Plotting ( Home & Modeling & Drawing Editor )

Tool summary :

  • Prints detail sheets or gather sheets or erection sheets that you select. Or you can " Print to file ."
  • See the step-by-step instructions for more information.
  • The Printing selection dialog is used to select sheets for plotting, but also has options such as " Plot comment layers " that affect the appearance of the plotted sheets.
The Plotting selection dialog
Defaults Plot comment layers Erection sheets
Scale plots (windows) Plot revision layers Hide ...
Reverse plot order Detail sheets OK and Cancel
Lock revision chart Gather sheets  

Also see :

VIDEO A selection list is used to print gather sheets loaded one part per sheet. The technique selects gather sheets by sequence.

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   The Plotting selection dialog :

Defaults: The default settings for " Scale plots ," " Reverse plot order ," " Lock sheet revision chart ," " Plot comment layers " and " Plot revision layers " come from the last time you plotted. This is a user setting, not a site setting, which means that other users on your same network can set different defaults for themselves.

Automatically selected for plotting are: 1) Any sheet that has never been plotted. 2) Any sheet that has been altered by users directly, or by external operations such as " Detail BOM only " or Search and Replace in Selected Drawings . 3) Any sheet that has a sheet item (detail) placed on it which has been altered since that sheet was last plotted.

Scale plots: or . This applies to Windows operating systems only.

If this box is checked ( ), printing automatically adjusts the print size (up or down) so that it fits onto the actual sheet.

If the box is not checked ( ), printing does not automatically adjust the print size.

Reverse plot order: or .

If this box is checked ( ), the selected (highlighted) sheets are plotted opposite to their order in the selection list .

If the box is not checked ( ), the sheets are plotted in their order in the selection list.

Lock sheet revision chart: or .

If this box is checked ( ) and there is a revision chart on any sheets that you select , printing checks the box for " Locked... " in the Sheet Revision Chart Editor for those sheets (click here for more information) and creates a new base drawing (unless the box is checked for " Disable automatic creation of BASE drawings ").

If the box is not checked ( ), the current " Locked... " state of these revision charts is maintained.

Layer Options :

Note: Layers that are hidden (" Show " not checked in Layer Edit All ) are not plotted.

Plot comment layers: or .

If this box is checked ( ), comment layers will be plotted if they are set to " Show " on sheet items (details) which have been placed on the sheets that you select.

If the box is not checked ( ), no comment layers will not be plotted.

Plot revision layers: or .

Example of a cloud and pointer and delta symbol that might be found on a revision layer.

If this box is checked ( ), printing will print revision layers that " Show " on those sheet items (details or submaterials or erection views) which have been placed on the sheets that you select.

If the box is not checked ( ), printing will not print any revision layers that are on the sheet items which have been placed on the sheets that you select.

Select :

Note: You can simultaneously print detail sheets and/or gather sheets and/or erection sheets.

Detail sheets: or .

If this box is checked ( ), detail sheets are shown in the selection list , and any of those sheets that you select (highlight) will be plotted.

If the box is not checked ( ), detail sheets are not shown in the selection list. No detail sheets will be plotted.

Gather sheets: or .

If this box is checked ( ), gather sheets are shown in the selection list , and any of those sheets that you select (highlight) will be plotted.

If the box is not checked ( ), gather sheets are not shown in the selection list. No detail sheets will be plotted.

Erection sheets: or .

If this box is checked ( ), erection sheets are shown in the selection list , and any of those sheets that you select (highlight) will be plotted.

If the box is not checked ( ), erection sheets are not shown in the selection list. No detail sheets will be plotted.

opens the Hide Items window so that you can mask the sizes of sheets that you do not want displayed on the selection list .

"OK" print those sheets that are selected (highlighted) on the selection list. Go to step 7 (Windows).

"Cancel" ends the printing operation. Nothing is plotted.

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   Plotting/output to disk under the Windows operating systems :

1 . Do one (1) of the following to invoke Plotting :

Method 1 : Click the Plotting icon, which is pictured above. The icon can be taken from the group named ' Interface ' and placed on a toolbar (classic) or the ribbon (lightning).

Method 2 : Home > Export > 2D > " Plotting ."

Method 3 : In Modeling (classic) or the Drawing Editor (classic), choose Interface > Plotting , or click the icon pictured above, or use a keyboard shortcut .

2 . A selection dialog opens. The default settings for " Scale plots ," " Reverse plot order ," " Lock sheet revision chart ," " Plot comment layers " and " Plot revision layers " come from the last time you plotted. It does not matter if another workstation on your network plotted in the meantime -- these settings are remembered from the last time you plotted. These are user settings, not site settings.

2a (optional) : Check the box for " Scale plots " if you want printing to automatically adjust the print size (up or down) so that it fits onto the actual sheet. Check the box for " Reverse plot order " if you want the sheets to be plotted opposite to their order in the selection list . Check the box for " Lock revision chart " if you want printing to increment the sheet revision of selected detail sheets the next time any details that are on those sheets are changed during Detail Members .

2b (optional) : Check the boxes for " Plot comment layers " and/or " Plot revision layers " to print drawing layers of those types. Sheets themselves typically have only a single drawing layer. These options affect the drawings on those sheets, which may have several drawing layers, including revision and comment layers.

2c (optional) : Press the " Hide ... " button if you want to select sheets by sheet size.

2d : Check the boxes for " Detail sheets " and/or " Gather sheets " and/or " Erection sheets " to display the type(s) of sheets you want to choose from, then select the sheets that you want to plot, then press the " OK " button.

Note: Printing automatically selects (that is, highlights) any sheet that has never been plotted or which has been altered or which has a detail placed on it which has been altered since that sheet was last plotted.

3 . If, in step 2, you deselected sheets that were automatically selected and thus caused them to no longer be selected for plotting, a yes-no dialog opens.

Warning!

Sheets automatically selected for plotting have been deselected? Would you like to retain automatic selections for next time?
     

Alternative 1 : Press " Yes " to cause the sheets you deselected in step 2 to be automatically selected (highlighted) the next time you print a sheet.

Alternative 2 : Press " No " to permanently clear the print flags.

4 . The Windows Print dialog opens.

4a : To " Select Printer ," select the name of the printer or plotter you are outputting to.

4b : To " Number of copies ," enter the number of copies of each sheet that you want to print ( 1 or 2 or 3 , etc.).

Alternative 1 : Click the " Preferences " button. Go to step 5.

Alternative 2 : Go to step 6.

5 (if applicable) : If you pressed " Preferences " in step 4, the Printing Preferences dialog opens for the printer you selected. The options available on this window may be different for different printers.

5a : To " Orientation " select either ' Landscape ' (long side horizontal) or ' Portrait ' (long side vertical).

5b : Make any additional changes you want to the Printing Preferences window.

5c : Press the " OK " button on the bottom of the window.

6 . The Print dialog (which first opened in step 4) becomes active again.

6a (optional) : Check the box for " Print to file " if you want to output the sheets to a file instead of the printer. The files are given a .plt extension.

6b : Press the " Print " button.

7 . One (1) of the following happens:

Possibility 1 : The sheets you selected are output to the designated printer.

Possibility 2 : If the " Print to file " check box was checked in step 6 , the Save As dialog opens, allowing you to select the folder you want the file to be placed in. By default, the files are sent to the destination specified for User and Site Options > the " Output " tab > " Plot to file directory ."

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