AutoCAD 2002 HELP

I know nothing about this program (nor does anyone at my office - we had someone who actually used it like 2 years ago), but it's on my computer and I just need print plans out. Normally this isn't a problem, but someone emailed me a file which isn't working right...

I open it up, but what it looks like is a powerpoint page where the picture is bigger than the dimensions of the "page" it's centered on. So when I print it, it only prints the section of the plans that's on the white page, not the rest. How do I enlarge the page or shrink the rest of the stuff to make it fit? Right now I'm trying to use the not so helpful help section (I don't know the right terms for what I'm looking to do) and I'm randomly looking through toolbars to no avail...

Help!

commands (we use AutoCAD 2000 but this should be same or similar)

view>zoom>extents

If all looks OK

file>plot
- on 'plot device' tab, pick your printer
- on 'plot settings' tab, pick paper size (letter), set 'plot scale' to "scale to fit'
- in 'plot area' of this tab check the 'extents' button
- click on the 'center the plot' and set orientation to either portrait or landscape
- press 'full preview' button and then send plot to the printer

hope this helps

I haven't used AutoCad in 10 years but...

AutoCad uses actual dimensions and then you set the drawing SCALE so that it fits on the page.

The program may be selecting a page size based on your printer so you might be able to select TILE when printing so that the drawing is tiled across multiple pages.

There might be a shrink-to-fit option when printing.

These options could be part of the drawing properties or part of the printing properties.

we used to print the same drawings on D-size and B-size so I suspect that the page properties (scale, border, title, etc) is seperate from the drawing itself.

It's been so long.

I use Autocad 2000, hopefully what I tell you works. Ok, so first you have to have your printer set up on Autocad. You've printed something already, so I'm guessing you've done that. What I think you want to do is to first zoom out to see all of what you want to print. From the taskbar, select the View menu, then zoom, then zoom out. Then you need to set your plot area. To do this; go to the File menu and select Plot. This will bring up a plot window. You'll have a Plot Device and Plot settings tab. Select the settings one. Inside that is a plot area section. I usually choose window. There's a button for window that you can select, which will take you to your screen. You can then select the area you want to print.

If this doesn't work, I'll try to clarify.

Acad 2000 and 2002 are a bit different as I recall. I am useing 2004 and can not remember what 2000 looked like. There are probably some tabs at the bottom of the screen ONe probably says "model" and a couple or more others with other names. It sounds like you are in paper space. Hit the model tab and then zoom extents <z> <enter><e><enter> This will show you everything on the drawing assuming it was all drawn in model space then you can plot a window to plot the portion you want to look at. OR, whoever set up the drawing could have fuct up and not made the paperspace window correctly, if that is the case I'm not going to type in the instructions to fix it because without the drawing to work on it would be a hopeless task to explain it. Check your PMs.

Tried the scale to fit, and setting the plot area with both the window and extents options, which would logically work, but hit print preview and it just shows the stuff set within the margins. Do I need to get rid of/change the margins somehow? (The dotted line on the "page". I can turn them on and off in options where it has a toggle box for view margins, but can't figure out how to actually change them.

To make things easier :rolleyes:, my help files aren't working, it just gives me a script error... so I'm just randomly searching.

Got it.

There were multiple "Scale to Fit" boxes. I had to change the Plot Scale from 1:1 to Scale to Fit, and it worked, not just hit the Scale to Fit toggle box.

Appreciate the help guys!