Hi,
I have about 70 DGN drawings that the line weights and text styles were setup to display properly when the drawings were printed to a size D 24" x 36". I now need to print these drawings to a size B 11" x 17". When I do print to this size the lines and text are too heavy. How can I have the printed lines and text scale down to display properly at the 11" x 17" print size? I'm using MS V8 2004 version 08.05.01.25. Thanks for your help with this.
Monty Robison.
Hi Roy,
That's what I have been doing. I open the DGN file and then I print it to Adobe PDF at a scale of 2" drawing = 1" paper (24" x 36" = 12" x 18"). It asks for a file name to save it as and then it opens in Adobe Acrobat Professional 6.0. I then select to print the file to my windows printer (Minolta Pageworks 25) in an 11" x 17" format. Am I doing something wrong here?The lines and text still come out very heavy and hard to distinguish. Thanks for your reply and help!
Monty Robison
Monty,
You need to print to PDF at normal size and create the full size 24"x36" PDF. Then you would open the 24"x36" PDF in Acrobat and print at 50% (12"x18") or fit to page 11"x17" (43%±).
- Roy
Roy,
Ahh! I'll give that a try and let you know how it works out. Thanks!
Monty
Years ago, when I was a CADD Manager at the local DOT, I managed to put through a plolicy change where we changed our standard sheet from Arch D to Ansi D as this allowed a true 11X17 1/2 size print. We even evaluated the printable area of the 11X 17 printers to ensure the plots were not cut off.
I have encountered a number of people who cannot fathom that you cannot get a true 1/2 size plot from a 11 X 17 print if the sheet is Arch D.
Charles (Chuck) Rheault CADD Manager
MDOT State Highway Administration
Because the discussion focused only on the first method Charles proposed, I want to point out that there are two others.
The two other methods have significant advantages, when printing many files, because you can use them in batch plot, PDF composer or print organizer print jobs.
Method 1
caddcop:The easiest approach is to plot them to PDF full size and scale them when printing to 1/2 size.
Indeed this method is very straightforward, because no deeper knowledge of MicroStation printer configuration files is needed. I would like it even more, if someone could share his knowledge about a tool which allows to apply this method to a bunch of files. The question is: Is there a low cost batch plot utility for printing from existing PDF files?
Method 2
caddcop:Next requires you to copy the plot driver you usually use and to redefine all line weights in the copy to be 1/2 of their normal weight.
Method 3
caddcop:Or write a pen table that has 32 sections, one for each weight and in it, reduce the weight - but imply reducing the weight by 1/2 is not always 100% correct.
HTH
Gunnar