Printing a model

Printing a model works like most Windows applications. In the Model menu, there are three options—Print Setup, Print Preview, and Print—that can be used to print a model. If you are using an application such as ArcMap, Visio, or Illustrator to create a poster that contains a model, you can export the model to a graphic file, then open the saved graphic file in the application.

Printing options

The Print Setup dialog box lets you set printer options for a model. The options numbers on the illustration below have been explained in the table below:

Printing options

Options

Description

Print Entire Drawing

Prints the entire diagram (graph) whether or not you are zoomed in to the diagram.

Print Current Window

Prints the portion of the diagram that is visible in the display window.

Print Current Selection

Prints the currently selected elements.

Scale By

You can scale by pages, actual size, or zoom level. If you scale by pages, the model diagram prints the number of pages specified in the page column and page row boxes. If both boxes are set to 1, the entire model diagram will print on one page. If both boxes are set to 2, the model diagram will be scaled to print on four pages. If you scale by actual size, the model diagram prints on as many pages as necessary. If you scale by zoom level, the model diagram will be printed at the scale of the display.

Caption

By default, a caption is printed in the lower right corner of the page using the model's label. You can change the text that will print by typing the desired text into the text input box, and you can change the position of the text by clicking the Position drop-down arrow and selecting a position for the text. Click Font to change the font of the caption. If you do not want to see a caption displayed, uncheck the Print Caption check box.

Print caption

Multipage Printing

For each printed page, you can print the page number and add crop marks.

Print Page Numbers

When checked, page numbers are printed. No page number appears if the model is printed on a single page. Page numbers are centered in the margins on the sides of pages that are adjacent to other pages. Pages are numbered in the form as [Row, Column] - Location, where Row is the row page number, Column is the column page number, and Location is top, bottom, left, or right. The illustration below shows the location of page numbers of a model printed on four pages. The page displaying the upper left corner of the model is numbered [1,1], the upper right corner is [1,2], the lower left corner is [2,1], and the lower right corner is [2,2]. The top, bottom, left, and right edges of adjacent pages are labeled T, B, L, and R.

Print page numbers

Print Crop Marks

These help you align models that are printed on several pages. They are single-width lines approximately one-half inch long printed along the margins of pages that are adjacent to other pages. They are printed by default. No crop marks appear if the model is printed on a single page. The following diagram shows a model printed with crop marks. To align the printed model, you would cut along the crop marks.

Print crop marks

Other

When the Print Border option is checked, a single-width border, also known as a neatline, is drawn along the margin edges. By default, a border will be printed with a border width of 1. The width and color of the line can be altered.

Printing a Background or Grid

You need to first add the background image or the grid to the diagram. See Changing the layout for adding a grid, and Changing model and element symbology for adding a background image. Once added, you can print them with these two options.


9/13/2011