printing to pdf/ps comes out blank

[musicmaker]

I'm running Prof. 2.2.2 on Fedora Linux, on my 64 bit laptop. I don't have a printer on it, so I'm printing to pdf/ps, to transfer to another computer for printing. This worked fine when I was still using the Community version, but now I get blank pages.

Any suggestions? Everything else I've tried in QCad on this configuration is working fine.

Judy

[kbrande1]

I am having the same problem, except in Windows XP. Version 2.2.2.0 of QCad Professional.

[kbrande1]

Can someone please help? I really need to print these plans out for a job!

I remember having the same problems with a previous version, couldn't print anything. I used to be able to do a workaround by exporting to BMP and then printing that, but that doesn't even seem to work now!

I thought these printing issues were fixed in the new version? What am I doing wrong?

[andrew]

Please make sure that:

- All layers to print are switched on
- You switch to the print preview before printing (File - Print Preview)
- The print preview shows your page (white) under your drawing (if not, adjust the paper size, scale factor, position)

[kbrande1]

- All layers to print are switched on
- You switch to the print preview before printing (File - Print Preview)
- The print preview shows your page (white) under your drawing (if not, adjust the paper size, scale factor, position)

Check, check, and check.

I did some further playing around, and here's what I came up with so far:

I can export to PDF only to size A4 successfully (I shouldn't say only. I only tried A4, A0, and B0). By successfully I mean my raster image + what I drew on top comes out in the PDF. It works in landscape, I didn't try portrait because I only need landscape anyway.

On A0 and B0 size, and the exported PDF only showed what I had drawn, not the underlying raster image.

Any ideas?

[kbrande1]

Still awaiting a response.

I really need to get these plans out of my computer to my customer!

[andrew]

It might have to do with the resolution of the image or the memory required to produce the PDF. Not sure though.

As an immediate workaround, it might be an idea to print to an A4 PDF and scale the PDF up.

[kbrande1]

Any suggestions on how best to do that and still maintain an acceptable image quality? My drawing needs to be approximately A1 size, so that would be blowing up my A4 size drawing by 3 times, ouch! Not sure how well that will turn out...

What is the problem with printing on the larger sizes? I thought these issues were fixed with the recent upgrade of, what is the underlying program / library, Qt? Apparently not however?

[kbrande1]

What is the problem with printing on the larger sizes? I thought these issues were fixed with the recent upgrade of, what is the underlying program / library, Qt? Apparently not however?

Your silence is deafening.

Apparently that is exactly the situation. I am going to have to look for another CAD software now (after I paid for Pro version). Software that cannot output to print or PDF is USELESS!!! Thanks for wasting my time. That's too bad, I really liked your little proggy, except for the printing issues.

[breckenedge]

Have you tried changing the Paper Format setting in the Current Drawing Preferences window (choose Edit > Current Drawing Preferences...)? I was having similar problems until I set the page size to Letter.

The DXF I started with had a 'custom' page size, but the art only covered an A1 size page. Simply printing it would give me a completely blank output.

I initially changed the document page size (Edit > Current Drawing Preferences) to A1, but the resulting postscript was always cropped to 8.5 x 11.

[kbrande1]

Unfortunately that won't help me. I need to print out some house plans on a large ARCH D size (24" x 36") or a close metric equivalent. Since they are scale drawings, they have to be printed on a large format. I could print them on whatever metric size they would fit on, instead of a custom size (with some extra space) but even that seems to not be working.

[andrew]

kbrande1: Scaling a PDF should not have a big impact on quality (PDF is a vector format, not a bitmap).

You could also try to print to PDF using a PDF printer driver such as http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

To fix the issue in QCAD, we would need a sample file from you or exact instructions on how to reproduce the problem. To send us a file, please reply to one of the e-mails you have received after purchase.

[legodwin]

I am having the exact problems as kbrande1 -- any drawing using custom print sizes come out blank -- pdf or otherwise. One source of confusion is that the units on the Custom Drawing Size dialog is mm regardless of whether I am using english or metric. It turns out that I need to enter the drawing size in inches despite the mm label.

Once the drawing size is set (Arch D size, 24x36) and looks good in the print preview, when printed, it comes out blank!

So far I have enjoyed and been very productive with QCAD, but if I can generate prints for customers in the proper format, I can't use it. Please either directly support ANSI and/or architectural drawing sizes, fix the custom size or provide a work around. I'm in a crunch and AutoCAD is not an option.

Thanks for any help!

Lester Godwin

[kbrande1]

Actually, I have been able to successfully output to PDF in B1 size. It would still be nice to be able to print to ARCH D or other common sizes however.

Also, my underlying raster image does not print. Is that how it is supposed to be? Are insertion of raster images only for the purpose of tracing and vectorizing them?

[Lorenzo]

Also, my underlying raster image does not print. Is that how it is supposed to be? Are insertion of raster images only for the purpose of tracing and vectorizing them?

Inserted images can be printed even as a background for a drawing. I run QCad Community Edition on Fedora 9 x86_64 and it does work for me. It is supposed to work also in QCad 2.2.