I want my drawings to print on Tabloid, in Landscape format.
Document setup and paper set up are all good, but when I go to my .pdf reader (Bluebeam), it’s only part of the page, and it’s at 8 1/2 x 11!
What am I doing wrong?
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Can you share the file?
Did you print it to PDF?
Or did you use LayOut properly and File>Export?
Thanks, guys! I did export to .pdf, but the file was 1kb, with nothing.
I’ll upload when I get back to the office this morning
Appreciate the help - I was beat and had to crash
Rats - file is 25mB (includes some renderings, but that number alone is making me think I have a problem with the original file - it’s just a house addition…)
Upload it to DropBox or We Transfer and share the link.
Thanks - I have to go out to a meeting now for two hours but will be back online at 11:30 EDT. I appreciate any help or suggestions!
I’ll take a look at your file and see what I see.
Thanks - I did set both document layout and page layout to Tabloid, but…
I’ve got your file but you should remove it from DropBox now. It contains client contact info. You probably don’t want that out in the wild.
Thanks so much
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As far as exporting to PDF goes, it works just fine on my PC. This is the second sheet in Adobe Reader. I enlarged it enough to crop out client info on the right.
This is the Print dialog in Adobe Reader. You can see at the top of the panel with the page preview that it shows the document dimensions correctly.
I went into Properties at the top to set the paper size. I don’t have a physical printer mapped to this computer so "Microsoft Print to PDF is shown as the printer.
Do you have Adobe Reader or can you get it to examine the PDF you are exporting from LayOut?
As for the size of the LayOut file, most of that is due to the size of the SketchUp model. There’s a copy of the .skp file embedded in the LayOut file. Your SketchUp model isn’t huge by most standards but it could still be “slenderized”. You could remove all those 3D Text components and do that labeling in LayOut instead. The text in LayOut has much less impact on file size than all that geometry in the 3D Text. Remove that 3D text would also speed up rendering if you chose to render the viewports as either Vector or Hybrid since LO won’t need to render all that text from the model.
There are a few other things I found in your model. My standard cleanup process with SketchUp models is to first fix incorrect tag usage. All edges and faces should be created and remain untagged.
I purged unused and was pleased (and a little surpised) to see no unused components or materials in the model. I also checked material sizes and none of them were excessively huge so that’s good.
I did discover an unused bed which didn’t appear in any of the scenes.
And also a firedoor which probably doesn’t meet code.
Those were deleted and the unused components and materials were purged. I also removed most of the 3D Text components from the model. That cleanup alone reduced file size by 32%.
Another place where you go reduce the LayOut file size is by resizing the image on the first sheet to match the size it’ll be on the page. Based on the resolution, your image wants to be 26.7 inches wide. By reducing its size to match the size on the page that was reduced by 88% with no visible reduction in image quality in the PDF.
Just reducing the size of that image to about 20% off of the size of the LO file. I did not update the SketchUp reference with the slimmed down model file because of changes created by fixing the tag usage and removing all your 3D Text labels but there would be a substantial file size reduction there.
Another thing you could do to help file file size is remove the Dynamic Component properties from the Dynamic Components you’ve used. Once they are set as they need to be they probably no longer need to be dynamic.
As I wrote before, your file is still not huge compared to many I see. I wouldn’t expect it to give you any problems with PDF exports. Where were you saving the PDF when exporting it? I wonder if that might be the cause of your 1Kb export size. Mine is a little over 2 Mb with viewport and image output rendering set to high.
Wow!!! Thanks - hopping on it now and will let you know how it goes.
I first learned CAD in 1984 so I got into the habit of purging files on a regular basis - stray lines screwed things up ferociously back then.
I really love SketchUp - coupled with Enscape, I’m enjoying my little retirement practice, and I really appreciate the forum and your help especially!
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Also - I use Bluebeam as my .pdf reader - maybe I’ll switch over to Adobe and see if that helps.
If you are coonsistently getting 1 Kb PDF files out of LO I wouldn’t expect the reader to change anything. I have heard of other cases where things don’t show coorectly in a PDF when opened with certain readers but work fine in other readers so maybe there’s something related in your case. Good luck.
Weirdest thing - I tried printing from Print Preview in Layou2024 - success!
Got the .pdf I wanted, then tried the same process in Layout 2024 -nothing.
Panic averted - I have what I need for my meeting tomorrow, but this requires some investigation on my part…
Thanks again,
Tim
I don’t understand.
Did you use File>Export to export a PDF?
Nope! I just hit “Print Preview”, under the Page Layout button. The Print Preview came up and it was fine, so in that same window, in the upper left hand corner, I hit the “Print” button and, by Jeeves, it printed!
I ALWAYS export my files to .pdf, but it’s not working on my machine for some reason, now.
Typo - it worked in Layout 2024, but not in Layout 2025
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OK. So did you install SketchUp and LayOut 2025 correctly? That requires right clicking on the installer and selecting Run as administrator. If you didn’t there could be problems with permsissions.
Where are you saving the LO file as you are working on it?