24" x 36" Plotting; Sending to 3rd Party Printer

[Anonymous]

I work at a small interior design firm and we're going to start plotting our oversize drawings (mainly lighting & electrical plans) at a 3rd party service like Staples. We're trying to setup our drawings so that when we PDF them and send them to be printed, they will still be scaled correctly.

I know there is some issues with PDF scaling drawings and then printing them from another printer with different margins.

How can we go about setting up our pages properly? 

[john.vellek]

HI @Anonymous,

A PDF print should act the same as any other print (such as directly to a hardware device) in regards to scale.  Do you have a sample drawing that you can etransmit to me in a post? Ideally this would contain all your current plot information such as plot style and such. I am happy to take a look and make recommendations/suggestions on how to streamline this process.  The key will be to plot 1:1 on your side and to make sure that the same is done on the vendor side.

Please also tell me the exact version of AutoCAD you are using.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[pendean]

As long as you plot to a scale, and use the margins your print service tell you they can handle, and the print-service prints your PDF without any overrides like FIT or SCALE in their PDF viewer/processor app, all plots should come out perfect.

If your local Staples is unable to do that for you, the operator at that plotter at that day probably doesn't know how to use their gear: talk to a store manager about it, that normally always fixes it.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

I am checking back to see if my post or Dean's helped you with your problem. Please mark a post or posts as accepted solutions if they resolved the issue or give me a bit more detail on this issue so we can continue to work towards getting this solved.

Please hit the Accept as Solution button if a post or posts solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

Hello John,

I have a company made title block which has been scaled to print a 24" x 36" drawing. This block is going to be implemented to act as the standard block for all our electrical drawings. I want to make sure that when we use the DWG to PDF plotting page setup, that when it's sent to the third party to be printed, it's done to scale. I know some of the designers have gotten lazy over time and when the pages are printed, they're not properly being set to print to scale and the once scaled title blocks are then being printed "fit to paper" which makes it off ever so slightly.

I've uploaded a PDF of the block that I've setup in paper space and then plotted DWG to PDF at a 1:1 scale with the "layout" as the selected plot area.

We're currently using AutoCAD LT 2016.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

I can import your PDF into a DWG but it is easier if you could attach the actual drawing file. Do you plot from Paperspace? Do you use Named Page setups to ensure all settings are applied properly when plotting? What version of AutoCAD are you using?

[Anonymous]

AutoCAD LT 2016.

Currently, our office has been setup to bring scaled title blocks into model space, plot, window, set scale, voila - never in paperspace. I've gotten used to this over time but we're trying to change our standards as we work on some re-branding - this would include all our title blocks.

As you can see from the uploaded DWG, I've created a tab which we will duplicate for each floor plan. This works easier when batch plotting in my experience but might slow down the file overall.

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

I am no longer sure what the question is. Your drawing looks great.

Your titleblock is positioned on a 24x36 page at 1:1. The viewport is scaled at 1/2"1'-0".  When I do a Print Preview everything looks as it should. The only extra step I would suggest is to create a named Page Setup that can be applied to your layouts or imported into other drawings.

I made a quick video of this action and also how I like to apply it in a Publish process.  Be aware that Publish can use multiple drawings and multiple layouts.  I don't ever like to have more than one layout in a drawing in case of any corruption or failure.

So typically, I do all my geometry in a base file(s). Then I create a new drawing for each sheet in the drawing set. I then Xref in a titleblock (in paperspace).

I usually also utilize a Sheetset to help populate titleblock properties and to navigate within my project. I usually start PUBLISH from within the Sheet set and plot all the layouts in all of the drawings.

I have attached my version of your drawing as well as the resulting PDF from my video.  If you follow the same process to create your PDF for the print shop they should be able to print it at 1:1 and it should come out accurately.

If you need to stay in modelspace only at this point, then scaling the titleblock accurately will be key.  I have attached a scaling chart that I use occasionally to help know how much to scale things up and down.

I did notice that your drawing had two errors when running AUDIT. I purged and also -PURGED>Regapps to remove 28 regapps.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

This is great news!

I will definitely take some time to look into your video and follow along. I'm always looking for ways to help our efficiency around the office. If I have anymore questions, I will look to you for guidance.

All the best!