Printing Objects

You can use either the default printing parameters, or specify your own parameters when printing objects.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin:
  • You can only print an object if you have set up a default printer.
  • You print using the default printer declared by your Windows system administrator.
  • When you open the Print dialog box, the default printing parameters are loaded. They are updated when you click OK or Apply.
  • Press Ctrl+Shift+P to print an object quickly in a session to the default printer using the default print options. The active document is sent to your default printer using the following print options: Rotation: 0 and Display for the Print Area.

Customize Print Options

You can use either the default printing parameters, or specify your own parameters when printing objects.

  1. Select Share > Print... (or press Ctrl+P) .
    The type of printer you choose determines the default options.
  2. Define your printing parameters through the appropriate options.

    Option Purpose
    Printer Name Lets you select a printer from the list.
    Print to file Lets you store the image printout in a .prn file (the only extension available) that you can print afterward. After activating this option, enter a file name and a folder or, click File Name....

    The information in the file depends on the printer you clicked from the Print dialog box.

    When printing to a 3DS Virtual Printer, click Properties... then:

    • In the Submission Scripts area, click Custom next to "Declaration" to specify the default output file name. Each time you print a document, an output file is created at the location you specify in the box.
    • Click Edit Script... that is now available then create your own script. You can use the following environment variable contained in the default script:

      CATOUT=C:\DOCUME~1\user\LOCALS~1\Temp\catout_%CATPRT_DOC_SHEETS_NUM%.out where C:\DOCUME~1\user\LOCALS~1\Temp\ is the location of the document and catout_%CATPRT_DOC_SHEETS_NUM%.out indicates the name (stored in catout.out) and number (stored in %CATPRT_DOC_SHEETS_NUM%.out) of the document.

      For example, for a PostScript printer: set CATOUT=e:\Temp\test_ %CATPRT_DOC_SHEETS_NUM%.ps means that the name of the document to print is test.ps and is in e:\temp.

    • Access the folder in which the file has been saved, and then use the Copy command to print the file (for example, copy myfile.prn LPT1 where LPT1 is the local print port).
    • If the printer is on a network, use copy myfile.prn \\servername\printername where servername is the name of the print server, and printername is the name of the printer.
    Print to one file When printing multiple pages, lets you print all your documents in a single file.
    Properties Lets you specify the properties for the selected printer. If the driver is provided by Dassault Systèmes, see 3DEXPERIENCE Native Apps User's Guide: Native Apps Advanced: Printing: Setting Up Printers: Adding a Printer.
    Position and Size Lets you position your content on paper by defining the page orientation, fitting options, and the image position.
    Print Area Lets you specify the area to print: either the whole document, the image displayed on screen, the selected area, or a defined sheet area for drawing representations.
    Page Setup Lets you specify the paper format and margins.
    Note: You can specify new margins values if default values are not required. But when the Page Setup dialog box is closed, the new values are overwritten because default margins differ according to the printer. To keep your changes, open the Printer Properties dialog box, and then click Default Margins....
    Options... Lets you define printing options such as the banner properties or the rendering quality.
    Note: Texts created with a bold Stroke font are printed with a 0.7 mm thickness and therefore, they may not be correctly read if their size is small.
    Preview Lets you see how the objects are going to look on paper before printing them.

    You can zoom up or down by middle-clicking + left-clicking + dragging. The percentage of the real size displays upper right as you zoom (100% corresponds to the real size). Markers (such as point symbols) are always printed with a size of 1.5 mm and this, whatever the zoom you define.

    Important:
    • When generating HLR for assemblies containing clashing bodies, some geometry elements may not be generated.
    • When previewing or printing large documents with a high resolution, the system limits may be reached. In that case, a list of actions that may help you to solve this is displayed. Among these actions, "Choosing a custom quality" is displayed only if the Rendering quality factor has not been defined to Customized.

  3. Click OK or Apply then OK.

The object is printed and a log output file named Print.log is generated in a temporary directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\DassaultSystemes\CATTemp

Print Objects with Multiple Sheets

You can print one or more sheets inserted in your object. In addition to drawing representations, this functionality is available for V4 files (.model), and for multipage image formats (such as TIFF, JPEG, or BMP).

You can print drawing representations containing OpenType fonts (OTF), whatever the format you select for the output: HPGL, HPGL2, CGM, or PS. OTF fonts are supported in a WYSIWYG mode based on a specific font rendering that uses multiple lines and fill polygons to draw the font.

  1. In the Print dialog box, click the Multi-Documents tab.

    Note: The No fitting (in the Position and Size area under the Layout tab) option is automatically selected so that the document is printed to its original size.

  2. Optional: Select the Print to file check box.

    Each image printout is stored in a separate file (that is, this generates as many .prn files as there are sheets). This means that each generated .prn file must be printed individually.

    Important:
    • If you do not use the "*" character in the .prn file name, a single .prn file is created and only the last sheet is printed (whichever option has been clicked in the Range area).
    • The number of documents to be printed is stored in the ${CATPRT_DOC_SHEETS_NUM} variable.
  3. In the Range area, indicate whether you want to print All sheets, only the Active sheet or a selected number of sheets by selecting the appropriate option.
  4. Define the page setup and the print options.

Print the Tree

You can obtain a paper version of the tree.

Before you begin: The tree structure is printed as displayed on screen. To print the complete structure, for example, you need to expand all the levels of the tree.
  1. Expand the tree.
  2. Click the axis system displayed in the lower-right corner of the screen.
    The focus is swapped from the geometry to the tree.
  3. Right-click anywhere in the 3D area (do not position your mouse over the tree), and then click Print whole.
  4. In the Print dialog box, define the appropriate print options.