topic Re: Automatic print/plot information on drawings in Documentation

Automatic print/plot information on drawings

Kristen — Fri, 19 May 2023 14:02:02 GMT

I am wondering if there is anyone out there who has a good solution for publishing print/plot information automatically on drawings.

I am looking for something that gives me the file name with the path, the name of the layout that is printed, the name or initials of the person printing, and the date and time of printing. All this can be achieved with the header/footer option that exists in ArchiCAD but i am not satisfied with this alternative because it places the text outside the printable area of the drawing.

Ideally I would like the text to be standing along the left hand side of the drawing just outside the drawing frame.

I have an object which is part of the way there and works just fine if I print directly from the screen but if it is placed in the layout, then it must be rebuilt for every file that is printed and that just doesn't work.

I'd like to know how others have solved this issue

Re: Automatic print/plot information on drawings

Thomas Holm — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:04:08 GMT

Use the Text tool, make a text field where you want it, right-click, select Autotext... See figure
You can insert any Project Info (like initials) along with system info, file path etc. If I do this on a Master layout, I get what I want automatically on any of its children.

Re: Automatic print/plot information on drawings

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:00:59 GMT

When you Print, there is also the header/Footer checkbox in the Print Dialog which has various options you can set to appear on the printed output.

Re: Automatic print/plot information on drawings

Kristen — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:24:15 GMT

Thanks Thomas for the autotext tip, I did not think of that.

Laszlo, I had tried the header/footer option in the Print dialogue but do not like this because I cannot affects it's placement. It always ends up outside the printable area if we are printing on an A4/A3 copier.

Re: Automatic print/plot information on drawings

Laszlo Nagy — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:13:29 GMT

Then you should go with Thomas' suggestion as it gives you more freedom and options.

Re: Automatic print/plot information on drawings

Kristen — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:04:59 GMT

The autotext works perfectly...it does exactly what I want! Thanks for you help.