Drawing printed wrong scale in one direction

[Anonymous]

My friend asked to help him with this problem. His drawing printed was wrongly scaled in one direction. Paper A4. Lets say he has a drawn a rectangle 20x15 cm. He printed it out on an A4 paper, and when he measured it on paper, the rectangle was 15 x 19,9 cm. Weird, isn't it? It scaled allong one axis (the one along the longer side of papaer). So I told him to mail me the file and wanted to help him find a solution. Wasn't successful. But not only that, I noticed that since than, the same thing is happening to me, but not only in that drawing but in every other drawing too. I never noticed this before. He is using Autocad 2014, and Im using Autocad Architectural 2013. His printer is a Cannon Pixma ip150, mine is Hp deskjet 1510. I tried printing to pdf, and than mesasured in photoshop and it was fine, so it should be the printer, right? But I printed this on another 2 printers and got the same error. Are all 4 printers wrongly calibrated? How do you calibrate a printer anyway? Has anyone had the same issues? I won't upload any file since it happens to all my drawings. 
Thanks

[leothebuilder]

Welcome to this forum.

I can only guess here, but if your print is scaled incorrecly make sure that in the plot dialog the "fit to paper" box is unchecked 

and that the scale is set to 1:1

[JDMather]

I have never seen this behavior - can you attach the *.dwg file here?

[Anonymous]

I may be new on the forum but I assure you I know my way around autocad enough to know how to setup a plot since I've been using autocad for the last 16 years 😉

[leothebuilder]

Ok...good to know that you know your way around the plot dialog box.

The plot or print will always print the way you instruct it to print.

If the printer in question prints the wrong scale in one axis, I would say that is very strange.

If a few other printers output prints with the same problem, I would say the likelyhood that the instructions to the printers is at fault.

[Anonymous]

I still believe the problem is in my printer (or everyone's printer). It's a 0,5% of an error, but as I said I never noticed it before, and it's not normal. 0,5% is still 1 mm of 20cm and if you need super precise drawings it is unaccetable. The error is along the axis of the longer side of the paper so it probably happens as the paper is coming out of the printer that it slows down for that 0,5 % and the result is 0,5% shorter lines in that direction. But how do I solve this problem? And as I said, it's not just me, but 4 different people tried with 4 different printers and they all get the same 0,5% error. It is SUPER WEIRD!!!
If it was just me, I'd say: "fine, I have a ****ty printer" but its everyone I've asked to do this test (4 people, all injet printers). 

[Anonymous]

Then how would you explain that the "print to pdf" prints out a perfect digital version of the drawing without any scale error?

[leothebuilder]

Well, it's difficult to diagnose the problem without the benefit of having access to the file.

A little bit like emailing symptoms to a doctor and asking him for a diagnosis without being able to examine the patient.

If your file contains sensitive information, why not make a copy, delete the sensitive information and post that to the forum.

[Anonymous]

I have uploaded the file, but, as I have already said: It happens to all my dwg files, not just this one. I only noticed it the first time in the file my friend send to me (I uploaded that file), but found out the same behavior in every single od my old drawings I tested after that (printing). 

[leothebuilder]

Uploaded where?

[Ron-C]

I just printer your drawing and it printed the dimensions printed correctly 15x20 mm !!!!!

Now the rectangle box measures 21 x 29.700 mm

If you were expecting 30 mm then it's wrong.

Ron

[leothebuilder]

I opened your drawing file and in the plot dialog box I found that the "fit to paper" check box was ticked.

Therefore you print output will not print at excactly at 1:1 but will scale to the paper size you have selected, regardless of printer calibration or the make and model number of the printer. See attached screen shot.

As mentioned previously, clear that checkbox and set the print scale at 1:1

[Anonymous]

So, as I already said, it has to be my printer.

[leothebuilder]

So, as I already said, it has to be my printer.

If you were responding to my post, no, it's not your printer, it is your print settings.

[Anonymous]

oh my goodness! you just cant help yourself thinking I'm an idiot. How many times I need to say I know how to set the plot scale? So what if that checkbox was ticked? It does not mean I did print with that setting. Trust me. I know how to set the plot scale.

[Anonymous]

So, as I already said, it has to be my printer. was in reply to Ron-C, as it was written

[JDMather]

I did not see a printer/plotter set up in the file you attached.

I set this in my template file and forget it.

Never had any trouble.

Can you go into your Page Setup Manager and set it exactly as you are setting it for your printer and then attach that file?

[ericgarlez]

I have the same problem, i guess i never noted this fail cause all my drawings are in archD and archE format and i'd never need to verify measures directly from the the paper.
Now I'm plotting a pieces for a waterslide in big format (3.20 meters long, almost 11 feet) and it must be very accurate with zero tolerance. when I scale 1:1 the measure has 3.05 meters instead 3.20 mts. I'm going crazy... As you said before, i been use Autocad since a long time, I'm not a rookie. Please somebody help me.

Thanx!

[vmak]

I'm running into the same problem. Plotted a simple square (100mm x 100mm) and when I printed it out it measures 100mm in the x-axis and 98mm in the y-axis. DRIVING ME NUTS!

Has this problem been solved? If so, please enlighten me.