Printing Drawings

You can print or plot an entire drawing sheet, or just a selected area of the sheet. You have the option to print in black and white (the default) or in color. You can specify different settings for individual drawing sheets.

Multi-sheet drawings have several print options, including printing zoomed selections and printing an active drawing sheet.

You can set print thickness for lines in drawings while printing, or at the document properties level.

Specifying Settings for Individual Drawing Sheets

To specify settings for individual drawing sheets:

  1. Click File > Page Setup.
  2. Select Set each drawing sheet individually.
  3. Select a sheet in Settings for, and choose settings for the sheet.
  4. Repeat step 3 for each sheet, and click OK.

Printing a Drawing in Color

To print a drawing in color:

  1. Click File > Page Setup. Under Drawing Color, select one of the following, then click OK:
    Option Description
    Automatic Sends color information if the printer or plotter driver reports that it is capable of printing color. Otherwise, the document is printed in black and white.
    Color/Gray scale Sends color data to the printer or plotter regardless of the capabilities that the printer or plotter driver reports. Black and white printers generally print colored entities in gray scale or dithered with this option. Use this option where a color printer or plotter prints in black and white with the Automatic setting.
    Black and white Sends all entities to the printer or plotter in black and white regardless of the printer or plotter color capabilities.
  2. Click File > Print. In the dialog box, under Document Printer, select a printer in Name.
  3. Click Properties, verify that any options required for color printing are specified appropriately, then click OK. (The options vary for different printers.)
  4. Click OK.

Printing the Whole Drawing Sheet

To print the whole drawing sheet:

  1. Click File > Print. In the dialog box, under Print range, select All sheets, Current sheet, or Sheets and enter the sheets to print.
  2. Under Document Printer, click Page Setup.
  3. In the Page Setup dialog box, under Resolution and Scale, select Scale to fit to print the entire sheet on the page, or select Scale and type a value.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Click OK again to print the document.

Printing Drawings from Zoomed Selections

You can print areas of drawings from zoomed selections.

To print from a zoomed selection:

  1. Zoom in on a portion of a drawing.
  2. Select File > Print.
  3. Select Current screen image on the Print dialog box.
  4. Optionally, click Selection to print a selected area at a specified scale.
  5. Click OK.

Printing an Active Drawing Sheet

Print a single active sheet from a multi-sheet drawing.

To print an active drawing sheet:

  1. Click File > Print.
  2. Select Current sheet and click OK.

Printing Selected Drawing Sheets

For multi-sheet drawings, you can select drawing sheets to print.

To print selected drawing sheets of a multi-sheet drawing:

  1. Click File > Print.
  2. Select Sheets and type the sheet numbers in a comma-separated list.
    Use a hyphen to specify a range. For example, 1,3, 5-8.
  3. Set other printing options and click OK.