sheets.

    Paper size

    Define the paper size or use automatic size.

    With the Auto setting Tekla Structures selects the paper size that has the least wasted area when the scaled print is fitted to the printable area on the sheet.

    Printers are often unable to print on the full area of a sheet, and leave borders. The printable area is determined for the selected printer when the option Printer or Plot file is selected. For PDF files, the printer is not known, so the output is sized to the full sheet. However, when printing a PDF, the same problem exists and the drawing content is fitted to the printable area of whatever printer is being used. The printable area is shown with white background and the non-printable border is shaded gray in the image below.

    Two configuration files affect paper sizes and drawing sizes: PaperSizesForDrawings.dat and DrawingSizes.dat . For more information, see Configuration files used in printing

    Orientation

    Define the orientation or use automatic orientation.

    The Auto setting means that the orientation that wastes least space is selected automatically.

    Color

    Select if the output is to be Color, Black and white or Grayscale.

    Number of copies

    Define the number of paper copies to be printed.

    This option is only available if you have selected Printer.

    Collate

    Collate the printout when you are printing multiple copies.

    This option is only available if you have selected Printer.

    Embed fonts

    Embed the fonts in a PDF file.

    This ensures that fonts may be reproduced in a system that does not have the same fonts installed, but this also increases the file size. In certain cases, fonts may be embedded automatically. When using non-Latin fonts, we recommended that you use embedding, otherwise the PDF may not be displayed correctly.

    This option is only available if you have selected PDF file.

    Select area

    Select a rectangular area from an open drawing to only show and print that area. This option only works when you have a drawing open.

    All settings in the Print Drawings dialog box also work when Select area is selected, and you can change the orientation, line width, and paper size, for example.

    Show entire drawing

    When you have selected an area with Select area, the Show entire drawing button appears, and you can use it to show the entire drawing in the preview again.

  8. Go to the Line properties tab to map colors to line widths (pen numbers) and set the printout colors:
    Option Description

    Object color

    Shows the basic set of object colors.

    Color on output

    • Set the printout color by clicking a color box under Color on output and selecting a new color from the displayed colors. You can also define custom colors.

    Different output color is often used when you just need one or two lines in color and the rest in black. Output colors are used in all printing options (printer, plot file and PDF file). The output colors are saved to and loaded from the printing settings files.

    If you have selected Printer line colors through File > Settings, and change a line color, the change is immediately shown in the drawing.

    The Color on output only applies when the Color option is set to Color on the Options tab in the Print Drawings dialog box.

    For instructions on how to show correct line widht on the screen, see Line thickness in drawings.

    Line thickness

    • Enter the line width (pen number) for each color in the boxes.

    Line width is expressed as a multiple of the advanced option XS_BASE_LINE_WIDTH value. The default value for this advanced option is 0.01 mm. For example, line width 25 will give a line weight of 0.25 mm.

    Note that the black and white color mode always shows the printer line width on the screen, whereas the color and grayscale color modes only show the printer line width on the screen if the Printer line widths switch is active in File > Settings. Also note that the screen is refreshed when printer settings, such as line width values, are modified.

    You can define Invisible color for parts and shapes in drawings in the part or shape properties. The Invisible color is not shown in printouts, neither on paper nor on PDF.

    If you are having problems with showing correct line width, see Line thickness in drawings.

    Reset colors

    You can reset the printout colors:

    • To reset an individual output color, click the corresponding Object color color box. The Color on output color box will change to have the same color.

    • To reset all output colors to be the same as the object colors, click the Reset colors button.
  9. Save your printing settings by using the Save button in the upper-left corner.
    For more information about the printing settings and the search order, see Printing settings and search order.

    You can also add frames and foldmarks to you printouts.

  10. Click Print to print the drawings in the PDF format or as plot files, or to send them to a printer according to the settings you defined in the dialog box.
    Each drawing is sent to the printer as a separate print job.

    All printing errors are written to a log file in the model folder: logs\DPMPrinter_<username>.log .

Example: Print to multiple sheets

The Print on multiple sheets setting on the Options tab prints the drawing on multiple sheets. You need to specify the direction of printing the sheets. This is particularly useful if your drawing contains several drawings.

In the example below, the option Bottom to top, right to left has been selected. The numbers indicate the printing order of the sheets.

In the next example, the option Left to right, top to bottom has been selected.

Print to multiple printers

You can print to more than one printer in one go based on the paper size of each selected drawing. When printing to multiple printers you typically have different printers for handling different paper sizes. Tekla Structures automatically selects the appropriate printer for each drawing.

To print to multiple sheets, you need to:

  • Create and save the printing settings for the necessary printers
  • Print by using Use multiple printers mode.

Create single printing settings

To be able to print to multiple printers, you first need to create single printing settings for each of the printers you want to print to:

  1. On the File menu, click Printing > Print drawings.

  2. Select Use one printer.

  3. Define the printing settings as desired on the Options tab and on the Line properties tab. Select the output type and printer, and define the paper size that this particular printer will handle in Use multiple printers mode.

  4. Save the settings with a desired name by clicking Save.

  5. Repeat this for each of the desired paper sizes. Do not use the size option Auto.

    For example, you could create the following single printer settings files with the output type set to PDF file:

    • PDF A4: Paper size set to A4, file prefix set to A4_
    • PDF A3: Paper size set to A3, file prefix set to A3_
    • PDF A2: Paper size set to A2, file prefix set to A2_

    When printing a set of drawings in the multiple printers mode using the above single printer settings files, all A4 drawings will generate .pdf files with prefix A4_, all A3 drawings will have prefix A3_, and all A2 drawing will generate .pdf files with prefix A2_.

    If you want to print more than one sheet size to the same printer in Use multiple printers mode, create a single printer settings file for each paper size, and specify the same printer in all of these files.

Print to multiple printers

  1. On the File menu, click Printing > Print drawings.
  2. In the upper-left corner, select Use multiple printers mode.
  3. In the Selected single printer settings files list, select the settings files to use in printing. You can select all or just some of the single printer settings files.

    The output type (printer, plot file, PDF file) is defined by each selected single printer settings file. Typically you would select settings files with the same output type. Output types lists the output types that are specified in the selected single printer settings files.

  4. Change other necessary settings on the Options tab.
    The available settings depend on the output type you have selected. The settings are described in the "Print to a single printer" section above.
  5. Change necessary line width and color settings on the Line properties tab.
  6. In the displayed Document manager, select the drawings that you want to print.
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