Using an HP CP1700 for 'small' shop drawings

[buz]

I'm still relatively steep in the VWs/Arch learning curve. Mean time I have occasion to produce 'small' shop drawings from time to time. I have a HP CP1700 which can handle up to 13x19 paper however there seems to be issues regarding paper sizes.

The driver is the latest offered for Mac OS 10.5 by HP. I'm trying to set up Arch B (18x12). In the driver setup, the driver offers Tabloid (11x17), Super B (13x19) and Custom. I have set up a custom size for Arch B and in VW the page appears as if it will take 4 sheets to print one Arch B. There are gray page breaks at bottom and right edges - 5/8 bottom and 3/8 right. I see in Page Setup command there is an option to 'input' values for page size ... as it is set up now those values are Horizontal = 1.0227 and Vertical = 1.0548.

I know I could troubleshoot this further with sample prints but hopefully can avoid a majority of the paper waste with a clue or two here.

Thank you.

[Pat Stanford]

The printer driver is not capable of printing edge to edge on your printer, so since you have a drawing area of 18x12 inches, it takes slightly more than 1 page in both the horizontal and vertical direction to hold the entire drawing area.

Two options.

1. Set your paper size to Custom as you have done. Now instead of selecting Arch B in the Page Setup, choose One Printer Page. The printable area you will get will be the actual area inside the unprintable margins of your paper.

2. Leave your setup the way it is, but in the Printer Setup, choose Vectorworks in the top Settings pulldown and set the scaling to 99 or 98%. This will shrink everything down so it fits inside the printable area.

Option 1 is the better option if you will always be using this printer as everything will truly print at scale. Option 2 is better if you need to do check prints and will eventually print out on a printer that can print edge to edge.

Pat

[buz]

Hello Pat and thank you.

It appears I stumbled across 'option 1' in the 'meantime' and for me and my purposes think it will be the preferred option.

As an aside to this thread, 'a printer that can print edge to edge'?

- Does this refer to zero margins?

- There are printers that do this?

- Is there a reason such a printer would be 'preferred'? (Seems all design printing would print to margins)

Thank you for any extra info here.

[Pat Stanford]

As an aside to this thread, 'a printer that can print edge to edge'?

- Does this refer to zero margins?

- There are printers that do this?

- Is there a reason such a printer would be 'preferred'? (Seems all design printing would print to margins)

Yes, Edge to Edge equates to zero margins.

Yes, there are printers that will do this

It depends on what you are doing if a zero margin is preferred. If you are printing photos and don't want to have to trim or mount them, then edge to edge printing is very useful. For CAD work on big paper sizes I don't see it as being a critical issue. If you lose 1 inch of horizontal and vertical on a 24 x 36 inch page it is not a big difference in the total printable area.

From my understanding, it is primarily a paper handling and ink overspill issue as I understand it. Small (Letter size) photo printers typically offer edge to edge for a decent price. I don't know about larger printers.

Pat

[buz]

Thank you very much.

In essence you:

- more than answered my question.

- confirmed what I 'thought' I knew.

I wasn't 'sure' if edge to edge had value in the CAD realm.