script for print settings

[RDS Casa]

Hello,

Can someone help me with a script?

We have 2 printers here, and A1 plotter and an A3 printer. Formal drawing issues to contractors/consultants are sent out A1, but mostly we use the same drawings printed at half scale on A3 for everything else. This means I am constantly going into page setup, then print setup, then changing the printer and the scale from the A1 at 100% to the A3 at 50%. When doing a long print run of 50 drawings, this is tedious.

Is it possible to write two scripts to do this? Ideally so I just click run it to get it to A3 printer at 50% and run on the other one to get it back to the A1 @ 100%???

Or is there another way to do this in the batch settings?

I have never found a script listener in VW, so I can?t find where to start on this.

Thanks

[Ray Libby]

What version of Vectorworks do you have, and is it one of the Design versions? Put this info and you computer specs including OS in a signature. Click on the My Stuff link at the top, Edit Profile.

[RDS Casa]

I've done this now, but if it does not work, then its VW2009, Architect SP5 runing on Windows XP pro.

Thanks

[Ray Libby]

I don't have a script, but my method is to batch export a PDF of all the sheets you want to print, then print from Acrobat Reader and fit to page for the A3 printer.

[RDS Casa]

Thanks, we do this sometimes, but it?s proved to be a bit cumbersome. It?s a two stage operation, which is a bit fiddly, and there are a number of QA issues - you lose track which are current pdfs, which are old, naming then with a revision number can be dangerous if they are not a formal issue, and where they get saved to on the central server, others don?t know why they have been exported? also you end up with a lot of pdfs which then need to be deleted or filed ? bit of nightmare.

and it does not seem to work so well with line weights which do not seem to scale down well from a pdf.

Thanks though.

[Kevin McAllister]

Are you using a Sheet layer for each drawing in a set? If you are, you can batch select a group of them and edit the Page Setup (right click on the selected sheets in the Navigation Palette and choose Edit).

Kevin

[Pat Stanford]

What platform are you on? If you are on Mac, it is probably possible to do using Applescript.

You should probably add a signature (My Stuff:Edit Profile at the top of the page) showing your Hardware, OS and VW Version(s). It makes it much easier for us to help if we know what we are helping with.

[RDS Casa]

Kevin. Yes we use separate sheet layers for each individual drawing. I didn't realize you can change multiple page set ups by selecting more than one. This will help a lot. The sheet layers are split across multiple files (plans, sections, L series, A series etc.) so it does not solve everything, but it still a great tip and I'll do this in future. Thanks

Still, a script would be nice for easy changing the page set up in different files. They ought to put a script listener in VW. It would help non-coders like me get a handle on scripting.

Pat, I have added a signature now. see string above. We are on Windows XP pro here, sorry.

Thanks all.