Creo Elements/Direct Annotation, in addition to standard printing options such as the destination printer, paper size and copies, and page orientation, provides additional options, including position on the page, element selection, the source, and the scale of the drawing. To make the selection of these options more efficient, you can save your print settings in the Default Settings browser.
To print a drawing,
1. Click File > Print. The Print dialog box opens.
2. Select a printer from the Name box in the Print Configuration section.
3. On the Printer tab, select the required print parameters.
◦ To specify the printer and destination,
1. Select the printer Type. This will determine which printer names appear in the Name box below. For example, if you select GDI Printer, a list of all GDI printers installed on your system will populate the Name list.
2. Select the printer Name. Specific properties for a printer can be set by clicking a Properties button. This option is disabled for the Clipboard printer type since it has no specific properties. If a GDI printer is selected, printer properties specific to that printer are displayed. For a PDF printer, the same option opens a dialog for setting the print resolution, while in case of other generic printer types a Plotter Default String can be set.
The print destination can be a file or the standard input of another process.
To send the print data as standard input to another program (piping), the print destination name should begin with the pipe symbol |. This technique is normally used to send the print data to the standard spooler via ' |lp'.
To send the print data to a file, click Browse and set the print destination. Creo Elements/Direct Annotation automatically derives the extension for the file according to the selected printer/plotter. For example, if the printer/plotter type is PDF, the file name automatically carries the .pdf extension.
◦ To set the paper size,
Under Paper, select from an assortment of standard Size. Or you can select Custom size. With Custom size , you specify your paper width and height.
◦ To set the number of copies,
Under Copies enter the number of copies. This option is printer specific and it is enabled only if the printer supports it. For internal printers (PDF, HPGL, HPGL2, PS), to print a multi-sheet drawing, click the Use sheet settings check box to automatically set the format and orientation of each sheet based on the sheet size.
◦ To specify the print orientation,
Click the required option from the list.
▪ Portrait
▪ Landscape
For internal printers (PDF, HPGL, HPGL2 and PS) if you set the paper size such that the height and width are equal, the orientation is set to Landscape by default.
4. On the Drawing tab, select the required drawing parameters.
◦ To specify the print position on the page,
Click the required Position from the list:
▪ Center (the default option)
▪ Left
▪ X Offset
▪ Y Offset
▪ Rotation
To position a drawing, Creo Elements/Direct Annotation places an invisible box around the outermost dimension text, drawing lines, or text. With the Center option, Creo Elements/Direct Annotation then centers this box on the paper. With Left, the box is placed in the lower left corner of the paper.
◦ To specify what is printed (range),
The print source can be a drawing, the active sheet, the current viewport, or a selection box.
Click the required output from the list:
▪ Drawing (the default option)
▪ Sheet
▪ Viewport
▪ Box
If you select Box, click two points on the sheet to define the corners of a selection box that surrounds the area to be printed.
If you select Drawing, your entire drawing is printed regardless of the active sheet or viewport. The Sheet option prints the active sheet, and Viewport prints the current viewport.
You can specify whether to include all drawing information in a print, or only the details that are visible (that is, the aspects turned on in the Show dialog box).
◦ To specify the print scale,
You can either set a printing scale factor or automatically scale the drawing to be large as possible within the limits of your paper size.
1. To scale the drawing manually:
a. Click Factor.
The Factor box appears.
b. Enter a scaling factor in the Factor box. (The Creo Elements/Direct Annotation default is 1.)
2. To fit the drawing automatically to the page, click Fit.
When you opt for Factor, the entire print is scaled, but dimension values are not affected. The figure shows an example of print scaling.
1
Full scale (scale factor = 1)
2
Half scale (scale factor = 0.5)
If you set the printing scale too large for the paper, Creo Elements/Direct Annotation displays an error message. You must change the scaling of the print (or use Fit).
◦ To specify the contents of the print,
You can print all aspects of the drawing or just those that are visible on the screen with respect to the Show settings. You can click options in the Show menu, and then base a print on those settings. Alternatively, you can set a print to ignore the Show settings and include all drawing details.
Under Content, select
▪ Drawing (the default option) or
▪ Current Show
Drawing specifies that all drawing details are printed, and Current Show prints only what is seen based on the Show settings.
◦ To specify pen transformations,
You can select a defined pen transformation for the print. Creo Elements/Direct Annotation provides four transformations: B&W, Color, Standard, and True Color; but you can define new ones; see
Define pen transformations.
In Transformations, select a Transformation from the drop-down list.
◦ To specify the pattern length,
Seven broken line types can be used in Creo Elements/Direct Annotation drawings. Each type of line consists of a pattern repeated in a continuous sequence to produce the line. When printing, you can set the length of the individual patterns of each line type, or all lines together, affecting the fineness of the lines.
The figure shows two dash-center lines drawn with different pattern lengths. The arrows indicate the pattern length.
In Transformations, select a Pattern Length from the Pattern Length drop-down list.
