Printing multiple pages and lining them up.

Do you have a question you want to ask an existing QCAD user about QCAD and what you can do with it? Do you want to know if a particular feature exists? This is the place to ask.

Moderator: andrew

Forum rules

Always indicate your operating system and QCAD version.

Attach drawing files and screenshots.

Post one question per topic.

Post Reply
Dee Pee
Newbie Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2021 7:53 pm

Printing multiple pages and lining them up.

Post by Dee Pee » Sat Jan 23, 2021 8:05 pm

Hi

I've just started to evaluate the pro version using the trial. I am using QCAD to design a kite. 80cm X 600cm. Enjoying the software at the moment.

The plan is to finish the design and send to a printing company to print out on a series of A0 landscaped plotted pages (Multiple columns all on the same row). I can then join all the pages and cut out the pieces to use as a template for cutting ripstop.

I've got an A4 laser printer and I've been doing some testing with a simple 15 X 50cm design spanned over 3 sheets of A4 I've added the page tags + crop marks. Glue margins are set to 10mm left and right.

The issue I have is my laser does not support margin less printing and I'd need to find out if the external printing company offers this as an option. With the additional margins It's impossible to line up the various pages to ensure the overlapping shapes are the right size. I can stick a pin through each of the crop marks but then I have an additional margin which makes the shape incorrect size.

The only option appears to get a guillotine and cut the margins off so everything lines up. Not easy with A0 though!

Am I missing something obvious here? how do others usually print and line things up?

the other risk here is using a 3rd party printing service, whether the measurements get printing accurately as no way to calibrate.

appreciate your help.

David

User avatar
Husky
Moderator/Drawing Help/Testing
Posts: 4931
Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 9:25 am
Location: USA

Re: Printing multiple pages and lining them up.

Post by Husky » Sat Jan 23, 2021 10:10 pm

Hi David,
Dee Pee wrote:
Sat Jan 23, 2021 8:05 pm
... how do others usually print and line things up?
They use crop marks :wink:

Husky-2021.01.23-02.png
Husky-2021.01.23-02.png (37.53 KiB) Viewed 8289 times
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

Dee Pee
Newbie Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2021 7:53 pm

Re: Printing multiple pages and lining them up.

Post by Dee Pee » Sat Jan 23, 2021 10:28 pm

Thanks, but did you read what I wrote? I mentioned crop marks twice. The issue appears to be the print margin that I can't get rid of.

User avatar
andrew
Site Admin
Posts: 9019
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:07 am

Re: Printing multiple pages and lining them up.

Post by andrew » Sun Jan 24, 2021 12:14 am

The idea of the crop marks is that each page's crop marks are exactly aligned with the next page's crop marks. You could for example hold the pages against a window to exactly align the crop marks. For example, the two leftmost crop marks of page two need to be on top of the two right crop marks of page one if pages are besides each other, etc.

If your printer cannot print all the way to the edge, you will get a margin (e.g. 10mm) of empty space. However, the drawing / shape will be accurate, there's just a small gap in it. To avoid the gap, you would indeed have to trim the paper at the crop marks.

Dee Pee
Newbie Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2021 7:53 pm

Re: Printing multiple pages and lining them up.

Post by Dee Pee » Sun Jan 24, 2021 12:40 am

thanks Andrew - I get it now. I never bothered to measured it, didn't get past the way it looked.

vertical is almost perfect, horizontal is 1 mm out. As long at this tolerance doesn't scale up worse I think I will be OK.


Will let you know how I get on when I've finished and got it back from the printers! I'll purchase a copy as I'm impressed with the functionality.

User avatar
andrew
Site Admin
Posts: 9019
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:07 am

Re: Printing multiple pages and lining them up.

Post by andrew » Sun Jan 24, 2021 8:58 am

Dee Pee wrote:
Sun Jan 24, 2021 12:40 am
vertical is almost perfect, horizontal is 1 mm out. As long at this tolerance doesn't scale up worse I think I will be OK.
You can calibrate under
Edit > Application Preferences > Printer Settings > Calibration

Note that there's is usually some slippage on the printer side and paper also expands / contracts depending on moist and and temperature.

Post Reply

Return to “Pre-sales Questions”