135 — Print Setup and Print Select Layouts¶

Every ConstructiVision print ends in the same small dialog, Plotter Selection: pick the device, the paper, the plot style and the orientation, then OK. This lesson covers the two toolbar buttons that take you there. Print Setup plots the drawing as it is on screen. Print Select Layouts is the site print, which presets the layers before the dialog opens.

Where it is¶

Both buttons are on the ConstructiVision Site & Tools toolbar:

Button	Tooltip	Same route on the pull-down
Print Setup	“Print Setup”	—
Print Select Layouts	“Print Select Layouts”	ConstructiVision → Print → Site → Select Layouts

The Print → Panel presets on the pull-down (Edge Form, Weld Connections, Pick/Brace Points and the rest) set their layers first and then run the same plot step that Print Setup runs.

A plot can be refused by the licence check: a file copy of a licensed panel does not plot (see A copied panel drawing will not plot below).

Try it on AAA039¶

AAA039 is a panel from the Arlington Airport A sample project. The plot below goes to a PDF, so you do not need a printer to follow along.

1 Print Setup¶

Open AAA039.dwg.
Click Print Setup. The Plotter Selection dialog opens:

Please select the Printer, Paper Size, and Plot Style you wish to use:
Set the four choices. The worked run used:

Field

Value

Plot Device

DWG To PDF

Paper Size

ANSI_B(11.00_x_17.00_Inches)

Plot Style

monochrome.ctb

Orientation

Landscape
Click OK.

Field	Value
Plot Device	`DWG To PDF`
Paper Size	`ANSI_B(11.00_x_17.00_Inches)`
Plot Style	`monochrome.ctb`
Orientation	Landscape

The command line reports the licence check and then the plot:

[CV-IDN] license verified.
; [PLT] plotting at the sheet's stated scale 3/16" = 1'-0" (1=64.000000)
; [PLT] PDF at scale: the full-bleed page ANSI full bleed B (11.00 x 17.00 Inches) (no margins), so the whole sheet fits (CV-2637)
; [PLT] plotting Model -> DWG To PDF / ANSI full bleed B (11.00 x 17.00 Inches) / Landscape
; [PLT] plotting through the named page setup CV-Plot (CV-342)
; [PLT] plot submitted -> ...\Arlington Airport A\AAA039.pdf

AAA039.pdf is written into the project folder, next to the drawing (146,309 bytes on the worked run). It then opens in your PDF viewer; switch back to AutoCAD when you have looked at it.

Plotting again while the PDF is still open¶

If you plot again while AAA039.pdf is open in a PDF viewer, ConstructiVision does not overwrite it. It saves the new plot under the next free name and tells you so:

AutoCAD Message — AAA039.pdf is open in another program, so it cannot be replaced. This plot is saved as: …\AAA039-1.pdf Close the PDF viewer to plot over the original name again.

Click OK. Close the viewer, plot again, and AAA039.pdf is rewritten.

A copied panel drawing will not plot¶

A file copy of a licensed panel is refused. On the Riverside Distribution Center project, a copy of panel RDC012 saved as RDC012-copy.dwg opened Plotter Selection as usual, but after OK the command line read:

[CV-IDN] plot refused: this drawing is a copy of ...\RDC012.dwg (the project registers this licence to it)
[CV-IDN] plot refused by the licence check -- nothing was plotted

The original RDC012.dwg plotted normally: [CV-IDN] license verified. and RDC012.pdf was written.

2 Print Select Layouts¶

Print Select Layouts is the site print. Its published description: preset the site print layer set (solid views; dimensions and construction lines off), regenerate, and plot.

On a site drawing¶

Open CSBsite1.dwg, the site drawing of the ConstructiVision Sample Building project.
Click Print Select Layouts.
Plotter Selection opens. Choose the printer and paper, then click OK. The check for this lesson kept the defaults (DWG To PDF, ANSI B 11 x 17, landscape).

The command line reports the plot:

[CSV-WARN] plt: this sheet states no readable scale (nil) -- plotted to FIT the page.
; [PLT] plotting Model -> DWG To PDF / ANSI B (11.00 x 17.00 Inches) / Landscape
; [PLT] plotting through the named page setup CV-Plot (CV-342)
; [PLT] plot submitted -> ...\ConstructiVision Sample Building\CSBsite1.pdf

The PDF, CSBsite1.pdf, is written into the project folder beside the site drawing. It shows the whole site plan (the building outline, the panels and the grid with its bubbles) fitted to the page.

The site plan prints to fit the page, not to a scale. The warning says so: a site drawing carries no sheet scale for the print to read, so it fills the paper. Do not scale distances off a site print; read the dimensions instead.

On a panel drawing¶

Open AAA039.dwg.
Click Print Select Layouts.
Plotter Selection opens directly, with no layer picker first. From here it is the same dialog as Print Setup; the check for this lesson closed it with Cancel.

How it relates to Site Options. Lesson 11 prints the site plan from Site Options → Print Selected Layers. The published site how-to calls that button “the Print Select Layouts toolbar button” — the same print.

The pull-down menu’s own help line for this route reads “Presents the Select Layers Dialog Box and prints your selection(s).” On AAA039 no such layer dialog appeared.

What you see / Reading the result¶

The scale is the sheet’s own. The plot uses the scale stated on the sheet (3/16” = 1’-0” on AAA039, 1/4” = 1’-0” on RDC012).
The paper. You picked ANSI B; for a PDF, ConstructiVision uses the matching no-margin page, ANSI full bleed B, “so the whole sheet fits”. If the PDF driver refuses that page, you see a warning that it plotted on ANSI B instead and “the sheet’s edges may be cut”.
A page setup is added. After the plot, the drawing holds a page setup named CV-Plot with the device, paper and plot style you chose, and AutoCAD reports the drawing as changed.
Plot style on some drawings. A drawing that uses named plot styles cannot take monochrome.ctb. On PDX001 the command line said so and plotted with monochrome.stb instead: [CSV-WARN] plt: this drawing uses named plot styles (PSTYLEMODE 0), which cannot take monochrome.ctb -- plotting with monochrome.stb instead.
The licence line. The command line shows [CV-IDN] license verified. before the plot lines (AAA039, RDC012 and PDX001 all showed it). A copied drawing gets plot refused by the licence check -- nothing was plotted.

What this lesson does not cover¶

Printing every panel at once. That is Batch Utilities, the panel book; see lesson 13 and the panel-book how-to.
Print All Layers and the Print → Panel discipline presets; see the plotting how-to.

Watch the lesson¶

The video covers part 1, Print Setup, on AAA039: Plotter Selection with the values in the table, then the PDF opening in the viewer. It opens with one plain redraw of the panel before the lesson starts.

The second video covers part 2, Print Select Layouts, on CSBsite1: Plotter Selection with the defaults, the site plan in the PDF viewer, and why a site print is not to scale.