Printing a File

VectorWorks can print or plot to any device that is selected in the Print & Fax System Preferences (Macintosh) or Printer and Faxes Control Panel item (Windows). The actual parameters of the printed or plotted file are determined by the printer setup settings.

All visible objects, classes, and layers within the print area of the VectorWorks file are printed.

To print a file:

1.	Select File > Print. On the Macintosh, specify the printer setup parameters and then click OK.

The Print dialog box opens; the options that display depend on which printer or plotter is selected.

To display additional print options on the Macintosh, select VectorWorks from the drop-down box that displays the default option, Copies & Pages.

2.	Specify the print options, such as which pages to print and how many copies to make. The following VectorWorks print settings are available:

 

Platform	Setting	Description
Macintosh	Application Print Resolution (dpi)	Sets a resolution for the application output. Either select a recommended dpi value for this printer type (from the drop-down list), or manually enter a value.
Macintosh - QuickDraw imaging only	Print PostScript only	If you have a PostScript printer, you can select this option to send only PostScript commands to the printer; this can speed the print process
Windows and Macintosh	Gray level for grayed layers and classes	Adjusts the level of gray when printing with grayed layers and or/classes
Windows and Macintosh	Enable special processing for transparent color bitmaps	When GDI+ imaging is disabled in the VectorWorks display preferences on Windows, or Quartz is disabled on the Macintosh, some printers (including PostScript printers) cannot support transparent color for raster images, which can affect bitmaps and picture objects that have the fill style set to None. Select this option to use a more detailed (and slower) imaging process to print transparency properly.
Macintosh - QuickDraw imaging only	Disable driver text rotation	Translates rotated text into a bitmap image, to prevent problems with printer drivers that cannot interpret rotated text
Windows and Macintosh	Print current view only (Macintosh) or Current View (Windows)	Prints the view currently displayed in the file window; this view is scaled larger or smaller to fit the selected page size
Windows, Macintosh - QuickDraw imaging only	Rasterize print output	Prints the drawing as a raster bitmap. Select this option when the printer memory is insufficient, or when image problems occur (for example, to print design layer transfer modes on OS X or on PostScript printers).
Windows and Macintosh	Print patterns at on-screen resolution	Prints fill patterns at approximately the same size as they appear on the screen at a 100% zoom. (When QuickDraw imaging is enabled on Macintosh, this option has an effect only if the Rasterize print output option is also selected.) Deselect this option to use the unscaled printer resolution (which is usually much lower); on non‑PostScript printers, this prints faster.
Macintosh	Print as PDF	When Quartz is enabled, allows the file to be printed to a PDF file

3.	If the Rasterize print output option is selected, specify the edge of the image onscreen that is the first edge to come out of the printer.

The first edge to come out of the printer depends on the printer driver, the page orientation, and the rotation options that are supported by the driver. It cannot be predicted by VectorWorks. If the wrong page edge is selected, some portions of the drawing may fail to print if the printer runs out of memory.

The Rasterize Print Output method can be significantly slower than other print methods.

4.	Click Print (Macintosh) or OK (Windows) to print.