• TechNotes
• Page Margin Settings in PlotMaker

When using PlotMaker and setting margins for Master Layouts, you may experience the following: the margins are set for the Master Layout, it is displayed correctly in the PlotMaker Window, but when they are printed or plotted, drawing data will be printed on the next page. The last couple of millimeters will overrun to the next printed page as if the printable area was actually less than what is set in the Master Layout Settings Dialog.

The size of the printable area depends on the printer/plotter model used. You may set a margin of 4 mm for your Master Layout, but the printer actually uses a larger margin, which results in a smaller printable area.

To avoid this, do the following:

1. In the Master Layout Settings Dialog, select 'Current Printer' or 'Current Plotter' from the drop-down list in the 'Apply Paper Size and Margins of' area.

2. Click the Print Setup... button and select your printer/plotter, paper size, orientation, etc. and click OK.

3. Click the Apply button. You will see that the values of the four margin fields in the 'Margin' area of the Dialog will be changed according to the hard-wired settings of the selected printer/plotter. In the 'Usable Print Area' field you will see exactly how large the printable area of one page is.

4. You may change the Margin values to higher amounts, because it will still fit the printable area of the printer/plotter. If you set it to smaller amounts, your print area will not fit onto the printable area of the printer/plotter at 100 %, and you will have to reduce it for it not to overrun to other pages at printing/plotting.

CategoryPrintingPlotting, CategoryLayouting