Wide-format printing on roll paper

[Phil G]

Hi Martin,

I have a question, re setting up Templot for printing. By way of explanation I am very luck in so far as I have access to an A1 roll feed printer at work, but so far I have had no success in setting this up to print, I was hoping to run rolls up to 10 metres in length with 5 or 6 roll widths to make up the area. Are there setting that allow such a large size of paper to be printed?

What I am trying to is model as a long term project is Heaton Norris junction in the late 1930's in EM gauge, which will be a mammoth project, hopefully using plug track as I find that a fascinating subject.

Cheers

Phil

 

[Martin Wynne]

@Phil G

Hi Phil,

Welcome to Templot Club. (You have been a member for many months, but this is your first post.)

To print directly from Templot to a roll paper printer at your place of work:

1. you need to have Templot running on your work computer. The Admin on that computer may not allow external software to be installed on it. Or if you are trying to access the printer remotely from your own computer, you need to ask your work Admin for help with the network connections.

2. changes to the paper size settings can only be made on the printer itself or via Windows. Templot has no means to make such printer settings itself. All it can do is to ask the printer what paper size it is set for.

For these reasons, it is usually very much easier to export your track plan as a PDF file onto a USB memory stick or similar, and then transfer that to your work computer system for printing. Or for printing at a digital copyshop.

Note that if your work computer/copyshop is using the Adobe PDF Reader software, there is a length limit of about 4 metres per page, so for a 10-metre plan you would need to do it in 3 sections. Other PDF reader programs (there are many available) do not have this restriction. But you may prefer shorter rolls anyway as being much easier to handle.

For more about how to set up the PDF export from Templot, see:

https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/exporting-pdfs-in-a3-page-size.490/post-4533

Templot will break the plan width-wise into 5 or 6 long roll pages for you. It is better not to export all of them in one PDF file, otherwise the PDF file size will be massive. It would be better to export each page/roll in its own PDF file.

I will make a bit of video shortly showing how to do this, or you can ask me to demonstrate the settings in the next Zoom meeting (29th March 2023).

n.b. whatever you do, if it's a high-street poster printing shop, tell them 3 or 5 times that you want it printed 100% actual size, no scaling. This is not the default setting, so they will likely need to change it. They need to understand that the exact size is far more important than the print quality, which is the opposite of the usual requirement. Tell them another 3 times at least, or stand over them while they change it.


p.s. Sorry, you posted this topic yesterday on the Chat function, but I have only just noticed it there. I have re-posted it here for you. Generally the Chat function is intended mainly for transient day-to-day messages between members. For help with Templot it is better to post messages here on the forum pages, where everyone can see and find them and reply.

cheers,

Martin.

 

[Phil G]

@Phil G

Hi Phil,

Welcome to Templot Club. (You have been a member for many months, but this is your first post.)

To print directly from Templot to a roll paper printer at your place of work:

1. you need to have Templot running on your work computer. The Admin on that computer may not allow external software to be installed on it. Or if you are trying to access the printer remotely from your own computer, you need to ask your work Admin for help with the network connections.

2. changes to the paper size settings can only be made on the printer itself or via Windows. Templot has no means to make such printer settings itself. All it can do is to ask the printer what paper size it is set for.

For these reasons, it is usually very much easier to export your track plan as a PDF file onto a USB memory stick or similar, and then transfer that to your work computer system for printing.

Note that if your work computer is using the Adobe PDF Reader software, there is a length limit of about 4 metres per page, so for a 10-metre plan you would need to do it in 3 sections. Other PDF reader programs (there are many available) do not have this restriction. But you may prefer shorter rolls anyway as being much easier to handle.

For more about how to set up the PDF export from Templot, see:

https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/exporting-pdfs-in-a3-page-size.490/post-4533

Templot will break the plan width-wise into 5 or 6 long roll pages for you. It is better not to export all of them in one PDF file, otherwise the PDF file size will be massive. It would be better to export each page/roll in its own PDF file.

I will make a bit of video shortly showing how to do this, or you can ask me to demonstrate the settings in the next Zoom meeting (29th March 2023).

p.s. Sorry, you posted this topic yesterday on the Chat function, but I have only just noticed it there. I have re-posted it here for you. Generally the Chat function is intended mainly for transient day-to-day messages between members. For help with Templot it is better to post messages here on the forum pages, where everyone can see and find them and reply.

cheers,

Martin.

Thanks Martin,
understand about the Forum, makes sense. I have tried exporting as a DXF file but that creates a huge amount of very small bits of data which did not work so good.
Cheers
Phil