Printing to scale

[david visio 5.0]

My new visio program does not print to scale. Any drawing I do with it can
not be scaled on site with a scale ruler. If I print at about 107% then the
finished print will be close to scale. Has anyone else had this trouble.

 

[WapperDude]

David --
I suspect it has more to do with your printer than with Visio. I did a
simple test case by setting the sheet scale factor to 1:1, and drawing a 6" x
9" rectangle. The paper was in portrait orientation. The 6" looks to be
right on, but the 9" appears to be a little undersized, 8 31/32", or about
0.3%; that is, I would have to re-scale by 100.3%.

Do you have any other drawing programs that you can use to create a simple
rectangle, and test your printer?

Wapperdude

 

[david visio 5.0]

Thank you for you answer but that was the first thing I thought of. I have
tried this on three different printers and even loaded the program onto
anorther lap top and tried it there. The print of a floor plan would still
not print ot scale.
However I did find out if I do not start the drawing as a floor plan but
start as another kind of drawing . I can get it to print to scale. To make
this work I have to start the drawing as something other than a floor plan
then change to a useable floor plan scale and manually bring in the shapes I
need to draw a floor plan. This is all a bit of a pain and I just don't think
this is the way this should have to be down. If I want to draw a floor plan
it would be nice to be able to just draw a floor plan not have to trick the
program into drawing a basic electircal drawing thats looks like a floor plan
and is scaled to a scale more used by floor plan drawings.
Any help on this would be appreciated.
I thank you all in advance for help I can get.
David

 

[WapperDude]

David --
Check the Page Setup>Print Setup. I think the default setting for printing
is "Fit to 1 x 1" sheets. This can create a scaling error. My correction
factor was 106.66666%, probably your 107% for this default setting. Set the
Print Zoom to be 100%. That should correct any errors.

As a rhetorical side question, if you add dimensions, the actual print
accuracy is irrelevant. Use of dimensions would be more efficient and less
error pone than trying to pull the sizes off of a printed page.

Wapperdude.

 

[david visio 5.0]

Wapper Dude
Thank you
I have it fixed now it was the print zoom setting that has a default setting
of being turned on as is the case of most microsoft bells and wistles. I just
make sure I change it the setting and it now prints to scale.
As to your rhetorical question, which by the way I tend to answer most of
the time, If you have ever been on a job site and need to locate a spot from
a plan you would shoot the person that sent out a drawing that was not
printed to the scale listed on the print. People in the field some times need
to deal with things we never think of when we are stitting at a key board. I
like to give them every chance to make things work, because when I send a
plan into a remote work site it could cost a lot of money if the people on
site can't deal with something unexpected. Having a plan that they can scale
is just one more tool that may save the day for them.
But I do thank you for your input on this , no one else posted anything at
all and I think had I not got it firgured out your last post would have got
me to the answer in the end so thanks again for taking the time to help.

 

[WapperDude]

Glad things worked out for you! Thanks also for the answer to the question.
I understand the need for the accurate drawing. Hate those rope burns around
the neck -- so hard to remove!

WAP