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Printing scale. 100% is not 100%

44 REPLIES 44
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Message 1 of 45
ChrisBriley
16222 Views, 44 Replies

Printing scale. 100% is not 100%

I've seen this question asked a few times in the group and there is no answer as yet.  I'm trying to print a 24x36 sheet.  when 100% zoom is selected (in both places, setup AND properties) It prints out with a slightly reduced scale so that on large dimensions it's quite noticeable.  At quarter scale 26'-0" = 25'-6".  

 

I had a meeting with a client who brings her own scale to meetings and suffered embarrassment when I had to tell her I still can't plot to scale yet with my new software.  "Sounds like your new software isnt very good."  she said.  Right now I have to agree.  

 

What gives?

44 REPLIES 44
Message 21 of 45

It is not just about construction drawings - about your boss checking your work, and sketching stuff on trash.  People will always scale drawings during the SD and DD phase.  They will bring out a roll of trash and draw and refigure... at least until people stop sketching.  

Message 22 of 45
tofutim
in reply to: art.a.tecture

It is a printer issue. I had very good luck with HP (perfect) and terrible
luck with Samsung and Brother.
Message 23 of 45
ericgarlez
in reply to: tofutim

Well I have this issue with a hp plotter... I think it's not a printer
problem.
Message 24 of 45
justin.palmer
in reply to: ChrisBriley

i have had this problem in our office. I have found that by turning the visibility of the title block extents off my drawings will now print 100%. i found that the printer was overriding Revits settings as the title page extents were set to the size of the page.

 

Hope this may be of assistance

Message 25 of 45
msmith
in reply to: scott_d_davis

Help. I am in AutoCad and even though the paper size is correct and I have checked all the setting, my print is coming out 1.2 scale. I am trying to plot a 24 x 36 portrait to a HP Designjet T790. Even when I change paper size it still prints half scale. I have checked the properties, the print size everything I can think of but no matter what orientation or paper size I chose it is coming out 1/2 scale. Yet the printer will roll out the full size sheet but the drawing is 1/2 scale. Any suggestions? Maria
Message 26 of 45
ja1357
in reply to: loboarch

 

 Daviscc replies where completely useless

 

If you need to print out to scale from Revit print to pdf then attached pdf underlay in CAD then scale it and print from CAD.

 

Autodesk why do we have to do time consuming workarounds for the most basic drafting tasks. Cant you just sort the issues your customers are having without a workaround all the time.

 

 

 

 

Message 27 of 45
cc4535
in reply to: ja1357

WOW!!

 

I have been in this business for 20 plus years and I see this so much and it's funny this post is going for a couple of years now. I would like to put a question out there that I have always asked architects and engineers. WHY DO YOU STILL PUT A SCALE ON DRAWINGS IF YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO SCALE OFF DRAWINGS???????? WHAT IS THE POINT......... Fix this already and you will not have anymore issues.......

Chuck Conley
M3 Engineering
Message 28 of 45
FGPerraudin
in reply to: ChrisBriley

Hi @ChrisBriley,

 

I have to agree it is not Revit that scales your drawing, and it sounds a lot like the printer scaling down to adapt to the margins.

Printing straight out of Revit, you would have to check the SYSTEM properties of your printer.

 

One common mistake at the practice is people printing in PDF, and then plotting. This is when Adobe acrobat -at ours- reduces the scale to fit in by default... That would be a good explanation to your issue!

 

François-Gabriel



Francois-Gabriel Perraudin
BIM management and coaching

Message 29 of 45
ja1357
in reply to: ja1357

THE POINT IS SOME CLIENTS REQUIRE A DRAWING TO BE A PARTICULAR SCALE AND AS
A DRAUGHTSMAN I SHOULD BE ABLE TO PRODUCE A DRAWING AT ANY SCALE I WISH
REGARDLESS OF IT BEEN COMMON PRACTICE NOT TO SCALE. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE
PEOPLE WHO REQUIRE A SCALED DRAWING SO WHY NOT JUST FIX THE ISSUE RATHER
THAN COMING UP WITH DAFT IDEAS



Regards



James Alls

CAD Technician



Airkool Contracts Ltd

10 Rotterdam Road

Sutton Fields Industrial Estate

Hull HU7 0XD

East Yorkshire

Tel: 01482 371888 / Fax: 01482 371889

Email: james@airkool.com / Web:
www.airkool.com











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to.



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Registered office: 10 Rotterdam Road, Sutton Fields Industrial Estate,
Hull, HU7 0XD

Airkool Contracts Ltd 03550902 Airkool Projects Ltd 06733344 Airkool
Holdings Ltd 02776549
Message 30 of 45
chrisplyler
in reply to: ja1357


@ja1357 wrote:
THE POINT IS SOME CLIENTS REQUIRE A DRAWING TO BE A PARTICULAR SCALE AND AS
A DRAUGHTSMAN I SHOULD BE ABLE TO PRODUCE A DRAWING AT ANY SCALE I WISH
REGARDLESS OF IT BEEN COMMON PRACTICE NOT TO SCALE. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE
PEOPLE WHO REQUIRE A SCALED DRAWING SO WHY NOT JUST FIX THE ISSUE RATHER
THAN COMING UP WITH DAFT IDEAS


 

Who are you asking to "just fix the issue?" Do you expect Autodesk to come around to every office and fix all their printers or printer drivers?

 

Revit spits out the data required to print. It would be NICE if it had the feature of modifying a pc3 file the way Autocad does, so that we could all compensate for our crappy printers and/or print drivers, but they don't. Still doesn't make it their fault that we have crappy printers and/or print drivers.

 

Message 31 of 45
ToanDN
in reply to: cc4535


@cc4535 wrote:

WOW!!

 

I have been in this business for 20 plus years and I see this so much and it's funny this post is going for a couple of years now. I would like to put a question out there that I have always asked architects and engineers. WHY DO YOU STILL PUT A SCALE ON DRAWINGS IF YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO SCALE OFF DRAWINGS???????? WHAT IS THE POINT......... Fix this already and you will not have anymore issues.......


A scale on drawings to give the reviewer an approximate idea of the dimensions, for example: this Corridor is about 8', not 4' wide.  Meanwhile, no sensible person relies on the scale bar to determine if the same Corridor is exactly 8'-0" or 8'-0 1/4".

Message 32 of 45
David_Knight
in reply to: ToanDN

Every large format printer has adjustments to modify how fast the roll spins the paper through the printer.  As such this will change the scale in one direction.  it is something that needs to be checked regularly by the person maintaining the printer.  I don't generally get involved in this type of maintenance on our Kip.  But i know we have it checked every 6 months or so.  Our drawings on occasion get off scale, and this always corrects the problem.  There are test files built into the printer to verify that it is printing correctly.

 

This is most definitely not a revit problem.

Message 33 of 45
jm.andersen
in reply to: ChrisBriley

 I see this question was asked many moons ago.  I have been using Revit since 09 or so, and it has always printed 100% if you plot to Bluebeam or Adobe PDF,  Center, Zoom to 100%, then print from that platform.  Hope that helps anyone in the future

Message 34 of 45
RobDraw
in reply to: jm.andersen

It also prints accurately directly to plotters. If you need to plot to PDF in order to get accurate plots, the issue is with the plotter, not Revit.


Rob

Drafting is a breeze and Revit doesn't always work the way you think it should.
Message 35 of 45
ja1357
in reply to: RobDraw

Strange how same set up in CAD prints 100% Revit doesn't


Message 36 of 45
RobDraw
in reply to: ja1357


@ja1357 wrote:
Strange how same set up in CAD prints 100% Revit doesn't



Maybe the "calibration" done to your plotter for CAD made up for improperly set-up CAD and now messes up Revit that doesn't need that type of calibration.


Rob

Drafting is a breeze and Revit doesn't always work the way you think it should.
Message 37 of 45
ben
Collaborator
in reply to: ChrisBriley

I am new to using Revit and this one was stumping the crap out of me too, but after searching many different forums, and doing some Google detective work I think I figured it out. It wasn't until afterwards that I found the help video, which I will post a link to at the end. I agree that you shouldn't scale off a paper drawing, but lets get real here folks guys in the field don't all have tables, Bluebeam to pull measurements, or total stations and sometimes you just have to do it the old fashioned way and grab that scale ruler or use your tape measure and get a measurement that isn't on a print. If you every single dimension imaginable on a print it would me a massive cluster *F* and nobody would be able to read anything. And yes, that is probably why there is, always has been, and always will be a scale on a print not to let you know that the building is 1/4", 1/8", etc of life sized purely so you can picture it in your mind, but so you can grab that scale ruler and check a dimension.

 

I had a hard time believing that in this day in age we couldn't have software that would talk to the printer and the printer print the **** page the right size. The software guys blame the plotter, the plotter guys blame the software, and the rest of us don't give a s*** who's fault it is, we just want it to work because it always used to and we expect it to still work. Is it the software or the plotter? It's both! As one guy put it, "The problem with Revit is that it's so smart it thinks it's smarter than you, and it's not. Sure, it can do a lot of really cool calculations really fast, but it doesn't know that in reality you can't run a pipe through an I-beam, and it doesn't know that just because you have your views on a 24x36 sheets that you actually want to print 24x36. It's so smart it's sometimes flat out dumb." Also, the printer can't reach into the software and know what you want to print, you have to tell it just like when you print a Word document you actually have to tell the printer what size paper to print on. 99.99976% of the time when you print from Word you print on 8.5x11 so that's just set as default, but you can change it to whatever size you want.

 

Basically you have to get both your printer settings and your Revit settings to match so they are both on the same page.

 

I noticed there are two ways to do this and I wasn't sure which way was the right way, so I tried them both and they both work. Follow along with me and my endless amount of screenshots and I think we'll get this figured out, and if I get something wrong PLEASE let me know so I can know so I can do it correctly myself.

 

First, obviously we all know to go to File>Print>Print. No screenshot needed there.

 

Second, decide if you just want to straight up Print your sheets/views or save/export them to a PDF so you have a file of them for easy access to print later or for others who might not have Revit and just want to see them in PDF form. We're going to cover just straight up printing first because saving/exporting them to PDF requires another step when you print from your PDF software.

 

So printing, if you are printing more than one set ALWAYS COLLATE unless you just like sorting out pages of blueprints by hand and getting them in the correct order, so just check that box right off the get-go so you don't forget. Then, select your plotter from the dropdown box and click on properties button next to your selected printer/plotter.

Revit Print Screen.jpg

 

 

 

The properties button should bring up another window (yours will probably look different unless you have the exact same plotter that we do), but this is what mine looks like; I imagine that yours might look different but will have very similar options and settings. On the Paper/Quality Tab - There is a lot of information on this page that all needs to be selected correctly in order for this to work. First, at the top, you have "Quicksets" I just picked the option CAD, but Factory Default will probably work too because it only changes the resolution (dpi) from Automatic to 600x1200. Second, pick your document size. I have a little cheat sheet on my desk that tells me which paper size is what (ARCH D = 24x36, ARCH E1 = 30x42, ARCH E = 36x48). So I selected ARCH D since I want to print a 24x36 plan. Sometimes we get oddball sized prints and have to change paper size on the rolls and to save myself the hassle of printing everything on the wrong size paper and having to redo it I click the little refresh arrow next to Currently Loaded Paper and it tells me what sizes are loaded into the plotter. I see that Roll 1 has 24" paper in it so under Paper Source I select Roll 1 from the dropdown list. On the right side it should tell me "Printed on 24x36".

Printer Setting - Paper.jpg

 

 

Next, I go to the Layout/Output tab. Under resizing options I left mine at Actual Size, but I would assume that if you selected your paper size (in this case Arch D) from the Fit To drop down list it would probably work just the same since you are matching the same paper size; that's something you might have to play with on your own. I always select Autorotate from the Rotation section so if there did happen to be 36" paper in the plotter it would automatically rotate the print and wouldn't chop half of it off. Put your Page Order however you want, how ever you want the pages to come out when they are all done printing. Don't worry about the Color or Advanced tabs. Click Save so you don't have to go through this crap every time you want to print, then click OK.

Printer Setting - Layout.jpg

 

 

Now we're back to our main Print window. Click the Setup button in the lower right in the Setting section and this brings up the Print Setup window. The last window was to tell the printer what to print on, now we're telling Revit what to send to the printer. If you're telling the printer to print on 30x42 and Revit is sending out 24x36 to the printer you'll be lighting your hair on fire. So, confirm your paper size, Arch D, and the roll that the correct size of paper is loaded on (remember from the last window in the printer settings my 24" paper was loaded on roll 1 so we'll select the same thing here). Make sure to select Center in the Paper Placement section. Also, you have to select Zoom: 100%. Click Save so you don't have to do this crap every time, then click OK. 

Print Setup.jpg

 

 

Now you can finally click OK and your prints will start printing on the plotter. Now if you want to print to PDF so you can have these saved for easy access to print again in the future or for someone that doesn't have Revit you have to do a couple things different, but its pretty much the same. Then there are a few additional things you'll have to do in your PDF software that is basically confirming the same settings you've done in this setup. This part is pretty much the same, pick your PDF software that you use instead of your plotter. I use Bluebeam because trying to do this with Adobe takes forever; besides if I want to look at it or print it in Adobe after the fact I still can, but for this we're going to stick with Bluebeam the whole way through. Other PDF software you'll have to play around with that yourself. Properties there isn't really much there to mess with and I didn't change any of them (sorry I shouldn't have put a red box around it, my bad). I always Combine the sheets into one because I hate the jacka** that thinks its a good idea to give a guy 250 separate PDF pages and they never combine in the right order so there is a lot of manual rearranging involved so do us all a favor and select combine them into a single file. Select the path you want them to save in like anything else you save. Now click settings and lets do this again.

Print Setup - PDF.jpg

 

 

Again, select your paper size as ARCH_D_(24.00_x_36.00_Inches) I know is spells it out different now that were going to PDF instead of the plotter but it's all the same, Arch D is Arch D. Source <default tray> is fine because we're not actually sending this to a printer so were not really using a tray on a printer. Paper Placement needs to be Center again, just like your Zoom needs to be set to 100% again. Select Landscape orientation so you're not the guy that everyone wants to punch in the giblets because they have to go and rotate every single page. Click Save and OK

Settings - PDF.jpg

 

 

Now you can click OK, Revit will do its thing and Bluebeam will take over from there asking you to save with a screen that looks like this. I left all of these settings alone because it seemed to work.

Save.jpg

 

 

Now you go into Bluebeam and click print, and you get to make sure all of your settings are correct again. Select your plotter, click Properties and go through and get all the settings right just like we did when we printed from Revit. Select your paper size, no page scaling because we want this to be the correct size. Check the box for Center. Don't forget to Collate! Click print and done, finally! Toss a scale ruler on your paper print to double check it, but either way you did printed it should be right on.

Print BB.jpg

 

 

Here is also a video I found afterwards that was pretty helpful too: http://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-37399CD8-F17D-4469-8476-19AB40BECCC5

 



Software making you mad? Slam your mouse on the desk...60% of the time, it works every time.

"Revit lives in the land of perfect and doesn't understand what construction is."

Message 38 of 45
ToanDN
in reply to: ben

Holy smoked bacon that is a comprehensive tutorial !!!!!!   By the way, there is no need to Collate when print to PDF.  Also, you should have saved the plot settings from the Revit printing dialog so you won't have to go through it again.

Message 39 of 45
loboarch
in reply to: ben


@BEN wrote:

 

 

Here is also a video I found afterwards that was pretty helpful too: http://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-37399CD8-F17D-4469-8476-19AB40BECCC5

 


glad you found the video helpful. We added that to the help recently.



Jeff Hanson
Principal Content Experience Designer
Revit Help |
Message 40 of 45
ToanDN
in reply to: ChrisBriley

@BEN

By the way, the original query of the thread is that AFTER all the correct settings, Revit produces the PDF that is not true to size.

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