PLOT — Plot

Plots the drawing to PDF, to an image or to a printer.

• Command: PLOT · Global name: _PLOT · Alias: PRINT, DWFOUT · Shortcut: Ctrl+P
• Ribbon: Output › Plot
• Menu: LinceCAD
• Menu: File
• Toolbar: Standard

Plots model space or the current layout to a vector PDF, PNG or SVG file, with the paper, area, scale and plot style table chosen in the Plot dialog box.

Usage

1. Enter PLOT (or PRINT), press Ctrl+P or click its button. The dialog box says what is plotted: Plot: …
2. Choose a saved Page setup:, or <None>, or <Previous plot> (the one of the last plot), and adjust what is needed.
3. Click Preview… to check the sheet (PREVIEW).
4. Click OK, enter the file name and choose its type: the extension (.pdf, .png or .svg) decides the format.

The dialog box

• Printer/plotter: DWG To PDF.pc3 (lince PDF), None or an installed printer (with its paper sizes and Copies:): OK prints to it instead of saving a file. Properties… opens the plotter's paper size editor (see below).
• Paper size: ISO (A4, A3…), ANSI and architectural sizes, portrait or landscape (or those of the printer driver), preceded by the custom sizes of that plotter.
• What to plot: Layout (only in a layout), Extents, Display, Limits or Window. With Window, click Window < and specify the two corners in the drawing.

Specify first corner:
Specify opposite corner:

• Plot offset (origin set to printable area): X and Y in mm, or Center the plot.
• Plot scale: Fit to paper or a scale from the list (1:1, 1:50, 1:100…) or a custom one: so many mm (or inches) of paper = so many drawing units. Scale lineweights thickens lineweights with the scale.
• Plot style table (pen assignments): None, monochrome.ctb, grayscale.ctb or the .ctb tables (.stb if the drawing uses named plot styles) in %APPDATA%\lince\estilos_trazado and in the drawing's folder.
• Plot options: Plot object lineweights, Plot with plot styles, Plot paperspace last and Hide paperspace objects (the last two, in layouts).
• Drawing orientation: Portrait or Landscape, and Plot upside-down.
• Apply to Layout: Saves this page setup to the layout (or to the model) when plotting.
• PNG: the resolution, in dots per inch (30 to 2400), when saving as PNG.

Custom paper sizes and printable area

Like AutoCAD's Plotter Configuration Editor (its "Custom Paper Sizes" and "Modify Standard Paper Sizes"), Properties… opens the Plotter Configuration Editor of the chosen plotter or printer:

1. Paper sizes saved for this plotter: the custom sizes and the standard ones with a modified printable area (modified printable area). Click one to edit it.

• New from scratch: Custom paper size: name, width, height and margins.
• New from this one: Custom size with the dimensions and margins of the paper being edited.
• Delete: Removes the custom size from the list (a standard size gets back the plotter's printable area).
• Import .pc3/.pmp…: Reads the custom paper sizes and modified printable areas of an AutoCAD plotter configuration (.pc3) or plot model parameter file (.pmp). With a .pc3, its linked .pmp is read too (at the path it stores or in the PMP Files folder next to it).

2. Paper size (media bounds): Name:, Units: (mm or inches), Width: and Height:. If the paper is a standard one of the plotter (Standard size of the plotter: only its printable area is changed.), only the margins change.
3. Printable area (non-printable margins): Top:, Bottom:, Left: and Right:, in the paper units. The remaining printable area is shown below.
4. Apply the changes, like AutoCAD's "Changes to a Printer Configuration File" prompt:

• To the current plot only: Not saved in the plotter file: it stays in the page setup (and in the drawing if applied to the layout), like AutoCAD's "Apply changes for the current plot only".
• Save to the plotter file: %APPDATA%\lince\trazadores\<plotter>.pc3 and PMP Files\<plotter>.pmp: The sizes are kept for every drawing that uses this plotter, in a .pc3 and its .pmp in AutoCAD format (in the LinceCAD folder), like AutoCAD's "Save changes to the following file". Open plotters folder opens it in the file manager.

5. Click OK: the edited paper goes to the settings being plotted.

Custom sizes appear in that plotter's paper list in PLOT and PAGESETUP, and PUBLISH plots them with each layout's page setup. The PDF uses the size and margins as they are; a Windows printer gets the custom size (if its driver supports it). When the drawing is saved, the layout keeps the name, size and margins, and AutoCAD opens it with that paper.

In a script, !traz medida width height left bottom right top name (in mm) sets a custom paper for that plot only.

Notes

• The settings are saved in the drawing as an AutoCAD page setup; named page setups are managed with PAGESETUP.
• Plotting is always in wireframe.
• The .pc3/.pmp files saved by LinceCAD use the AutoCAD format (the header of its PDF or Windows printer driver, and the sizes as its wizard writes them) and stay in the LinceCAD folder, never in AutoCAD's. To use them in AutoCAD, copy the .pc3 to its plotters folder and the .pmp to its PMP Files (AutoCAD Plotter Manager); back up its DWG To PDF.pc3 first if you are going to replace it. Earlier versions saved a .toml: it is converted to .pc3/.pmp automatically (and kept as .toml.migrado).

See also

PREVIEW · PAGESETUP · EXPORT · Layouts · Tutorial: from drawing to PDF