Print Guide

These steps for printing assume the drawing to be printed was drawn full-scale (1:1)

Printing, Quick and Easy

To print a drawing without a drawing border / title block template or a specific scale is relatively quick and easy. With a drawing opened in LibreCAD:

1. ) Select File -> Print Preview or click the ‘Print Preview’ icon.
2. ) Set or confirm the paper layout for the current drawing:
   1. ) Select Options -> Current Drawing Preferences.
   2. ) Set format as desired, e.g. A4, Landscape, and click ‘OK’
   3. ) The page is represented by the shadowed rectangle in the print preview.
3. ) Click the ‘Fit to Page’ button on the toolbar. This ensure the drawing is scaled to fit and centered on the page.
4. ) Select File -> Print or click the ‘Print’ icon.
5. ) Select the printer on the Print dialogue and confirm the properties by clicking the ‘Properties’ button. Adjust the properties if necessary and then click ‘OK’.
6. ) Click the ‘Print’ button.

Printing to Scale

To print a drawing without a drawing border / title block template but to a specific scale requires a couple of additional steps. With a drawing opened in LibreCAD:

1. ) Select File -> Print Preview or click the ‘Print Preview’ icon.
2. ) Set or confirm the paper layout for the current drawing:
   1. ) Select Options -> Current Drawing Preferences.
   2. ) Set format as desired, e.g. A4, Landscape, and click ‘OK’
   3. ) The page is represented by the shadowed rectangle in the print preview.
3. ) Click the ‘Fit to Page’ button on the tool bar. This establish the largest scale the can be used for the paper size defined in step 2 above.
4. ) Select the desired scaled from the drop-down box on the toolbar.
5. ) Click the ‘Center to Page’ icon from the toolbar.
6. ) The drawing can be re-positioned on the page by moving the page behind the drawing. Click and hold anywhere in the drawing space and drag the paper to the desired position.
7. ) Select File -> Print or click the ‘Print’ icon.
8. ) Select the printer on the Print dialogue and confirm the properties by clicking the ‘Properties’ button. Adjust the properties if necessary and then click ‘OK’.
9. ) Click the ‘Print’ button.

Printing to Scale with a Border and Title Block

To print a drawing with a drawing border / title block template, but to a specific scale requires several steps:

• Starts with a drawing drawn full scale (1:1),
• Select the paper size for the print and adjust the drawing scale to suit,
• Insert the page border and title block,
• Print.

Specifically, the process is as follows. Starting with a full-scale (1:1) drawing:

1. ) Open the drawing file to be printed and select File -> Print Preview or click the ‘Print Preview’ icon. The page is represented by the shadowed rectangle in the print preview. Zoom out if necessary.
2. ) Set or confirm the paper layout for the current drawing:
   1. ) Select Options -> Current Drawing Preferences.
   2. ) Set format as desired, e.g. A4, Landscape, and click ‘OK’
3. ) To establish the largest scale the can be used for the paper size:
   1. ) Click the ‘Fit to Page’ button on the tool bar and note the drawing scale shown in the drop-down box on the toolbar. The is the largest scale that can be used for the current paper size.
   2. ) Adjust the scale to ensure the drawing will fit on the printed page and accommodate a border that will be added in a later step. For example, if the ‘Fit to Page’ ration is 1:1.5, adjust the ration to 1:2.
   3. ) Fix the scale by clicking the ‘fixed’ checkbox.
   4. ) Close Print Preview (click the ‘Print Preview’ icon) and return to the drawing window.
4. ) Add the border and title block around the original drawing:
   1. ) Draw lines defining the page perimeter, e.g. draw a rectangle 297 mm x 210 mm for an A4 paper.
   2. ) Draw lines for a page border offset from the perimeter line drawn above.
   3. ) Or, insert a border / title block from the Library (predefined borders are in the ‘sheets’ directory for ISO paper sizes) and scale it using the ration determined above, e.g for a 1:2 ration, scale the border by 2. Note: Setting the ‘Scale Factor’ when inserting a block didn’t work for me, but the block can be scaled after inserting by using ‘Scale’ (Tools -> Modify -> Scale).
5. ) Re-confirm the layout in the Print Preview:
   1. ) Click the ‘Print Preview’ icon.
   2. ) Reset the scale to the ration determined in step 3b, i.e. 1:2.
   3. ) Click the ‘Center to Page’ icon.
6. ) Select File -> Print or click the ‘Print’ icon.
7. ) Select the printer on the Print dialogue and confirm the properties by clicking the ‘Properties’ button. Adjust the properties if necessary and then click ‘OK’.
8. ) Click the ‘Print’ button.