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TEMPLOT 3D PLUG TRACK - To get up to speed with this experimental project click here.   To watch an introductory video click here.   See the User Guide at Bexhill West.

  • The Plug Track functions are experimental and still being developed. Some of the earlier pages of this topic are now out-of-date.

    For an updated overview of this project see this topic.   For some practical modelling aspects of using Plug Track see Building 3D Track.

    The assumption is that you have your own machines on which to experiment, or helpful friends with machines. Please do not send Templot files to commercial laser cutting or 3D printing firms while this project is still experimental, because the results are unpredictable and possibly wasteful.

    Some pages of this and other topics include contributions from members who are creating and posting their own CAD designs for 3D printing and laser-cutting. Do not confuse them with Templot's own exported CAD files. All files derived from Templot are © Martin Wynne.
  • The Plug Track functions are experimental and still being developed.

    For an updated overview of this project see this topic.   For some practical modelling aspects of using Plug Track see Building 3D Track.

    The assumption is that you have your own machines on which to experiment, or helpful friends with machines. Please do not send Templot files to commercial laser cutting or 3D printing firms while this project is still experimental, because the results are unpredictable and possibly wasteful.

    Some pages of this and other topics include contributions from members who are creating and posting their own CAD designs for 3D printing and laser-cutting. Do not confuse them with Templot's own exported CAD files. All files derived from Templot are © Martin Wynne.

Paper sizes for printing

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Paul Boyd

Member
Location
Loughborough, UK
I know some like to cut their own paper sizes -- for example an A3 sheet cut in half length-wise produces a long sheet which can be printed on an A4 printer. I think 17" is a standard length (legal paper?) available on most A4 printers.
When my roll printer expired, the next one could cope with A2 cut lengthways - effectively giving the size of two A4 sheets end to end. That printer also expired…
 
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When my roll printer expired, the next one could cope with A2 cut lengthways - effectively giving the size of two A4 sheets end to end. That printer also expired…

Crikey, what a good idea.

I may be wrong, but I would imagine that most modern printers would be happy to accept such "over-length" paper.

It's off to the stationer's for me today! :)
 
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Crikey, what a good idea.

I may be wrong, but I would imagine that most modern printers would be happy to accept such "over-length" paper.

It's off to the stationer's for me today! :)
My main current printer can’t accept that 😢 At least, the printer itself can but Canon’s Windows drivers don’t allow a big enough custom page size, although their Mac drivers do!
 
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Crikey, what a good idea.

I may be wrong, but I would imagine that most modern printers would be happy to accept such "over-length" paper.

It's off to the stationer's for me today! :)

Just ordered some A3 paper today, great idea.

Would it work for two half sheets being attached top to toe?
 
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Just ordered some A3 paper today, great idea.

Would it work for two half sheets being attached top to toe?
Do you mean A3? If you’re cutting it in half and joining the two pieces end to end, you might as well just start with A4. Cutting A2 in half lengthways gives you the same size but no join in the paper.

(Sorry, I’ve made the topic digress!)
 
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Do you mean A3? If you’re cutting it in half and joining the two pieces end to end, you might as well just start with A4. Cutting A2 in half lengthways gives you the same size but no join in the paper.

(Sorry, I’ve made the topic digress!)

The suggestion is to cut A3 in half length ways for a longer A4 width paper, if I join 2 together (Sellotape on the rear) would it work just as well being 33"/34" long

I know some like to cut their own paper sizes -- for example an A3 sheet cut in half length-wise produces a long sheet which can be printed on an A4 printer. I think 17"
 
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When my roll printer expired, the next one could cope with A2 cut lengthways - effectively giving the size of two A4 sheets end to end. That printer also expired…

Paul

Do you have to alter any printer settings as presumably it will still print in panels

As it is, mine prints a panel 26cm long leaving a margin of 1cm at one end and 2.5cm at the other end on an A4 sheet
 
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@Hayfield

Hi John,

The easiest way with A3 paper on an A4 printer is to cut it lengthwise to a width of 210mm. That leaves some wastage, but it fits the A4 printer paper drawer better.

Whereas if you cut it in half, you get 2 pieces 148mm wide, and unless you set a custom paper size just right you risk printing the ink onto the rollers, which is not good for the printer.

Lengthwise from A3 is 420mm (16.5") long, and you need to set a suitable paper size to match. On my printer the longest it will accept is only 14" (355mm), but that's still a very useful increase of more than 2" over A4, which means most 4mm scale turnouts will fit on a single sheet.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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@Hayfield

Hi John,

The easiest way with A3 paper on an A4 printer is to cut it lengthwise to a width of 210mm. That leaves some wastage, but it fits the A4 printer paper drawer better.

Whereas if you cut it in half, you get 2 pieces 148mm wide, and unless you set a custom paper size just right you risk printing the ink onto the rollers, which is not good for the printer.

Lengthwise from A3 is 420mm (16.5") long, and you need to set a suitable paper size to match. On my printer the longest it will accept is only 14" (355mm), but that's still a very useful increase of more than 2" over A4, which means most 4mm scale turnouts will fit on a single sheet.

cheers,

Martin.

Martin

Thank you, I will look in my printer settings for this, will Templot automatically pick this up or do I have to alter the print size ? if yes whare please

At the moment my A4 sheets are a bit wasteful as the margins and area printed are as follows
The printed area is 26cm long leaving a margin of 1cm at one end and 2.5cm at the other end on an A4 sheet

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@Hayfield

Hi John,

If you are printing direct from Templot, Templot will pick up whatever paper size you set on the printer. Templot has no control over your printer settings, that's up to you.

If it's A4 paper it would normally be longer than 26 cm.

My guess is that you have the printer set to US Letter size instead of A4. When this appears:

a4_printer.png


change the size setting to A4 on the drop-down.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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It was on A4 letter, but changing it to A4 mad no difference, I then changed it to legal (thinking it was 14") but the right hand margin increased to 67mm and it lost the first 40mm despite printing this first ?

My printer is an old HP deskjet 2510, I guess it needs replacing
 
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It was on A4 letter
@Hayfield

Hi John,

It can't be on A4 letter?

A4 and Letter are two different paper sizes.

Try going to Printer Properties and setting A4 there:

a4_printer.png


It will be under Preferences, or Page Setup, or some such tab.

After changing it, try re-starting Templot.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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The Epson 1290S is still creaking along with some coaxing and although it has a roll printer capability, actually finding some roll paper of the correct size is another matter, so I just try to stick with A3 these days
 
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Sorry about being very thick on this one, but my printer prints as per the tiles produced in Templot which fits on to an A4 page

My printer page selection does not go higher than A4, the exception being the "Legal" size

If I cut A3 in half as suggested I think all I will get is each tile shown in Templot, how can I alter this or is it my old printer which is affecting this.
 
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In my experience most printer drivers offer a user defined option. My A4 printer does and even offers A3 options but then it physically can't do that, the paper wouldn't fit, so I generally use the Epson 1290S for Templot with A3.
 
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As a matter of interest I tried using the User-defined setting with the page length set to 420mm and cut down a sheet of A3 to suit. Unfortunately the printer still printed it out to A4 size. Looked OK in Templot but the result was disappointing as everything wa squished up to fit. Therefore not recommended unless I did something wrong.
 
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However if I export it as a PDF then set scaling to none, ignore all the warnings and press print - !!!RESULT!!!!. So the printer can do it from a PDF. It didn't look right in the PDF but setting the scaling to none fixed the output but I am not sure it's much use for multiple pages.
 
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Last edited:
I should add that the printer in question is an Epson WF-2010. It is useful to know that if/when the 1290S finally packs up altogether, I can at least print templates of a good length.
 
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The downside is that you have to alter your printer printing preferences afterwards back to what it was before.
 
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