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user_guide Chapter 4 - Printing Diagram

Chapter 4 - Printing Diagram

Print Preview

The Print Preview pane allows you to preview the printouts and provides a set of options for changing the printout style. To display the print preview, perform one of the following actions:

In both cases, the Print Preview pane will be displayed.

Figure 4.1 Print preview

The toolbar of the print preview pane allows you to configure the print settings. The buttons and their descriptions are shown in the table below:

Icon Button Function
Print Print the diagram(s). The Print dialog box will be opened.
Quick Print Print diagrams without previewing them. The Quick Print dialog box will be opened.
Page Setup Set up the page properties for the diagrams to be printed such as paper size and orientation.
Adjust Margins Adjust the margins of the pages to be printed.
Use Gradient Color Select to use gradient color in printout. Since printing gradient color will use up lots of memory, it is recommended to turn this option off for better performance.
Zoom Select the percentage to reduce/enlarge the print preview of diagrams.
/ Paper Base Layout/Diagram Base Layout If the Fit to Pages option is selected, and there are multiple pages in the printout, selecting Paper Base Layout will cause the distribution of pages to be paper-oriented (the diagram size is ignored in arranging the preview); while selecting Diagram Base Layout will cause the distribution of pages to be diagram-oriented. Note that this option affects the preview only; the order of the printout remains unchanged.
/ Paper Place Style To change the order of the printout. Consider a large diagram is divided into many pages, selecting From left to right will arrange the printout order from the pages on the left to the pages on the right, while selecting From top to bottom will arrange the print order from the pages on the top to the pages on the bottom.
Fit to Ratio Set the diagram size to fit to the specified ratio.
Fit to Pages Set the diagram to be printed on the number of pages specified.
Overlapping Set the percentage of the margins to overlap among adjacent pages.
Border Option Select to print the diagrams with or without borders.
Show/Hide Clip Marks on Page Select/deselect to show/hide the clip marks on the printout.
Edit Header/Footer Edit the header and the footer of the printout.
Multiple Page Mode Switch to the Multiple Page Mode to set the multiple page options.
Help Open the BP-VA help.
Close Print Preview Close the print preview pane and return to the design area.
Table 4.1

Printing Diagrams with Preview

You can use the Print command to select the printer, set the range of pages and number of copies to be printed. The Print command is available once a project is open.

  1. Select the desired diagrams for printing. The selected diagrams will be shown at the preview area.
    Figure 4.2 - Printing diagrams with preview
  2. Click on the Print button on the Print Preview toolbar. The Print dialog box appears.
    Figure 4.3 - The Print dialog box
  3. Select the printer to use, the page range and the number of copies to be printed. You may click on the Properties...button to configure the printer-specific properties as well.
  4. Click OK to start printing.

Page Setup

Page Setup allows user to specify the page size, the orientation as well as the margins of the pages.

Figure 4.4 - The Page Setup dialog box
  1. Click on the Page Setup button on the toolbar. The Page Setup dialog box appears.
  2. You can click on the Size drop-down menu to select the paper size to use.
  3. You can select the orientation for the page(s) to be printed (either Portrait or Landscape) in the Orientation field.
  4. You can enter the value into the Left, Right, Top and Bottom text fields to adjust the size of the corresponding margin.
  5. Click OK to apply the settings.

Adjusting Margins

The Margins pane allows user to specify the margins of the pages, header and footer.

Figure 4.5 - Adjusting margins
  1. Click on the Adjust Margins button on the toolbar. The preview area shows the margin setting page.
  2. You can edit the margins sizes by entering the sizes into the text fields. Alternatively, click on the spinner buttons to increase/decrease the margin sizes.
  3. Click the Finish Adjust Margin button when you have finished configuring the margin settings. The margin sizes will then be updated.

Zooming Pages

Diagrams can be zoomed in or zoomed out according to user preference.

Click on the Zoom drop-down menu to select the desired zoom ratio.

Figure 4.6 - Selecting the zoom ratio

The preview area will show the diagrams in the zoom ratio that you have selected.

Figure 4.7 - The zoomed print preview

Selecting the Preview Layout

There are two layouts that you can select for the print preview, the Paper Base Layout and the Diagram Base Layout.

If the Fit to Pages option is selected, and there are multiple pages in the printout, selecting Paper Base Layout will cause the distribution of pages to be paper-oriented (the diagram size is ignored in arranging the preview); while selecting Diagram Base Layout will cause the distribution of pages to be diagram-oriented.

Note that this option affects the preview only; the order of the printout remains unchanged

To select a layout of the preview, click on the Paper Base Layout button or Diagram Base Layout button on the toolbar, a popup menu appears where you can select the layout to use.

The preview after applying the Paper Base Layout:

Figure 4.8 - Paper Base Layout

The preview after applying the Diagram Base Layout:

Figure 4.9 - Diagram Base Layout

Setting Paper Place Style

You can select the paper place style to change the order of the printout. To select the paper place style, click on the Paper Place Style button on the toolbar. A popup menu appears where you can select a paper place style.

Consider a large diagram is divided into many pages, selecting From left to right will arrange the printout order from the pages on the left to the pages on the right, while selecting From top to bottom will arrange the print order from the pages on the top to the pages on the bottom.

The order of the printout after selecting From left to right.

Figure 4.10 - Selecting the Paper Place Style

Fit to Ratio

Fit to Ratio is used to resize the diagrams in the printout to a specific ratio.

Click on the Fit to drop-down menu and select Ratio.

You can enter the ratio into the textbox. For example, enter 150 to set the ratio to 150%. After you have edited the ratio, the diagrams in the printout will be resized to the new ratio.

Figure 4.11 - Fit to ratio

Fit to Pages

Fit to Pages is used to split the diagram to desired number of pages when printing.

  1. Click on the Fit to drop-down menu and select Pages.
  2. Click on the Multiple Pages button on the toolbar. The page selector appears.
    Figure 4.12 - Fit to Pages
  3. Click on the row-column combination to select it (note that you can click and drag on the page selector to extend the selection). The diagram will be split into multiple pages by the rows and columns that you have selected.
    Figure 4.13 - Printing to fit multiple pages

Setting the Diagram Overlap Percentage

Overlapping is used when users want the diagrams to have overlapping at the boundaries between pages. This is particularly useful when you have a large diagram that span multiple pages and you want to stick the pages of the printout together; the overlapping area can then be used as a hint when sticking the pages.

Figure 4.14 - Printing with no overlapping between pages
  1. Click on the Overlapping textbox to input the overlapping percentage and press the Enter key.
  2. The printing area near the boundaries of the pages will be duplicated by the overlapping percentage inputted.
Figure 4.15 - Printing with overlapping percentage specified

Showing/Hiding Clip Marks on Page

Clip marks act as an indication of the boundary of a page.

Figure 4.16 - Showing clip marks on pages

To show clip marks on the printout click on the Show Clip Marks on Page button . You will see the boundaries of the pages are surrounded by clip marks. To hide the clip marks click on the Hide Clip Marks on Page button again.

Editing Header/Footer of the Pages

To edit the header/footer of the printout click on the Edit Header/Footer button on the toolbar. It will then switch to the edit header/footer pane.

Figure 4.17 - Editing header/footer of pages

You can edit the header and the footer in the Header panel and the Footer panel respectively. Each of the panel consists of the Left Section, Center Section and the Right Section, which represents the position that the content will be located in the header/footer.

There is a toolbar between the Header panel and the Footer panel, which facilitates the editing of header/footer. The description of the buttons in the toolbar can be found in the following table:

Icon Name Description
Select Font Select the font to use for the selected section. Note that the section must be active (focused) in order to select font for it
Insert Page Number Insert the page number in the selected section
Insert Number of Pages Insert the total number of pages in the selected section
Insert Date Insert the date that the printing starts in the selected section
Insert Time Insert the time that the printing starts in the selected section
Insert File Name Insert the file name of the BP-VA project in the selected section
Insert Project Name Insert the name of the BP-VA project in the selected section
Insert Diagram Name Insert the diagram name in the selected section
Table 4.2

After you have finished editing the header/footer, click on the Close Edit Header/Footer button to switch to the print preview mode. A sample page that has the header and footer formatted is shown in the picture below:

Figure 4.18 - Preview with header/footer

The Multiple Page Mode

The Multiple Page Mode allows users to configure how the diagrams should be distributed in multiple pages. To switch to the Multiple Page Mode click on the Multiple Page Mode button on the toolbar.

Click on the button beside the Multiple Pages field will invoke the page selector, where you can select the row-column combination for the printout. Alternatively, you can type in the Row and Column text field directly.

Figure 4.19 - Multiple page options

Click on the button beside the Page Style field to change the printout order. Consider a large diagram is divided into many pages, selecting From left to right will arrange the printout order from the pages on the left to the pages on the right, while selecting From top to bottom will arrange the print order from the pages on the top to the pages on the bottom.

Figure 4.20 - Selecting page style

After you have finished configuring the multiple page settings click on the Close Multiple Page Mode button to close the Multiple Page Mode.

Printing Diagrams with Quick Print

The Quick Print feature allows you to print diagrams without previewing them, hence speed up the print job. To perform quick print, perform one of the following actions:

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