Printing problems

[Chris]

Hi David.

I want to print out my layout plan so that I can start track laying. Because of the shape (long and thin) I usually work at a scale (1:5 on wide-screen display) that has no vertical scroll bar but a small amount of movement on the horizontal one.

Initially when I printed, the image was printed on portrait paper on two pages. So, question 1 is: can you make the program automatically select the best printer orientation? Other apps that I have do this, usually without any user intervention.

Having orientated the printer, I had a second go but the image still required 2 pages. Thinking that maybe the fact that the whole layout was not displayed at the scale I was using I reduced the scale by one increment (1:6). That still required 2 sheets. Reducing the scale again to 1:8 and reprinting got me a single image but now it was well under the size of the page. So question 2 is: can the program be modified to do a best fit to the printer page?

The only solution at the moment seems to be to export the layout and then print it from a graphics program. But even that requires juggling scales to get the best image. Incidentally, what is teh degree of compression applied, if any, when the image is saved as a .jpg? Mionimal, I hope.

Best wishes from a dreach Skye,
Chris.

[David]

Did you set the table size to about the size of your plan?
The print function assumes that you want to print the complete table area as indicated in Tools/Options/Table.
On screen, that corresponds with the white area.

David.

[Chris]

Good morning David. Thank you for responding to my message.

Did you set the table size to about the size of your plan?
The print function assumes that you want to print the complete table area as indicated in Tools/Options/Table.
On screen, that corresponds with the white area.

Good question. Yes, the table was defined before I even started on the plan. So no problem there. BTW, I use a virtual printer (FinePrint) most of the time in order to save paper so no paper/ink was wasted. (FP is an excellent app and can save whole lot of paper by printing, say, two pages on a single sheet of paper - i.e. at 0.707 magnification. End of plug!)

Once again, best wishes,
Chris.

[Chris]

Hi David.

Still having awful problems printing. In the end, after about an hour experimenting, the only way I could find to print the entire board onto a single sheet of paper was to use a PDF generator with the paper size set to 10"x12.5" landscape. The pdf generator then resized it to print on an A4 page. If I tried zooming down in size by from 1:6 to 1:8 then the resulting image was too small to be usable. It has just occurred to me that maybe AnyRail is set up to print on Letter sized paper. Cannot check that for now as I have to go out. Will look later.

All the best,
Chris.

PS Am having problems with double slips in TrainPlayer. I will get in touch with Jim to see if he has any ideas what is wrong.

[David]

Hi Chris,

When I try to print your layout, a scale of 1:6 results in two pages. The plan is just slightly too large to fit on one page (A4).
Indeed, when scaling down to first possible option, 1:8, it becomes a bit smallish. And there is nothing in between.
The scale you set with AnyRail is the real print scale, so if you set it 1:10, 10 inches in your plan will be 1 inch in the print out.

AnyRail will simply take a scale, and retrieves the size of the paper from the printer. From that, it decides how many pages are required. AnyRail does not know anything about A4/Letter, it just uses the width and height as reported by the printer.

However, we could try to add a feature to 'scale to fit'. In your case the resulting print would be 1:6.2326742842 or something like that.

David.

[Chris]

Hi David.

Thanks for the explanation. Makes perfect sense of the problem I had, and my solution. The fact that I have a wide screen laptop probably hasn't helped either; it is excellent for a long thin layout, especially when I have the library open as well.

I think the idea of "Print to fit" is excellent as I am sure others must have a similar problem.

As ever, all the best,
Chris.

[David]

Concerning the track library, you know that you can 'tear it off', to turn it into a floating window?
Just pick it up by the dotted line on the left and drag it where you want.

David.

[Chris]

Thanks David. Yes, I knew that but never bother to do it as it doesn't really help.

What would be more helpful (for me) would be to actually edit the library. There are several track items I have no intention of using and the two turntables and transfer tables are identical so one could go. But that is just me.

Cheers,
Chris.