Templot Club Archive 2007-2020                             

topic: 1473Printing Background shapes
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posted: 3 May 2011 00:36

from:

Rob Manchester
 
Manchester - United Kingdom

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Hi Martin,

Having a few problems printing a background shape along with my trackplans. I did a drawing of a room with walls and the like and scanned it into the PC. I can put the drawing into Templot OK and it shows on the pad as expected. I can't however get it to print correctly ( or at all ! ).

On a Canon IX5000 inkjet I get an entirely black shape ( therefore not being able to see the trackplan ) where the background shape is when printing with the 'Print Pictures ( Stretch )' option ticked - expensive on ink with A3! If I go for the 'Outlines Only' option I just get two diagonal lines from corners to corners where the shape should be - I can however see the trackplan.

On a HP Laserjet P2055 I get no background shape printed with any option. The trackplan is OK. Bear in mind that I am printing with 'Advanced Printing Features' and 'Print Optimizations' both disabled for this printer. I seem to remember you muttering something about my system being shot to pieces if I needed to resort to disabling these options.


I am doing all the above to get the plan on a single sheet using the 'fit single page' option in Templot.

I also noticed that using the 'fit single page' option the scaling seems to take the track plan size into account rather than the background shapes which results in the preview on the screen having my room walls just off the page. Is there an option to set the 'fit' to use the shape rathe than the track plan ?

I think I can feel a new PC arriving soon, with Windows 7......

Thanks as usual.
Rob




posted: 3 May 2011 11:59

from:

Brian Nicholls
 
Poole - United Kingdom

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Hi All,

On this same subject, and perhaps a dumb question to ask, but I need to be clear on this point, so here goes.

Q.     Can you actually print your background track plan together with the rail templates on it, at say, 1 : 1 ?

The reason for the question is, I was under the impression that you needed the new pug option ‘Sketchboard’ to do this !!

All the best,

Brian Nicholls.

posted: 3 May 2011 12:12

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

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Brian Nicholls wrote:
Q.     Can you actually print your background track plan together with the rail templates on it, at say, 1 : 1 ?
Hi Brian,

Yes, printer permitting. But please read the ? help notes first:

print_picture_shapes.pngprint_picture_shapes.png

Here's a typical result:

2_071742_370000000.png2_071742_370000000.png


More info at:

  topic 227

regards,

Martin.

posted: 3 May 2011 13:05

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

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Rob Manchester wrote:
On a Canon IX5000 inkjet I get an entirely black shape ( therefore not being able to see the trackplan ) where the background shape is when printing with the 'Print Pictures ( Stretch )' option ticked - expensive on ink with A3!
Hi Rob,

Solid black usually means you are trying to print a transparent image on a device which does not support transparency. Have you got the transparent option ticked for this image in the background shapes?

Half the battle seems to be that no two printers are the same. More about printing problems:

 topic 227

Bear in mind that I am printing with 'Advanced Printing Features' and 'Print Optimizations' both disabled for this printer. I seem to remember you muttering something about my system being shot to pieces if I needed to resort to disabling these options.
I don't recall saying that, in fact I have no idea what 'Advanced Printing Features' and 'Print Optimizations' actually do? :?

I also noticed that using the 'fit single page' option the scaling seems to take the track plan size into account rather than the background shapes which results in the preview on the screen having my room walls just off the page. Is there an option to set the 'fit' to use the shapes rather than the track plan ?
Templot won't print any pages of the background shapes which don't contain any track at all. The solution to this is to trick Templot by adding a very short dummy template on such pages, or in the corners of a fit to single page. And by very short I mean very short -- a length of plain track template just 0.5mm long is sufficient, and if it's a "centre-line only" template it will be almost invisible.

regards,

Martin.

posted: 3 May 2011 13:13

from:

Brian Nicholls
 
Poole - United Kingdom

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Martin Wynne wrote:
Yes, printer permitting. But please read the ? help notes first:
Hi Martin,

Many thanks for the very prompt response.

That answers the question nicely thank you, and makes it very clear to me.

It also helps me to be able to re-draw accurately where track side objects will actually be placed (bearing in mind scale clearances etc.), once I have re-scanned the Templot printout into a file format and then use a drawing package to add the items to the file.

Many thanks again Martin.

All the best,

Brian Nicholls.

posted: 3 May 2011 20:53

from:

Paul Boyd
 
Loughborough - United Kingdom

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Hi Rob

Another reason I've found for background images printing in solid black, irrespective of transparency settings, is that I have Templot set to "black & white only" instead of "grey shade printing".  In my case this happens because my default printer is a laser printer so Templot start in B&W mode, but when changing to the inkjet I choose to stick with B&W most of the time, but forget this doesn't work with background images!

posted: 3 May 2011 23:55

from:

Rob Manchester
 
Manchester - United Kingdom

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Hi Paul,

Thanks for your thought on my problem. I checked up on that and it doesn't seem to be that causing my difficulties. See the reply to Martin below.

Rgds
Rob


posted: 4 May 2011 00:14

from:

Rob Manchester
 
Manchester - United Kingdom

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Hi Martin,

Thanks for the tip about putting small bits of track at the extent of the background image when fitting onto a single page - it works a treat.

I have done two things tonight ( apart from the cooking, cleaning and dog walking ) :-

1) Re-installed the printer drivers for the HP2055 laser and the Canon ix5000 inkjet. One thing I can now do that wasn't possible before is get the HP to give timbering printed with an infill. Before it was always blank with just the outline even when set to print the infill. The HP now doesn't need the 'Advanced' and ' Optimization' settings ( whatever they were ? ) disabling, which is good.

2) I carried out some tests with background pictures. After loading the new printer drivers neither would print them. I checked the transparency option you suggested with no luck. I scanned the room/baseboard plan I had drawn at 50,100,150 and 300 DPI and tried each .bmp in turn as a background shape. On both printers the ones scanned at 150 and 300 DPI produced no printed picture BUT at both 50 and 100 DPI both printers WILL print them. I had originally been scanning at 300 DPI hence the reason for not seeing the correct printed result.

I also tried altering the print resolution of the HP laser from 1200 down to 600 but that didn't seem to help at all.

So, a good result, I am now sitting here with an A3 printout containing both a background image AND some trackwork. Great stuff. All I have to do now is remember to make the background shape images smallish and figure out how to get all the track into my limited space............

Many thanks as usual for your support. Looking forward to the next Pug so I can configure Templot's options at startup.

Rgds
Rob




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