About Printer Setup

To be able to generate a printed output, the device must be correctly prepared. To do so, configuration files are provided for 3DS virtual printers and you can also use environment variables.

For the sake of convenience, a single configuration file is used to configure the printer and the driver.

This page discusses:

3DS Virtual Printers
Environment Variables
Print Definition of V4 Linetypes

3DS Virtual Printers

By default, 3DS Virtual Printer configuration files are stored in permanent files.

Permanent files which are located in:

C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Dassault Systemes\CATSettings\Rn\Authoring

(where "n" is the current release number).

These files are:

CATPrintersSettings.CATSettings (contains the list of printers defined in the Printer List).
Print.CATSettings (contains information about the drivers and the printer parameters).

Printers are managed through the Printers tab.

Note that configurations from previous releases are also supported, which means that if your printer configuration file is in XML format, you can import it through the Printers tab.

Environment Variables

You can use environment variables in both declaration and execution scripts.


Variable	Used to define...
%CATPRT_DOC_SHEETS_COUNT%	Number of sheets to be printed. It is automatically updated.
%CATPRT_DOC_SHEETS_NUM%	Number of the sheet to be printed.
%CATPRT_DOC_PATH%	Path of the document to be printed.
%CATPRT_DOC_NAME%	Name of the document to be printed.
%CATPRT_PRINTER_NAME%	Name of the printer to be used to print the document.
%CATPRT_PAPER_WIDTH%	Paper width.
%CATPRT_PAPER_NAME%	Paper format (for example A4, etc.).
%CATPRT_PAPER_ORIENTATION%	Paper orientation (for example, Portrait.).
%CATPRT_PAPER_UNIT%	Unit for parameters (for example "mm" for Millimeter).
%CATOUT%	Name of the sheet to be printed.

Print Definition of V4 Linetypes

You can choose between two methods for the linetype print definition.

These methods are:

3DEXPERIENCE process (the default one) which uses standards defined through Me > Preferences > Standards.
V4-type process: in the 3DEXPERIENCE, you can create the V4LineFontType environment variable which lets you use line types similar to those used in V4. The V4LineFontType variable is based on seven standard types detailed below:


	ISO/ANSI	JIS	V4
Solid	[ ]	[ ]	[ ]
Dotted	[1:1]	[1:1]	[2:1]
Dashed	[4:1:5]	[3:1]	[8:2]
Dot-Dash	[7:1:1:1]	[9:1:1:1]	[10:1:2:1]
Phantom	[7:1:1:1:1:1]	[15:1:1:1:1:1]	[35:1:2:1:2:1]
Small Dotted	[0.5:0.5]	[0.5:0.5]
JIS Axis	[2:1:10:1]	[2:1:10:1]

This information is similar to the default information contained in the LINEDEF file (a Version 4 external file used to create a mapping between the linetype and the plotting). The last two types in the list are "3DEXPERIENCE only" (they did not exist in V4) and are defined using Me > Preferences > Standards.

For detailed information on how to set an environment variable, see Installation and Administration: 3DEXPERIENCE Platform: 3DEXPERIENCE Platform Installation: Native Apps Installation: Configuring Environments.