# Accuratly printing Scale drawings - sketchup plugin ??



## planetWayne (6 Jul 2009)

All, 
Just a quick question, is there anything out there that people use to print sketchup either scaled or full size. Not a 3d view either but a face of a component? 

The idea being to get an accurate print for tracing to wood etc. Obviously this thing is going to generate multiple pages - that I don't mind (heck if it adds reference lines for alignment of sheets - even better!) as long as its an accurate representation of a component (flat as opposed to 3d) 

Does that make sense ?!

Cheers
Wayne.


----------



## SketchUp Guru (7 Jul 2009)

Wayne, you don't need a plugin to do it. SketchUp will do what you want as it is. You need to set the Camera to Parallel Projection and choose a standard 2D view. Also zoom in on what you want to print and add a scene so you can return to it when needed. Then, in Print Preview, you can set up the scale and that sort of thing.


----------



## Steve Maskery (7 Jul 2009)

You may find RobertMP's post useful, too:
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... hp?t=29055

Cheers
Steve


----------



## SketchUp Guru (7 Jul 2009)

This morning when I checked e-mail, there was one from a fellow who also wants to print a template to scale. Here's how I did it.






Camera>Parallel Projection
Ortho view, Front in this case.
He drew this model so the 7" dimension was up. I rotated the model 90° so it would fill more of the drawing window.
Zoom Extents.





File>Print Preview>Properties. Set Orientation to Landscape. Click OK.





Uncheck Fit to Page and Use Model Extents. Set Scale so 1 in the printout equals 1 in SketchUp. The units are unimportant as long as they are identical. Refer to Page Size and Tiled Sheet Print Range to see that they make sense for the model. Once in awhile I find I have to check and uncheck Use Model Extents and reset Scale to get the drawing to fit. It appears that the state of those check boxes is remembered from the last time printing was done but something isn't updated with the new model.

Click OK.





The preview shows the expected result. Click Print.

Since I have it, I prefer to make templates using LayOut2. The nice thing about that is LayOut2 exports to PDF and so the template can be easily sent to anyone and they can print it, too.

Here's a screen shot of a template I did for a table I drew up. The template is intended to be printed on large paper.


----------



## wizer (7 Jul 2009)

Dave R":2k79l7g9 said:


> Since I have it, I prefer to make templates using LayOut2. The nice thing about that is LayOut2 exports to PDF and so the template can be easily sent to anyone and they can print it, too.



That's a great tip, thanks.


----------



## planetWayne (7 Jul 2009)

Cheers all!

I'll give this a go! - its one of those things that you think something should be able to do it but can never find it  (I was getting perspective drawings which didn't work as they would be 'out' a bit).

One (or two) little tick boxes (and a few other things to note) and there you have it - simple - when you know how :roll: :lol: 


Thanks again! - looks like that unfinished fence/ gate can be attacked again - when the weather holds 


Wayne.


----------



## Steve Maskery (7 Jul 2009)

planetWayne":2xomcjwc said:


> looks like that unfinished fence/ gate can be attacked again



Full-size print-out? Wow, that's one mother of a printer!


S


----------



## planetWayne (7 Jul 2009)

heck no!
just a lot of stuck together pieces of A4!

In all fairness its to make a pattern for the cross member of the gate / fence pannels - theres a bit of a curve going on and I wanted to try and get it at least somthing like the sketchup drawing (else swmbo will do her fruit :shock: )


----------



## SketchUp Guru (7 Jul 2009)

Wayne, as an alternative to printing out a large templete, you might consider this option.





Decide on an interval and then add offsets from a base line at that interval. Measure out and mark the points on the curve and then connect them with a flexible batten.


----------



## Steve Maskery (8 Jul 2009)

That's a good one, Dave, I'll remember that. I have used the Label option b efore, which gives x,y,z coordinates along the curve, but having a set interval is a better idea. Thanks!
S


----------



## SketchUp Guru (8 Jul 2009)

Steve, you're welcome. That's an old boat builder's method. You could work from a list of those offsets rather than printing out the drawing. That list would be called a _table of offsets_ which is what you'd get as the primary part of plans for a boat.


----------



## Steve Maskery (8 Jul 2009)

Don't you just love it when something you learn in one discipline carries over to another?
S


----------



## planetWayne (8 Jul 2009)

I feel like a sponge at the min  hopefully I may, at some humble point in the future, be able to contribute something meaningful back in to the melting pot.

Wayne.


----------



## RogerS (2 Aug 2010)

Dave R, can you please help!

On the Mac, the scale print settings are under File > Document Set-up.

You get two boxes...Print Size and Print Scale.

If you select a value for Print Size so far so good. But then when you go to put some figures in the Print Scale box, the values in Print Size change ! I can't seem to find a way to actually print to scale.

Thanks


----------



## SketchUp Guru (2 Aug 2010)

It should be possible on the Mac but I'll have to look at my Mac when I get in to work. I'll let you know.


----------



## RogerS (2 Aug 2010)

Thanks Dave.

Have now sorted it but for the benefit of others....

On the Mac, you need to go into File > Document Set-up. Untick the Fit View to Page. Ignore the Page Size values.

They have changed the parameter titles from those given in the online help files. In SU7, you get Drawing and Model. I find this confusing as Drawing really should be called Printout. Model is your SketchUp model.

So say you want to print out at a scale of 1:5 then put in 10mm in drawing and 50mm in Model. Once you click anywhere outside the Model data entry box, you will see that SU then calculates how big the finished print area will be and updates the values in Print Size to show you. If it is going over more than one page then SU will tell you in bold at the bottom of this dialog box.


----------



## SketchUp Guru (2 Aug 2010)

Roger, glad you got it sorted out. I hadn't looked at printing from SketchUp on the Mac for a long time. I haven't even configured a printer on my Macbook Pro yet. 

As on the PC, one thing that can help is to resize the drawing window to more tightly fit round your model. I don't particularly like that part of it but it's the way it is. If you have need of printing a lot of your work to scale, it's probably worth springing for the Pro version to get LayOut. Of course there are other good reasons for Pro and LayOut over the free version, too.


----------

