About Printing a Layout

This sub-topic provides information about what is printed in a layout.

The print functionality usually prints exactly what is visible in the layout window (or, when printing multi-documents, what would be visible in the layout window if the printed sheet was the active one).

Important: In the case of the clipping frame, the frame itself is not printed.

You should also know that when printing multi-documents in the context of a product, only the sheets of the edited layout (whether 3D shape representation or product) are taken into account.

For more information, refer to the next paragraph About Printing a Layout

This sub-topic discusses the factors which determine whether the raster or vector print mode will be used.

Print will be performed using a combination of raster and vector elements, depending on the following factors:

• which print Rendering Mode option you choose (from the Print dialog box: click the Options... button and then the Various tab),
• whether the Display all elements using Z-buffer check box (in Tools > Options > General > Visualization tab) is selected or cleared.

The table below summarizes the possible scenarios.

Important: In the table below: 2D elements means the content of a layout view (2D geometry, dimensions, annotations, dress-up, 2D components) as well as its 2D background. 3D elements means the 3D background of a layout view (3D edges of surfaces and solids, which belong to the 3D background).

* NB: Whether 3D elements are printed in raster or vector mode depends on the view mode of the 2D Layout for 3D Design window, and not on the print rendering mode. 3D elements are printed in raster mode only when there is a shading to draw (for example Shading with edges or Material rendering modes). When there is no shading (for example in Hidden Line Removal or Shading with Triangles), 3D elements are printed in vector mode.

This sub-topic provides references for further information.

For detailed information about printing, refer to the Infrastructure User's Guide: Printing Objects. Make sure you refer to Customizing Print Settings Before Printing Objects. The Printing Objects with Multiple Sheets task should also be helpful.