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Saving to PDF to page size larger than printer size


Margaret J

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I own an A3 printer but not a large format printer.  I am having trouble saving PDFs for sizes bigger than A3 to be printed elsewhere. I have tried setting up a custom page for A2 & A1 but it keeps jumping to being more than 1 page both horizontally and vertically. If I set it to only 1 page the print size no longer shows as the correct size. "Exporting to PDF" and setting print as 1 page works  rather than using print then "Save as PDF" but that means I cannot use Publish to print multiple pages    I have the same problem on someone else's Vectorworks licence and computer and this seems to have been more problematic since VW 2022.  I have tried downloading a driver for a large format printed but the driver is not showing in the printer options - presumably because I do not actually have the printer for it to recognise.  

 

Has anyone else had the same issue?  Any solutions?  Can anyone suggest a good generic large format printer?

 

Thanks

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First, in Page Setup check the box for Choose size unavailable in printer setup. Either choose from the list or just type in the Width and Height you want. If you don't want to see the page break lines, uncheck the Show page breaks check box.

 

image.png.7fe2a60be0f0c338b72d3bc100f0b4f0.png

 

 

 

Then in Publish, select the item(s) and choose Options. From the Export PDF Options dialog box make sure the Export Whole Document as One Page is selected.

 

image.thumb.png.97150f22246b44839aeae2ce8f98ae21.png

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On 4/5/2022 at 6:02 PM, Pat Stanford said:

First, in Page Setup check the box for Choose size unavailable in printer setup. Either choose from the list or just type in the Width and Height you want. If you don't want to see the page break lines, uncheck the Show page breaks check box.

 

image.png.7fe2a60be0f0c338b72d3bc100f0b4f0.png

 

 

 

Then in Publish, select the item(s) and choose Options. From the Export PDF Options dialog box make sure the Export Whole Document as One Page is selected.

 

image.thumb.png.97150f22246b44839aeae2ce8f98ae21.png

@Pat Stanford @JuanP Pat- thanks for the info above, which works perfectly for exporting a sheet. Unfortunately, publishing the same sheet/s results in Pages not respecting the P/L layout, ie; all pages published seem to be oriented only Landscape, no matter what the Sheet sized and layout is.

I note there's no switch in the Publish pane to set the exact parameter you show, by the individual sheet, some may be Landscape, others may be Portrait. Having to go through and export each one individually is a carbuncle.

To my recollection, this began after I got the MBP M1 and found no way to install or even locate DesignJet PPDs to set up a fake printer.

I'd be thrilled if the issue here is that I am simply missing a tiny toggle somewhere.

**couple more notes:

  • A new file does not exhibit this behavior, it produces correctly both in publish mode and export mode, no matter how the design layer is set up.
  • In that new file, the Export Range holds it's toggle on "Export the whole printable area as one page", and even when I change that toggle to"All Pages" in the Export PDF Settings pane, when I publish to PDF, all pages export correctly according to their SL layout dims.
  • whereas in my working file, that value is not held. Super irritating.
Edited by mjm
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It SHOULD work for Publish also. I have published numerous sets using different page sizes each based on the Sheet Layer setting.

 

If you are trying to Publish multiple sheets all from design layers then you will get the problem you describe as all Design Layers share a single Page Setup so one page size, one orientation, one resolution. Each Sheet Layer has its own Page Setup to avoid that problem.

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56 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

It SHOULD work for Publish also. I have published numerous sets using different page sizes each based on the Sheet Layer setting.

 

If you are trying to Publish multiple sheets all from design layers then you will get the problem you describe as all Design Layers share a single Page Setup so one page size, one orientation, one resolution. Each Sheet Layer has its own Page Setup to avoid that problem.

@Pat StanfordThank you as ever for your input Pat.

I don't however understand what you are driving at with "If you are trying to Publish multiple sheets all from design layers…"

Each design layer uses the same page layout and size.There are three same-dimension SLs; two Portrait, one Landscape. The Portrait sheets get published to pdf as a landscape sheet, ie; the portrait-based layout appears vertically in a Landscape sheet. This does not happen in a new file where the SL layout appears to be respected. Wonder why that is…

 


And, when I choose to create a new blank document (say in order to rebuild the file in a clean document) import my layers with layer objects, why do the Position Names change to what appears to be some default numbering system 1, 2, 3, 4 etc?

I find this is reproducible across the first two existing files I try this import with, see screenshots attached.

 

Created a new file, did the DL & SL + objects import, went through and renamed all positions & in happy (?) news, the new file does appear to publish sheets correctly, so I'm loosely guessing the originating file is corrupt in some way.

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 9.49.55 AM.png

Screen Shot 2022-08-31 at 9.49.46 AM.png

Edited by mjm
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