Templot Club Archive 2007-2020
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posted: 17 May 2011 02:28 from: Martin Wynne
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This topic is about the new native PDF engine in TDV. |
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posted: 31 May 2011 14:14 from: Martin Wynne
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There is a long and complex function in Templot which creates the printed output. In fact in TDV there are now 3 separate clone versions of this function: 1. draws the output on the printer (or a virtual printer, such as a PDF generator), via the Windows print spooler. 2. draws the output on Templot's new native PDF engine. 3. draws the output on bitmaps and metafiles for the sketchboard and for the image file outputs. At present these 3 are almost identical and all use the same settings from the output menu for colours, line thicknesses, etc., and they all use the same output > output drawing options > element options... settings. But they don't have to do that. Rather than use the same function for all, I cloned 3 separate versions of the output function so that they could easily each have their own range of settings if necessary. Some things are obvious -- banner/roll paper printing means nothing in the PDF and image outputs for example. But other things are not so obvious. The default colours are optimized for printing on white paper -- so for example there are no thin yellow lines which would be almost invisible. But on-screen such a restriction does not apply, nor the assumption of a white background. So I have added an option on the sketchboard to use the same background colour as the workpad, for example. If you have tried the PDF and image file outputs, comments and suggestions welcome for improving the colours and styles. (Use the temporary export menu for these until I have the export dialog fully working.) The PDF output defaults to 180mm x 260mm page size, but you can easily create very large PDF pages for wide format poster printing by changing that to say 900mm x 3000mm (approx 3ft x 10ft).  regards, Martin. |
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posted: 3 Jun 2011 20:57 from: Paul Boyd
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Hi Martin Everyone seems to have gone quiet! In my case it's because I'm actually building track on the bench instead of the computer  Anyway, I tried the PDF output, and it works. I always default to black and white so I don't really want to comment on colour choices. I used the Output -> export file route and was presented with a dialogue box. I noted that colours and styles needed to be set in the same way as for printing so went back and did that. Even after all this time of using Templot, I walked straight into the first trap  I set a page width of 3700mm and a page height of 685mm and hit the export PDF button. The trap? My 12ft by 2ft layout wanted to print as a 2ft by 12ft layout! I'd left end-run as the default setting, by the way, so should have twigged what was going to happen.I know that the concept of portrait and landscape has been aired many, many times, and I no longer think in those terms. I'm sure you can foresee what's going to happen though  I wonder if, for PDF and image output only, where "paper size" is a bit of an abstract concept, if the end-run and side-run settings can be ignored and simply have width as being across the screen and height up the screen? There are probably some implications here that I haven't thought through!I have a horrible feeling that I've opened a steaming can of worms, so I apologise in advance! I should emphasis that I wouldn't want the printed output settings to change - end-run and side-run is fine for paper output and I use both! Cheers |
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| Last edited on 3 Jun 2011 21:00 by Paul Boyd |
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posted: 3 Jun 2011 22:06 from: Martin Wynne
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Paul Boyd wrote:I'm sure you can foresee what's going to happen thoughHi Paul, I'm aware that this is likely to cause problems all over again. The problem with referring to screen width and height is that when the PDF is displayed in the PDF reader it will be the other way round. It will all be explained, with diagrams, in the help notes when I can get them written. But as not all users ever read the notes, I think it needs something more. If you enter a width which is wider than the height while in end-run, Templot will be asking you if you really intend that and explaining what it will mean. And the opposite for side-run. These things are all still up in the air. The sketchboard will include a PDF output which matches the screen outlines for portrait/landscape orientation. This may be a better option for diagram mode output to PDF. The direct PDF output is intended mainly for construction templates in detail mode, and matches the normal print output for that reason. regards, Martin. |
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posted: 4 Jun 2011 07:13 from: Martin Wynne
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Hi Paul, I have now removed the reference to width and height from the PDF export, and changed it to "long side" and "short side". It's difficult to see how anyone could get those mixed up? Templot will then allocate the dimensions to width and height itself, according to the current end-run or side-run setting. I have added option buttons to change that setting on the PDF dialog: 2_040152_560000000.png  Please not that this export dialog is unfinished in TDV -- use the temporary export menu instead. In the event that the user sets a short side longer than the long side for his own special purpose, Templot will show an "Are you sure?" confirm alert. It's strange that getting this user interface wording right takes far more mental effort than actually writing the program that does the work. And no doubt it's still wrong and someone somewhere will get the wrong end of the stick. regards, Martin. |
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