Save print settings with drawing?

When I open a file to print it, Layout always reverts to the default page size and settings for the Windows default printer. Am I missing something terribly obvious, or is it not possible to save the printer setup with a Layout file? My default printer is a color laser, but I typically print Layout drawings to a 24" roll plotter. Not only does Layout revert to the laser every time I reopen a file, it even changes the page size back to letter from whatever I’ve set in the Document Setup.

I’m not sure, but I think the printer setup is part of the OS and Layout don’t have influence on this.

It may be part of the OS, but if I set up an AutoCAD document to print to my roll plotter at 24x36 landscape, and save the file, it will be set that way when I open it again. Likewise if I set up a Word document to print on form feed mailing labels, or a Quickbooks report to print on legal sized paper on the inkjet. The print settings for each individual file are preserved with it.

@David_Scheu,
Have you done your ‘Document Setup’ and ‘Page Setup’ found in the ‘Layout’ >> ‘File’ menu?

or is that a mac thing??

john

The page size in Document Setup stays the way I set it, which is usually Arch D landscape (36" x 24") . The page size in Page Setup reverts to 8-1/2" x 11" every time, along with the Print Preferences. In fact, I can’t even set the page size in Page Setup to 36x24 (I guess because my default printer can’t print that size) without first opening the Print dialog and choosing the roll plotter, hitting Apply, then Canceling out. Only then can I select the correct paper size in Page Setup. But once I save and reopen: back to 8-1/2" x 11".

By the way, the same thing happens if I’m working in a size that the default printer can do, but which isn’t the default size. If I create a 8.5" x 14" page, which my default printer can do, it will still revert back to its 8.5" x 11" default.

So I contacted Sketchup support and was told yesterday that this is a known issue, that the SketchUp Team is working on it, and that they hope to have it fixed in the future.

David,

I’m glad to see this is on their radar for a fix. I have had the exact same frustration.

Team Sketchup,

Please make it where the printer and paper size can be “saved”. People who buy “pro” to get Layout print routinely to larger paper sizes on printers that are not our OS default printer. This was a bad miss on the developers part.

I just downloaded and installed the 2016 upgrade. Some nice improvements (groups with layers, thank you!) but I CANNOT BELIEVE that they have not addressed this fundamental issue! Seriously, saving print settings with documents is baseline functionality for any graphic output application. It has been available in every application capable of saving and printing files written since about Windows 3.1. I’m not sure I’d even call it a feature, anymore than I’d call “works with a mouse” a feature. Please, LayOut team. Get this right.

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I can’t believe that this is still an issue.

So frustrated I have to change page setup every time I want to print page horizontally.

sucks…

It is the same with all applications that use the standard Windows print function. You should set your favourite page size and orientation from the printer driver’s default settings dialog. For me that is natural as I am unlikely to print to a large format printer from applications like Word.

As to creating PDF documents, I would use the internal PDF export feature in LayOut.

Anssi

Anssi, would you mind providing the name of a full featured modern application designed for generating print output that reverts to the Windows default printer and default page settings each time a document is printed? Because every one I use - Word, Excel, AutoCAD, QuickBooks, to name a few - saves the page layout and print setup with each document.

Same here, Sketchup is the only app that does not save this information. It used to, if I remember correctly. Anyone know if Trimble is still working on it?

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April 2017 and there’s still no fix for this, so I give up, there’s clearly not going to be one.

SketchUp also fails when printing using Save As PDF- it suddenly distorts the file to such an extent that you can’t see any components on screen and there’s no way to resolve but quit SketchUp and restart.

It’s a nightmare trying to get it to simply print at 1:1 ratio (model actual size for paper mock-ups), which you’d think would be standard functionality and pretty easy to code for.

But having posted on software forums like this for, well, since there was an internet, I today came to the realisation that despite all my Feature Requests and posts, NO APP has ever been fixed in response to any issue I’ve noticed or reported.

Not Gmail, not SketchUp and, of course not Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.

I guess forums are really a place to vent and so app consumers can provide product support to each other, for free.

I love SketchUp but I’m so glad I didn’t pay full price for it!
Given that this problem, and others, have been around for so long I certainly won’t be buying it in the future either.

ps, check this out, if you’ve had a similar nightmare… How To Print At Actual Size (1:1) In SketchUp - OzBotzOzBotz

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This feature is sooo missing that I really wonder HOW a team of developers can think about avoiding fixing it…

Actually everyone say: save on paper, don’t waste paper, but this MISSING feature is a 100% PAPER WASTER…

I always forget about this when I open a layout file and I always fall in the mistake not to re-set it correctly to have my wished prints…

The problem is not me, not remembering…

The problem is world is progressing, not regressing…

You, DEVELOPERS, can’t avoid thinking about this…

I bet at least one hundred trees have been wasted worldwide for such a glitch…

UNBELIEVABLE !

My suggestion is not even thinking about releasing a 2018 version without this problem solved… :wink:

I work as an architect. We produce a lot of drawings. They all get distributed electronically as PDF files. I haven’t needed the office printer for many months.
I should be all for wasting paper, as Finland is a big producer, but really its last days as a document medium are near.

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Anssi, paper output is an advertised and widely used feature of LayOut, but since it is not a feature that you use, I understand how you would not be aware of its inadequacy.