Current location:

Quick Print Template

Quick Print Template [File-Print Template] takes a Map Window or a 3D Window and places the picture inside a Print Template.

Quick Print Template allows you to choose which Print Template to use, and when used with a Map Window, at which scale. When used with a Map Window the Quick Print Template always creates a new SIS Workspace Definition (SWD) for further editing. When used with a 3D Window the Quick Print Template can just print the results, or create a new SWD for further editing.

If you require further options, (in addition to angle and scale) such as placing a graticule, scale bar, north point, etc., use Print Template [File-Print Template] instead. Quick Print Template is a simplified version of Print Template.

Make sure the current window contains the view to be printed.

Select Quick Print Template
On the Select Print Template dialog, select the required print template from the tree structure in the left-hand pane. You will see an image of the chosen template in the right-hand pane, with its dimensions shown.

The inner rectangle on the print template is called the "Map Frame", this is the area where your map will be placed.

In the Map Window area of the dialog you can do the following:

Change the Scale if required.

Change the Angle of rotation if required. You may want to do this, for example, to align a major road or building horizontally on the paper. You have two options:

Fixed - Type in the angle required. North is 0°, East is 90° etc. The print template is rotated anti-clockwise. For example, if you type an angle of 90°, East will be pointing up. Note that when you come to place the print template on the map base, it will appear to be rotated in the opposite direction. This is because the map graphics are to appear rotated once the print template is aligned back with the sheet of paper.

Snaps - When you later place the template, this option will require you to give an extra snap to indicate interactively the angle of rotation.

View of map in the current window, showing the print template rectangle at a scale of 1:1250, rotated at an angle of 72°:

The resulting print template:

Click the Next button.

If you see the Place Print Template dialog, proceed to step 5.

If you see the Print Size dialog, the print template you have chosen does not fit onto the current printer paper at the scale you have chosen. You can:

go back a step to choose a different scale or another print template

choose Print Setup [File-Print] to access the Print Setup dialog to change the paper used

click on Fit in the Print Size dialog to fit the template to the paper

press Next to continue.

On the Place Print Template dialog you will see the same area of the map base as in your current view, and you should see a rectangle attached to the cursor. This rectangle shows you the area of the map which will be displayed in the resulting print template. If you typed in an angle of rotation, the rectangle will be rotated. This rectangle may be outside the extents of the wizard view.

If you cannot see the rectangle, it is either bigger than the view or very small. Zoom out or in until you can see it using the “+” or “*” keys on the numeric keypad, the mouse wheel, the Up, Down, Left or Right arrows, or return to the first page to choose a different scale or print size.

Click to place the centre of the template at the centre of the area to be printed. Alternatively you can type the coordinates of a position. If you chose to rotate the print template using snaps, you are required to give a second position to indicate the angle of rotation.
If you want to change anything, go back through the Quick Wizard. If you want to change the scale at any point during this process, type the new scale into the scale box, and press Enter. If you are finished, press Finish, and a new SWD is created containing the completed print template.

The Map Frame is filled with the selected area of the map base. This view is dynamic, always reflecting the current appearance of the overlays it contains.

You can now save the print template as an SWD (Save As [File-Save As], or print it using Print [File-Print]. [File] Print prints only what is in the map window, so before you print press Zoom Extents [Home-Zoom] . This zooms the print template SWD to its extents and ensures the whole of the map is printed.

In future, when you recall this file, the map view in the template (the Map Frame) reflects the current appearance of the original data (except in the case of an internal dataset).

Top of page

Send comments on this topic.

Click to return to www.cadcorp.com