To make a simple print of a drawing that fits on one sheet:
- Select File / Print to open the Print window.
- For Print Range, click All to print your entire drawing.
- Check Fit on 1 Page.
- Select the printer, and click Properties to set the paper size and orientation.
- Return to the Print window, and click OK to print your drawing. Your drawing will be centered and printed on a single sheet of paper.
If your drawing is larger than the printer sheet, as it is in most cases, you need to use tiled printing. This method prints sections of your drawing on separate pages, which can then be pieced together. The Page Setup is used to set parameters for tiled printing
Tip: When tile printing, it is usually best to turn the Print Crop Marks option on, unless your printer is capable of printing with zero margins. Crop marks enable you to easily trim the edges of the paper so that the sheets can be pasted onto a backing for display.
An example of tiled printing is as follows:
- Select File / Page Setup.
- On the Paper page, use the Printer Paper field to specify the paper and orientation.
- In the Drawing Sheet Size fields, specify the size and orientation of the area on which you want to print the drawing. For example, if you want a printout 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide, you would type 2 ft x 3 ft in the list box, and choose the Landscape option. Or you can select a standard size.
- Click Fit to place your drawing on the tiled sheets.
- Click Print to print your drawing immediately, or click OK and print later using File / Print.
Another way to tile print is to specify the number of rows (the number of pages from top to bottom) and columns (the number of pages from left to right). This is done on the Layout page of the Page Setup. You can then return to the Paper page to fit your drawing onto the tiled printer paper. TurboCAD will automatically adjust the dimensions of the drawing sheet to accommodate changes in the number of rows and columns.