Printing to full scale
 

Umm.. Im having trouble printing to full scale on inventor. I have a huge plotter and when I click ratio 1:1, the print is smaller or bigger than it should be. Is there any other option I have to set?

Re: Printing to full scale
 

Check the paper size. it's in the lower left box, if you right click on the Sheet and choose Edit Sheet. Also, try tile printing if it is a big size. Select Tiling Enabled on the print screen.

Re: Printing to full scale
 

rohit,
When plotting 1:1 the paper size is only considered if the plotted area is larger than the plotter paper. 1:1 plotting is so accurate that I regularly use it to create models and labels. If you have a printing driver that recalculates the plot (i.e. the driver asks if you want to invoke a printing zoom) then you must turn off this function in order for the plot to be 1:1.

Re: Printing to full scale
 

As Al said, 1:1 plotting is usually pretty accurate, so the first thing to check is your printer setup and print settings. Make sure the Scale is set to Model 1:1 as below.

Re: Printing to full scale
 

So if it needs to be 1:1, change the paper size. If not, best fit is usually a good option.

Re: Printing to full scale
 

you have to format the plotter under the print menu we ran into this when printing plots for our supermilage car however make sure you use print preview theres a glitch between big plotters and inventor

Re: Printing to full scale
 

1:1 is extremely accurate, I used printouts last summer as templates for drilling holes in a prototype.

Re: Printing to full scale
 

When, using CAD in this way. I find it is best to just go to AutoCAD. It is much simpler and will be mostly self-explanatory. I am a bit biased though(AutoCAD is my favorite software). Also, if you need to, you can transfer files from Inventor to AutoCAD and vice versa. A feature I use from time to time whenever I am stuck on a project.

Re: Printing to full scale
 

If your plotter does have scaling issues... you can always print out a series of lines that are 1, 2, 3 inches long and using calipers find the actual lengths of them, average the ration between the actual and printed sizes of all the lines you print (the more the more accurate) and average the ratios. Then, printing using this ratio will get you as close as possible to true 1:1.

Had to do this on an old HPGL/2 hp pen plotter that was a little out of wack, works great now, +/- a hundredth or so.

-q

Re: Printing to full scale
 

Alex,
With the old pen plotters you had to be very specific as to when the pen must lift from the paper and there were selections for how you wanted lines to meet and end. If the vertical lines were not accurate but the horizontal lines were, you usually were facing a paper travel problem. The fix is cleaning or change of the capstan rollers or in some cases, a change of paper.

Re: Printing to full scale
 

Thanks! I never thought to check the rollers... that makes a heck of a lot of sense. I have been having to rescale the printing now and then lately, I guess from more gunk accumulating. I'll try that... makes a heck of a lot of sense now. :rolleyes:

-q