Printing issue survey

[Yogibear]

Looking for feedback on what others are doing. We have 60 people that can print to multiple prints/plotters. The issue is one day a person will print a drawing on 11x17 and is happy. The next day they try to print 11x17 and get it on 8.5x11. I'm sure some settings were changed or they changed printers but it always seems cumbersome to get exactly what you want.
When we used ACAD we had a pulldown that you could select Plot A, B, C, or D and it would automatically set the setting to what were needed.
Are you having to go to something like this for SW or what's everyone doing.

We're running SW 06 SP2.0

 

[ctopher]

I have had SW files default back to letter size prints for unknown reasons. I have had your problem, but never thought of it as a big deal to me. Maybe someone else has seen this?

Chris
Systems Analyst
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 05
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[dsgnr1]

This happens to me after I save as pdf.
Don't know why.
(templates are set up as 11 x 17)

dsgnr1

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[MadMango]

We've been dealing with this issue for so long that it is now a standard practice to check paper orientation and size for each print.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[Heckler]

We have the same issue but it really is no big deal. It just requires the user to check the printer properties. I would be surprised if it really is a OS issue or a printer issue. Try printing from Pro/e 2001 and then you will see this as a none issue.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
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_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success." - Henry Ford

 

[Standing]

I check print size each and every time.

Bradley

 

[Regg]

You could write a macro that would duplicate the functionality you had in ACAD.

 

[dezignstuff]

Page Setup gives you the option to use either System Settings or Document Specific Settings. If I were you I would set document templates for everyone to work from which have the document specific settings switch turned on, and make templates for the different size drawings, and the print sizes already set. This should make printing a no-brainer unless someone tinkers with something.

 

[Yogibear]

Thanks for all the feedback. That is kind-of what I thought. Eventually we will probably look at writing something to make it easier for everyone. There's not much you can do to stop the tinkerers.

 

[rporter]

This has been going on for as long as I can remember. I have found that if you don't use fit page setting that this helps in most cases.

I have trained myself to use print preview then print if it looks right.

 

[Yogibear]

That seems to be most of our problem. It looks right but what you see and what you get isn't the same.

 

[smcadman]

This happens to me after I save as pdf.
Don't know why.
(templates are set up as 11 x 17)

This was fixed in SW06 SP2.1

As far as setting templates for the different sizes, it doesn't help if you have mixed sheets in a drawing packet. We use 8 1/2 x 11 and 11 x 17 sheets, and the easiest way to print a drawing packet with mixed sheets is to save it as a PDF and print it.

The other way is to print sheets 1 to 20 as B size sheets (for example), then change page setup to A size sheets and print the rest.

Flores
SW06 SP3.0