Printing full sized patterns?

[bigkahuna]

Any advice on how to print out full sized patterns / drawings? I'm using DelftShip 3.1 (big brother to FreeShip) and want to print out patterns for an 11 foot stitch and glue paddleboard I'm designing. All I have is a small letter-sized inkjet printer, so will have to send a file someplace to have it done, but where and what file (.DXF or .PDF?)? All the panels will be long and narrow (the final dimensions of the board will be 11' x 30" x 5") so I'm hoping to fit it on one or two very long plots.

[Martijn_vE]

Paul:) ,

PDF is printable in almost any copy shop, DXF too, so both formats wil do. Big advantage to DXF is that lineweights can (sometimes) be preserved and dimesioning can be added easily in almost any CAD program. With PDF however you're absolutely sure that what you get is what you see.

Martijn

[bigkahuna]

Hey Martijn, nice to see you here!

I did a quick search and the nearest "copy shop" is a couple hours away (yes we do live in the middle of no-where!). Not many architects in this area either, but I'll continue to look. I've got a copy of "eDrawings" on my HD, I'll see it that doesn't have some way of exporting a .pdf or perhaps can print directly to a stack of letter sized pages.

There isn't any way of exporting .pdf's directly from Delftship, right?

[Martijn_vE]

Only if you have installed Adobe Professional. In that case you can print to a PDF printer, which captures printer output and uses it to create a PDF file.

The problem with assembling lots of small sided papers is that it's easy to misalign them. And the errors accumulate while you're adding more papers. So in the end the error can easily amount to several mm.

[Tim B]

Postscript has always been the graphics language of choice, but the large HP Plotters also support HPGL/2. Both are vector languages, not raster images. You can print to postscript in windows by installing a postscript printer and setting it to print to a file. HPGL requires the software to have an HPGL output. I would suggest you use postscript.

Tim B.

[Kaptin-Jer]

Your best bet is to call the print shop and talk to them. The caution with PDF drawing is Scale. You need to be able to plot in full size. Most CAD type software will generate a .PLT file which any print house can read. You "plot to a file" then send that file to the printer via email. The printer can then plot full size line drawings. Be aware that paper will shrink and expand with humidity. I loft my lines on mylar.

[CanQua]

Length is never an issue on a print being printed at a shop, only width, rolls are a few hundred feet long normally. if they need to change to a new roll it's there dime. Contact the shop directly and get them to tell you what format they can deal with. Let us know how it turns out.



Just a quick note. Download ind install cutepdf(and it's associated file ghost) you will then have a pdf printer. Select the proper page size(if one exists) and you'll have a viable pdf to print. Works great for the normal sized prints, not sure about something longer.

[Timm]

I use CutePDF as well and have made full size patterns with it. If you don't get all the information you should on the pdf file, check the resolution of the drawing. Evidently there is a limit to how large a pdf file can be, so you may have to reduce the resolution to 300dpi or so to get a large scale print. It took me quite a while to figure that one out!

I have never tried printing one from FreeShip though, so can't say how it will work. The printing function in FreeShip was very disappointing to me as it seems to only print from an image file, making it impossible to control line weights. I have to export the drawing to my cad program and then print it so it looks good. I don't know if that has been addressed in Delftship, but it would be good to know.

[lazeyjack]

why do you want to do this?
all you get is a flimsy paper dwg which is of no use to build from at all

a better idea, is to draw your body plan from you simple offsets, eg sheer h and half and chine height and half breadth , full size on ply or whatever, and lay mylar dwg film on it and then mark the mylar and batten in your lines
really full size patterns are for dressmakerS, you aint one of THOSE ARE YA:))

[Timm]

My client actually used spray glue to glue the patterns to the frame plywood and then just cut them out. Made it really simple to set-up his prototype hull, especially since it was a small boat where each section would fit on a standard sheet of plywood. Evidently it worked very well and there wasn't much fairing to do after it was planked.