I am considering getting back into lighting design after a 17-year hiatus. Back then, I used a drafting board. LXFree is a wonderful tool, and I have transfered a couple of old designs from vellum to LXFree and it seems great!
I have considerable confusion about printing. My drawing is about 24" by 30", but when I print it comes out real small on a single 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper. My PDF is also rather small, but all the detail is there so it is OK.
I set up the Inspector document properties size to 3 wide by 3 high, assuming that would make it 9 sheets of paper to print off. It doesn't, it is still very small on one sheet.
At one point, I did get a very large print of 36 pages that was much more than 1/4" scale. I don't know what I did there.
How do I print a 24" x 36" and how do I make the PDF that size too?
Also, I found LXFree when searching for which lighting design software to purchase. As I have a Mac, MacLux Pro was my option, but then LXFree seems free. At some point are you going to charge for LX or just for the added on tools? Just curious.
D. Hummel
Kudos, printing, pricing
Hi,
Congratulations on getting back into lighting design.
This information is for OS-X 10.5, it may be a little different for other system versions. Also, if you have an older version of LXFree, you should download 1.0.1.
Page Setup controls the paper size. LXFree gets this information and that is how you are able to set the plot size to 3 pages by 3 pages. This takes into account the area of the paper you choose and the scale (100% by default).
The final output size is actually controlled by the print sheet which comes down when you choose the Print command. In 10.5, this sheet can be either collapsed (hiding the options and being simple). Or, it can be expanded by clicking the button next to the printer popup. In expanded mode, you can choose to do things like put more than one "page" on a piece of paper. This manipulation is done by the printer driver and not the software application. For example if, under "Layout" you set the "Pages per Sheet" to 2, LXFree will never know that it is only printing half as many physical pieces of paper as it thinks it has pages.
The options contained in the Print sheet vary depending on the actual printer to be used. This computer has two HP printers available. Both are similar in regards to the following. But, it may be different depending on the driver and printer you are trying to use.
Under "Paper Handling" in the Print Options popup menu, there is a check box labled: "Scale to Fit Paper Size." This box can cause odd scaling of the output, including when the output is to PDF.
My guess is that there is some option in the print sheet similar to the one described above that is causing the problem with your output.
Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to load a printer driver without OS-X actually having that type of printer connected. So, even if you told me the type of printer you are using, I can't really poke around to see what the options are. But, you can post the printer driver information to the forum to see if someone else might have this same issue. Likewise, if you do find a solution, please post it to the forum so that others can benefit.
I often create a large PDF to have printed at Fed-Ex Kinkos. To do this, I create a custom paper size using Page Setup. This can be done using Format for Any Printer. At the bottom of the Paper Size popup is "Manage Custom Sizes". You can enter 24x36 and title it as such. Depending on what you intend to do with the PDF, you can also set the margins to 0. When you use this page size and set the plot to 1 x 1 page, you can create a large PDF using "Print".
As far as the future goes, LXFree will remain free. There may end up being a cost for the tools and a more advanced application called LXBeams. LXBeams adds the ability to display beams created by lights to the basic LXFree application.
Congratulations on getting back into lighting design.
This information is for OS-X 10.5, it may be a little different for other system versions. Also, if you have an older version of LXFree, you should download 1.0.1.
Page Setup controls the paper size. LXFree gets this information and that is how you are able to set the plot size to 3 pages by 3 pages. This takes into account the area of the paper you choose and the scale (100% by default).
The final output size is actually controlled by the print sheet which comes down when you choose the Print command. In 10.5, this sheet can be either collapsed (hiding the options and being simple). Or, it can be expanded by clicking the button next to the printer popup. In expanded mode, you can choose to do things like put more than one "page" on a piece of paper. This manipulation is done by the printer driver and not the software application. For example if, under "Layout" you set the "Pages per Sheet" to 2, LXFree will never know that it is only printing half as many physical pieces of paper as it thinks it has pages.
The options contained in the Print sheet vary depending on the actual printer to be used. This computer has two HP printers available. Both are similar in regards to the following. But, it may be different depending on the driver and printer you are trying to use.
Under "Paper Handling" in the Print Options popup menu, there is a check box labled: "Scale to Fit Paper Size." This box can cause odd scaling of the output, including when the output is to PDF.
My guess is that there is some option in the print sheet similar to the one described above that is causing the problem with your output.
Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to load a printer driver without OS-X actually having that type of printer connected. So, even if you told me the type of printer you are using, I can't really poke around to see what the options are. But, you can post the printer driver information to the forum to see if someone else might have this same issue. Likewise, if you do find a solution, please post it to the forum so that others can benefit.
I often create a large PDF to have printed at Fed-Ex Kinkos. To do this, I create a custom paper size using Page Setup. This can be done using Format for Any Printer. At the bottom of the Paper Size popup is "Manage Custom Sizes". You can enter 24x36 and title it as such. Depending on what you intend to do with the PDF, you can also set the margins to 0. When you use this page size and set the plot to 1 x 1 page, you can create a large PDF using "Print".
As far as the future goes, LXFree will remain free. There may end up being a cost for the tools and a more advanced application called LXBeams. LXBeams adds the ability to display beams created by lights to the basic LXFree application.
Printing
Well, I've monkeyed around with the printing, and this is what I've discovered.
I am editing this post because after I posted it, I read in the answer to another post that you can change the size by the zoom control in the View menu, which of course I do all the time as I'm working. THAT CHANGES THE PRINTING SIZE TOO!! So I have to make sure it is set at "Actual Size" in the view menu before I print. That saves all the 200% and doubling the pages number but still getting the right amount of pages trouble I was having!
Now I will erase all the stuff I wrote before because it works now.
Except that I still greatly enjoy the program and I am using it for a show in October. I suppose I'll even take my laptop along and dynamically change the plot as needed and enter circuit numbers right into the program. Then I can make reports on the spot. Very cool!
D. Hummel
I am editing this post because after I posted it, I read in the answer to another post that you can change the size by the zoom control in the View menu, which of course I do all the time as I'm working. THAT CHANGES THE PRINTING SIZE TOO!! So I have to make sure it is set at "Actual Size" in the view menu before I print. That saves all the 200% and doubling the pages number but still getting the right amount of pages trouble I was having!
Now I will erase all the stuff I wrote before because it works now.
Except that I still greatly enjoy the program and I am using it for a show in October. I suppose I'll even take my laptop along and dynamically change the plot as needed and enter circuit numbers right into the program. Then I can make reports on the spot. Very cool!
D. Hummel
I'm still seeing this too
Hi,
Not sure why the view zoom would effect the print zoom but it still does.
As soon as I zoom out so that I can see the whole page, the print job just prints the single page. When I zoom the view in, I get the single page divided into 4 pages.
Tried the various printer drivers I have installed, the scaling and scale to page size. Only works if you zoom the view out.
LXBeams V1.2.0
Snow Leopard 10.6.3
iMac 2009
Cheers
Tim
Not sure why the view zoom would effect the print zoom but it still does.
As soon as I zoom out so that I can see the whole page, the print job just prints the single page. When I zoom the view in, I get the single page divided into 4 pages.
Tried the various printer drivers I have installed, the scaling and scale to page size. Only works if you zoom the view out.
LXBeams V1.2.0
Snow Leopard 10.6.3
iMac 2009
Cheers
Tim
The way LXFree is designed is that you print what you see. So, if you are zoomed in, the printed size will be larger, etc.
The document size shown and set in the Inspector is always in reference to 0% zoom.
The latest build version has a new option to automatically set the print zoom so that the whole plot fits on one page. So, if the plot takes 2x2 pages to print, this function would set the print zoom to 50%.
(This is different than the "Scale to Fit Paper Size" option found in under Paper Handling in the print dialog. This option seems to mean scaling from one paper size to another, letter to legal, etc.)
The document size shown and set in the Inspector is always in reference to 0% zoom.
The latest build version has a new option to automatically set the print zoom so that the whole plot fits on one page. So, if the plot takes 2x2 pages to print, this function would set the print zoom to 50%.
(This is different than the "Scale to Fit Paper Size" option found in under Paper Handling in the print dialog. This option seems to mean scaling from one paper size to another, letter to legal, etc.)