Questions & Answers
Printing

Q: When I print selection or window sometimes the results are not what I would expect.

A: Printing requires that the page size in Page Setup be set to a paper size that the currently selected printer driver supports. If the printer supports many page sizes, in order to get the correct results the paper size selected in Page Setup needs to be in the printer. PowerCADD relies on this information to correctly image the proper area of the drawing. The page setup information is stored in the PowerCADD drawing file and if set for a different printing device than the currently chosen printer the correct area will not be printed.

Q: I have your PowerDraw 4.0 and I'm trying to setup an HP 455CA Plotter, but there are no references to this plotter in the plot window. What will be the best way to plot from PowerCADD to this plotter?

A: The HP 455CA plotter is I think shipped with Postscript capability. This means that you should install the Macintosh software supplied with the device and then print as normal, from PowerCADD or any other application.

Q: On certain drawings these "phantom arcs" appear - large radius arcs that appear sometimes and don't appear other times. I can't edit them, delete them, or move them. but, most importantly, they appear on a plot. I don't know how to remove them from a drawing. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions on how to get rid of them?

A: I suspect that the problem you are encountering is a problem that actually resides in Apple's QuickDraw software. We have found that arcs with a start angle of around 180 degrees will often times print incorrectly to QuickDraw printers. If you get the printed copy of the drawing and look on the surface of the "phantom arcs" you will find an arc that does indeed exist in the drawing. Take those real arcs and convert to polygons and the printing problem will not occur.

Q: I have a drawing that I want to print on a single page.

A: Select Fit To Page in the Print dialog box.

Q: My fonts are changing to another font when printing.

A: Turn font substitution off in Page Setup.

Q: I get multiple pages printed when printing a one-page document.

A: Use Page Setup to control page size and set PowerCADD's Drawing size to Plain Paper.

Q: I am having trouble faxing PowerCADD documents.

A: Turn "High Res" printing off when faxing.

Q: When printing to LaserWriter some text is not printing.

A: Check the text items for 360° angle and for something other than black pen color. Turn high res printing off to see if text will print at that point.