Printing to scale

LayOut
1

My Layout work is not printing to scale, either directly from Layout or via PDF.

I’m an architect and I need to find a robust solution.

2

What is it that you are having difficulties with? LayOut will print or export your page to full scale. The usual culprit is in these cases Adobe Acrobat. When you print a PDF to paper, the default setting in Acrobat (or Adobe Reader) is to fit the print to paper. If the PDF already matches the printer page size, this will add additional printer margins, so the finished printout is reduced. Page scaling should be set to None for printing to work correctly.

Anssi

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3

Thanks Anssi. You were correct .

4

Hi - found this old post as having the same issue and once again, I am a Landscape Architect, so precise printing is imperative.

I don’t actually have Adobe on my Mac. I export the Layout file to PDF and send to my reprohouse. They assure me they make no adjustments their end with regards ‘fitting to page’. I use A2 by default (which I have to customise as isn’t a standard page size in Layout) and have measured the exact dimensions of the print outs several times to ensure the custom A2 size I use in Layout is precise.

I usually scale 1:100 or 1:50 although I have noticed that when I change the scale, this has no effect on the visual look of the work which seems odd. Layout also allows me to adjust the size of the work using the drag function to make it more appropriate to the page, which again, doesn’t seem right.

Any pointers greatly appreciated as I’m having to redraw a lot of the critical work by hand to ensure accuracy which really defeats the purpose of using CAD!

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Questions for you:

  1. Are you setting up scenes in SketchUp for the views you want in LayOut?
  2. Are you setting those scenes with the camera set to Parallel Projection and setting the appropriate standard view?
  3. Are you making sure the scenes don’t show as modified in LayOut’s SketchUp Model inspector window?
  4. Have you tried printing the PDF file yourself? Even if your printer doesn’t handle the set paper size, you can print tiled pages that should be at 100% and thus get something you can measure with an architect’s scale.
  5. Can you share an example LO file that shows the scale problem? If you can’t share it publicly, you could send it by PM. I won’t broadcast it to the world.
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Hi Dave,

Thanks for reply - I’ve created a new file and set up a scene in SU with camera set to Parallel Projection and top view. Could you kindly elaborate on what you mean in relation to point 3 please?

I have done a test print and having the same problem with scaling still. Happy to send over…

7

Hi Pen,

Regarding point 3, if you do something like double click on the viewport and change the view or change the “Standard View” in LO, the scene will show as modified in LayOut’s SketchUp Model inspector window. When the scene shown as modified, it is no longer connected to the original scene in SketchUp. This creates issues when you need to make scene-specific changes in SU.

If you want to share the LO file, I’ll take a look. If you don’t wish to make it public, send it via a PM. If it’s too large, >3 Mb, I’ll give you my e-mail address so you can send it that way or you can upload to Drop Box and share the link.

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Sending you an email now thanks

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