Print to 1:24 scale in Layout on two A4 portrait pages

[john_mcclenahan]

I’ve ‘Sent to Layout’ a Sketchup model viewed in parallel projection which will comfortably fit on an A3 landscape page.

I have only an A4 printer.

I can’t seem to figure out how to set up Layout to print the scene over two portrait A4 pages.

If I set the paper size in Layout to use the A3 landscape template, open the SU file, check Preserve scale on resizing, resize the Layout window so the model is all visible, then print to my A4 printer, it only prints the left hand half of the page.

If I set the paper size in Layout to A4 portrait, only the left hand side is highlighted in the Layout window.

If I add another Layout (A4) page, it just shows blank, rather than taking up the RHS of the original page.

I tried and failed to do it direct from Sketchup.

How can I most easily learn how to do this in Layout?

I vaguely remember reading a post using an option to ‘tile output’, but i can’t find such an option in :Layout itself.

Did it refer to printing to a PDF A3 landscape page, then printing that to A4?

I’ll try that, and see if it works, but I still wonder if there’s a way to do it in Layout directly?

[A LITTLE LATER]

Well, Adobe Reader doesn’t show me any options to tile output either. If I set it to output at 100% scale, it prints (to scale) only the ‘middle’ of the page using Autorotate to change from A4 portrait to landscape, and clipping off left and right edges of the model.

So I’m still stuck.

Any advice from experienced Layout users welcome - I have rarely needed to use it myself in the past, though I’ve had it for about three years, and only needed to use it for quite simple things.

[DaveR]

Adobe Reader has a Poster print option that you could use but if you’ve set your paper size in Document Setup to A4, it’ll likely use more than 2 sheets of paper.

When I have a need to make a drawing or something span across two pages, I set up the page size (A4 in your case) and copy the viewport to a second page and adjust its position on the second page accordingly. No matter how its set up, I don’t print directly from LayOut. I export to PDF and print that instead from Reader or Acrobat.

[john_mcclenahan]

Many thanks, Dave. I’ll try both of those.

Printing direct from SU for a third attempt, it prints over two landscape A4 pages, but clips the view very narrowly on both, and changes further when I switch from raster to vector and back.

And now when I switch back to Layout, the view has gone bizarre, stretched widely horizontally.

Will start over, and try again in Layout.

[DaveR]

@john_mcclenahan

And now when I switch back to Layout, the view has gone bizarre, stretched widely horizontally.

Did you create a scene in SketchUp to use for the viewport in LayOut?

If you share the LayOut file I can probably show you what you need.

[john_mcclenahan]

Sorry, it’s in SU not Layout that the view has gone bizarre. And doesn’t correct itself using Revert.

And yes, I did follow your oft repeated and very good advice to set up a scene in SU.

Give me a few minutes to try again.

[DaveR]

@john_mcclenahan

in SU not Layout that the view has gone bizarre.

Is the scene screwed up or just the view? How is it bizarre?

Here’s a quickie example. Two pages, same viewport and some marks at the center to use to aid in alignment.

[john_mcclenahan]

It looked as though I’d inadvertently used Scale horizontally, but Zoom Extents showed no different, and both the scene and the view in it showed the same.

But I’ve closed and reopened the SU file and it’s back to normal.

I’ll take it from the top again, and follow your two suggestions.

In the meantime here’s a link to the current LO file. It seems it’s too big to upload.

Dropbox - File Deleted

I’ll need to purge the SU file too - there’s a lot of unused components in it, there for other reasons not now relevant.

[DaveR]

So you should wind up with something like this:

[john_mcclenahan]

I see. I haven’t quite got there yet but will in a few minutes.

[DaveR]

It would look better if you would create the grid separately from the tree and add the text in LO. Depends on what you need out of it.

Grid and text in LayOut instead of in SketchUp

Screen grab from the exported PDF.

[john_mcclenahan]

The grid is a separate component (actually two - one for major, one for minor grid) from the tree.

I was originally hoping to print it direct from SU. It’s the framework for a tree in our forthcoming production Things I know to be True (in May) and the grid helps us lay it out in the workshop.

I’m trying to get the pages in LO set up for A4 portrait.

I thought I’d got them right, with the view still showing as not modified, but I see the grid label text has shifted in LO relative to the grid. It’s still correct in the SU file.

In SU:

I’ve Updated the SU reference in Layout but the view still has the legend in the wrong place, and some of the labels are now missing (from 8’ to 12’ vertically):

Is this just a weirdness in Layout positioning SU text labels?

I suppose I can go back to SU, put the labels on a new layer and hide it, then go back and re-add them in LO but that seems a bit of a palaver!

I’ve re-saved it to Dropbox (same link). Could you please have a look to see if you can tell what I’ve done wrong to get this to happen?

As always, I’m very grateful for the advice you can give.

[john_mcclenahan]

And weirdly, after I purged the SU file, it’s ballooned from just over 4MB to 11.3MB.

The Layout file has ballooned correspondingly.

Hmmm. What’s going on here?

The screen text repeats still in the centre of both pages (understandable) but the main top caption has disappeared completely - too big to fit on the A4 page?

No wonder you advise adding text in Layout if it moves SU text around like this.

Anyway, i’ll try printing these two pages I have now, and see if they will do.

[DaveR]

Not sure why it has ballooned. I’ll look shortly. The LayOut file includes the SketchUp file so if the SketchUp file gets bigger, it stands to reason the LayOut file would too.

I made three A4 pages in portrait orientation. Since there was room on the paper, I used a larger scale. Still haven’t added the numbers along the side.

[john_mcclenahan]

Many thanks again, Dave.

Stop there, i think, on your behalf.

I’ve got something good enough - to scale, on two A4 pages at 1:24.

Missing title (SU screen) text and misplaced right hand height text labels, but it’s good enough for Workshop use.

[DaveR]

The SU file before purging was 11 Mb and just over 100 Kb after purging the unneeded bits.

I purged unused once and got this:

Then I deleted the image, grids, and numbers and purged more.

[john_mcclenahan]

I wonder why my purges (I did it twice) didn’t reduce the file? I did the usual Window/Model Info/Statistics/Purge Unused, and saved it afterwards.

Another oddity.

But thank you again.

(See a PM I’ve just sent you on a mostly unrelated matter)

[DaveR]

@john_mcclenahan

I wonder why my purges (I did it twice) didn’t reduce the file?

I don’t know. I like TIG’s Purge All because it can give you the report so you can see what went.

Tree construction 1 to 16 scale_.layout (581.3 KB)

[john_mcclenahan]

I’ve worked out why my purges didn’t reduce the file size - the background image is huge - 11MB - and I’d forgotten to shrink it.

[DaveR]

That would do it. As you can see in my version of the file, I’ve removed it since it appears to have done its job.

[john_mcclenahan]

Indeed. It hasn’t quite done its job yet, though - it will be the model for cutting out the hardboard trunk and branches which we still will have to attach to the frame. But I can and will shrink it, to reduce the file to about a quarter of the size.

Is the missing or misplaced text a bug, or just how Layout positions SU Leader and Screen text? The misplaced or obscured leader text on the right had a hidden leader to its left to position it, and it looks as though Layout has moved the text, either to the end of the leader, or even mirrored the leader so the text is left instead of right from the attachment point on the grid intersection.