Printing Plans and Elevations etc on One Sheet of Paper

[Allan Chesney]

For a long time different users have asked about printing sets of plans including putting plans and several elevations views or sections views etc on a single piece of paper or several sheets.  Some have done this by saving the different views as images, opened them in PaintShop Pro or similar programs, arranged the images on a single sheet, added dimensions and text and then printed the documents.

While this does work, it is not simple and involves using other software that is not really designed for the purpose, as it does not provide automatic dimensioning, printing to scale etc.

Attached is an illustrated tutorial explaining a way to do this all in TFP, utilising its lines, text and automatic dimensioning tools, to add the technical details required for a more profession finished document.  These can be printed as a PDF document for printing on large pieces of paper if necessary.

For those very familiar with TFP it is quite simple and you may not need the tutorial, but those not so familiar may find it useful.
Basically the principle is to export each plan or elevations, sections etc., as DXF files and import them again onto a new blank project using a new project for each 'sheet' of your plan set.  Arrange each view to suitably fill the page, lock them in the Display filter, then use the Layout toolbar to add additional lines and circles, text and dimensions.  Because it is still a DXF file, it remains to scale in the new project, so the TFP dimensioning tools will automatically generate any additional dimensions needed (such as heights on elevations etc).  You can add a border, text and title boxes before printing. On the Terrain tab if you turn off the Show Contours, the terrain should snap to your page border, making printing to fit paper, easier.

Attached also is an image for a quick view and an A3 pdf of a sample plan and elevations. This is just a quick example, with dummy text (obviously!) to indicate what can be done but I am sure it will give you the idea.

I hope those who need to print TFP plans etc find it useful.

LATER EDIT: Have just added another image to show how to adjust dimensions that you add to elevations etc.

Allan

[vick]

This is great information, but I'm having difficulty keeping the elevation drawings to scale in the process.  I must be doing something incorrect on the Object Import Wizard selection regarding defining the size of the element. Any suggestions?
Thanks!

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Vick (I presume)

Welcome to the forum.

First I presume you did export as a 2D Drawing (second option - NOT 2D image)?
When you import, the Units dropdown should be set to whatever you have the program set to.  If you use Imperial, it will probably be set to Feet-inches already, so you should not need to change anything. I use Metric but it still defaults to Feet-Inches so I have to change it to Millimeters each time.

When you get to this page check the Resulant Width - it should be the length of your elevation as it appeared in the display window.  In other words, if you had the display so that the walls were right on the edge of each side of the screen and your house between those two walls was 40 feet, then the Resultant Width should say 40' (12 meters or whatever).  If it doesn't then choose one of the other settings so that it does say that.

If your plan worked OK the elevations should also, as long as you kept the same settings.

Let me know how you get on with it.

Allan

[vick]

It worked!  By selecting "milimeters" the drawing came out to the correct scale in feet and inches.  Thanks for the assistance!
Vick

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Vick,

I am glad that worked for you. I suspect TFP actually uses metric measurements behind the scenes as you often see similar types of things with dimensions, sizes etc.

Allan

[CIR]

Really good information!

thank you!

[Curtis14434]

Re: Printing Plans and Elevations etc on One Sheet of Paper

Hi Allen,

I'm a bit new to this and ahve read most of the discussions here in trying to get my first house design on paper and then to the builders. I found the discussion on the topic of printing to mospful, but for some reason I cannot export the Left and Right Elevation views, but no poblem with the Front and Back. I've researched and read, but have not found a solution to this. Do you have any advice on this?

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Curtis (I presume),

Welcome to the forum.

That sounds most strange - there is no difference between the elevations really, just a different angle of the same building.  I could understand it if you could not export any of the elevations, due to some corruptions somewhere, but I can't think of any reason why it does not like the left or right elevation. Do you get a message advising the failure or what happens?  Do these elevations display correctly?

What happens if you create your own left and right elevation - will they export?  If you have not tried that, give it a go and let me know how it goes. If that does not work either you could post the file here or emaili it to me (alches(AT)iinet.net.au) and I will have a look to see if it happens for me and if I can see any cause.

Allan

[dhaehl]

Hello Allan,

I am new to TFP, started with instant architect,  Just down loaded TFP 3d dlx. because I need to make elevation views which IA only allows in 3D.

I am working thru this but I cannot figure how to dimension the elevation view. The dimensioning tools are off unless I am in plan view.

How do I set eave heights, roof heights etc.

Thank you in advance

Don Haehl

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Don and Welcome to the forum.

Sorry but you cannot add dimensions to the elevations - unless you do as described in the PDF in the first message in this post.

Simply put you have to export the elevations you want and save them to your computer as DXF files (I assume Deluxe does that?). You then start a new project and import the Elevation.dxf files that you saved, into the new project. You can now position them where you want and add dimensions, text etc.  You can bring multiple elevations into this project if you want, arrange them as you want and then print them all on one page.

Allan

[dhaehl]

Allan,

Thanks so much for the help!

I am getting the hang of it.

Don