I have TFP v16 pro
This is my first drawing. I only needed a basic 2d drawing for the city to issue a permit.
I started a drawing with 3 locations. Foundation, ground floor and 2nd floor.
I printed to PDF using Adobe Acrobat and sent file to the printers. The blueprints did not scale properly, the vertical scale works perfect the horizontal is out (about 3/16" = 1' instead of 1/4" = 1').
The print drivers settings were: 1/4" = 1' , print to scale, centered, all extents, arch D, and the preview shows the paper size 2'x3'. The Pdf properties were set proper(corresponded).
Dave Taylor and company thought that Adobe does not work with TFP, so I downloaded PDF 995 and tried. The printed Pdf from Pdf995 was way out on the scales, both vertically and horizontally on the page.
I then went to TFP and tried to export a 2D drawing. The 2nd floor exported fine, but the foundation and ground floor caused TFP to crash and shut down each time I tried to export to a 2D drawing!
I tried export a 3d model of each floor and that worked fine. I then tried the 2D view and once again that worked fine.
I sent the 2nd floor dxf file that was exported from TFP, to friend of mine, who imported it into Autocad and said all the scaling was good etc and the 2nd floor printed and scaled fine on Arch D paper.
The pdf files that the printers had already printed out were sent to him as well and they printed incorrectly.
(reminder to self, have autocad print to PDF and see if it will print to scale properly)
Dave Taylor has the .BLD file and has said it is crashing for him as well, he is not sure what is the cause, but thinks that the foundation is higher than the foundation level and it may cause an issue. I did this because it is building code to have the foundation (top of concrete walls) 8" above grade here. If it appeared that it was at ground level, the city would ask for it to be adjusted. I am not sure if I should have drawn it differently in TFP
I have uninstalled and re-installed the program and it makes no difference.
I tried to delete the elements on the 2nd floor and then delete the location, thinking it might help. Desperate measures for desperate times. It would not let me delete the location for some reason. This is the same for all floors. Could not delete any location on the drawing. Not even sure it would help anyways.
I also believe that when I first tried to export a 2d drawing, weeks ago, the foundation and 2nd fl would export fine, just not the ground fl, just not positive if I am remembering right.
I believe the elevations exported just fine as well, as I have dxf files for them, just not sure if I exported as a 3d model.
Below is a response from Dave T, but he exported to 3d, which I know works. It is 2d drawing that does not.
----------"Hi Dave –
When I export the 3D model with the 1st floor only it works. See DXF. I was not clear if you are including the terrain on your export. I used TFP 16 Pro build 16.0.C3.901 (Go to Help |About TFP...). TFP 16 Pro does have a Print to scale feature. When set to 1/4"=1' your drawing needs 2 ARCH D (24x36) sheets to print. But your layout also includes information that requires additional space, 1/8" works on one sheet of 24 x36 normal blue print size.
Also your plans have no floors from what I can tell, not sure that is on purpose but it is very unusual. Whether that is causing the crash or not I do not know. TFP does work better if you use real world building cases. While we offer free support I am not finding any issues with your drawing on my machine. So I am not sure how to advise you. I suppose the first step is making sure which version and build of TFP you have?"------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Any help is greatly appreciated, the permit is held up two weeks now and I am out of excuses for the owner and they are ready to give a hundred grand job to someone else because I can't get drawings to print to scale for the city to issue a permit!
I just need to print the drawing to scale. If that means there is a way to export a 3d model to turbocad and convert it to print a 2d drawing, I am fine with that.
I think you fill find that your problem printing a PDF to scale is the DPI settinmg that you are using. Your print dialogs show 600 DPI. If you set it to 300 DPI or less it should be OK. 300 is the standard and generally the maximum the human eye can detect so I am told. I am able to print to scale in 2D direct to PDF (using the free PDF24 which I personally have found best) and it prints to scale.
You could export to 2D DXF open in TCad and print to PDF from there but I think you may still have the same problem if 600 DPI is used.
If your foundation has to be 8" above ground, then your floor level for the ground floor should be adjusted to compensate, since the Ground floor is obviously built on top of the foundation or they will overlap which could cause problems. Most crashes are caused by corrupt walls so you may have an issue on the locations that are crashing. You do not need to delete locations, just turn them off in the View Filter.
Allan
Printing/
Always use 300 dpi
Use PDF printer that allows Black only (for most pages)
You have drawn a 'border around the plan, it is too small to print with 'normal edge setbacks' but it will print to scale. (see attached pdf)
When you print use the Window option, click Window on left, then Window on right , then snap to upper left / followed by lower right border corner.
Because your border has no snap corners , in this case I've added a circle to Up left / Bottom/ right and then snapped Window to those points.
Center on page / Use Line Weights and all should work
The attached PDF has some dimensions added in Adobe review , they also have no snap points but show the plan is to scale at 1/4 ".
I sent them off to the printers using 150 dpi already :(
I did not draw a border by purpose. It was always there and if I turn off terrain, the border disappears, but so do the dimensions., at least on the foundation location. Is it possible to just get rid of the border?
Ok, since Jack brought up the fact there was a border around my drawing, I looked into the terrain settings more. I have no idea about terrain, nor do I need it. I remember playing around in it awhile back, because I tried to print to pdf at it said it would take 3000 sheets to print on a 11 x17. I assumed this was because of the "border". I adjusted the border/terrain size to work. I may have only adjusted one location. I can not remember.
Anyways, I have applied the setting seen on the attached file to all locations. I can now turn off the terrain via the view filter and not lose the dimensions like it did earlier today.
I go to, print to pdf 24 and now it has lost information. You can see the roof detail is missing, but some of the text remains. Box and text in the bottom right corner is gone as well (see attached file
I have attached the printer setting as well.
I appreciate the help guys. We seem to be getting somewhere with this.
There is only one Terrain - it is the ground plane on which the 3D model is built. You would not necessarily need it if you are only concerned about the 2D drawing. It's border will show however on the print, if you do not turn it off, or zoom in using the Window option that Jack mentioned so it is 'out of the view'.
Not sure why the other things have dissappeared unless you accidentally turned them off in the View Filter. Jack has more experience with printing than me so he may have some ideas.
Allan
Thanks Allan,
Not sure why either but I have not touched anything else in the view manager except terrain.
It would only let me hide the terrain after I did the apply to the other locations, which I had done previously on the foundation weeks ago.
It still did not help exporting it to dxf though. Still crashes
Quote from: AHH on April 16, 2013, 03:08:15 PM
It would only let me hide the terrain after I did the apply to the other locations,
What did you *apply* to the other locations? I can't think of anything relating to the Terrain that can be applied to a Location, except choosing which one should cut a hole in the Terrain (if any).
The crash to DXF is a bit of a worry, as most crashes are a result of corrupt walls in the model. I will open your model later and try this myself (it will be somewhat later - 4:30 in the morning here at the moment and I have a hospital appointment at 9am). Will check for possible corrupt walls too.
Allan
If I remember correctly, I tried to print on an 11 x 17 from TFP to my office printer. It started spewing out pages when I realized it wanted to use like 3000 pages to print the ground floor.
I figured out that the terrain must have been huge so I changed it so it all fit on one arch d page.
The setings I used to make the terrain fit on a page, are the ones you see in the attached file that is on this post.
I only remember applylng those settings/dimensions for the terrain on the ground floor. I had to change the settings a whole bunch of times before it worked, but I only applied it to the ground floor.
I think I tried to hide the terrain but could not and is why I changed the size instead.
This was a couple weeks ago when I did this, and my memory may fail me.
When I tried to hide the terrain before, dimensions and stuff would disappear. Now, after applying the setting in terrain, nothing but the border lines disappear
Today I chose each location in the terrain settings and applied the settings that are shown in the attached file.
I did not know if it would help or not. Was just trying anything at this point.
I can see some terrain "lines/borders surrounding the house perimeter and going thru the garage as well, that disappear when hiding the terrain.
I am not sure why terrain is going thru a building.
The Terrain represents the surface of the ground and is set to an elevation of zero, all other vertical dimensions working from this. On the Terrain setting tab there is a check box and dropdown list of all the Locations. The Terrain normally is set so that it cuts a hole the shape of the Ground Floor because this normally sits on the ground (terrain). If the foundation protrudes above the ground the you may want the hole cut to the shape of the foundation so would change the selector accordingly.
I noticed on your earlier post that it was set to cut around the Second Floor. If the Garage is on the ground floor and there is no second floor above it, then the Terrain would flow through the garage because it is only cutting out the Second Floor area. If you change the 'cut out' dropdown setting to Ground Floor, then the Terrain would not go through the garage but would cut around it, as well as the rest of the Ground Floor.
If the Terrain is turned on and you leave the print setting to print everything, then it will try to print all of the Terrain. Set the print to Display or Window and it will only print what is Displayed on the screen or what you select in the Window (regardless of how big the Terrain is).
Allan
Well I had a look at the model and like you I was able to export to DXF the Second Floor but it crashed on Foundation and Ground Floors. I turned off the walls (usual source of corruptions) and it still crashed. With a process of elimination I found the problem was in the dimensions (it exported OK when they were turned off). Redoing the Autoexterior dimensions did not solve the problem, meaning that the Interior Dimensions were the problem. Deleted those and it exports OK.
At first glance the Interior Dimensions look OK. The only thing unusual about them was that some of the arrow heads were separate to the lines. Theoretically this should not make any difference, or the fact that different types of arrow heads are used for some of them but I could not see anything else. All I can suggest is to delete all the Interior Dimensions and redo them. It may be only one that is causing the problem but I don't know of any way to find out which one, other than delete one and try the export, then another until it works. The last one you deleted was the culprit.
Allan
Thanks Allan,
I will try deleting the int dims.
UPDATE,
I can now print to PDF and have it scale correctly.
I used the PDF24 freeware and changed the dpi to 300 from 600 and it scales perfectly. Not sure is it was changing the print to pdf software or the DPI.
It is the DPI I think as other software will also work at 300. I have tied many and personally found PDF24 worked best for me.
Good to hear you have it sorted out. Let me know how you get on with the dimensions.
Allan