Print out schematic and layout

Schematic diagrams, boards, and library elements can be printed with the PRINT command.

  1. Along the top of the Fusion window, click the tab for the document you want to print. Doing this makes it active on the screen.
  2. If you want to suppress any layers from the document display and the print, enter DISPLAY in the document's command line window. In the Visible Layers dialog, use the Filter menu or the eye icons on the left to turn layers on or off. Your choices are reflected in the document window. Click OK when finished.
  3. On the command line, type PRINT and press Enter.
  4. In the Print dialog, select the Printer to use, or an option such as Print to PDF. See the Settings in the Print dialog section below for more information.

Most of what you see in the document window will appear on the print. Exceptions are as follows:

Settings in the Print dialog

The currently selected printer is shown at the top of the window in the Printer line. The arrow on the right can be used to select another printer or activate one of the print-to-file options. If a printer is selected, the button with the three dots ... opens the printer properties.

If you selected a print-to-file option the Output file line shows the path to the output file. If you want to change it, click the … button.

Settings are provided for Paper size, Orientation, and Alignment of your print.

In the Area line, you determine what to print: Window prints the part of the drawing that is currently visible in the Editor window. Full prints the whole drawing. In this case all drawing objects (displayed or not) are relevant for the calculation of the resulting printing area.

Options

Mirror inverts the drawing from left to right about the Y axis, Rotate turns it 90 degrees counter-clockwise, and Upside down turns it through 180 degrees. If both are activated, a rotation of 270 degrees is the result. If the Black option is chosen, a black-and-white printout is made. Otherwise the print will be either in color or gray scale, depending on the printer. Solid causes each object to be entirely filled. If you want to see the different filling patterns of the individual layers, then deactivate this option. The Caption option shows or hides a caption that includes a time stamp and file path.

Scale factor specifies the scale of the drawing. It may be in the range of 0.001 and 1000. If Page limit is set to 0, the printer will use whatever number of pages is needed to print the output at the selected scale. If a different value is selected, Electronics will adjust the scale of the drawing to fit it onto the stated number of pages. This can mean that, under unfavorable circumstances, the selected scale cannot be maintained. Otherwise you have the possibility to select Page Limit 1, and a Scale factor that would request more than one page for printing to get a maximum filling of the page.

It is possible to select which sheets from a schematic diagram are printed using the Sheets box. This only appears in the Schematic Editor. This selection also determines which sheet is shown in the preview.

The edges of the print can be defined with the aid of the four entry boxes under Border. The values can be entered in mm or in inches. If you have changed the values and want to use the printer driver's standard settings again, simply enter a 0.

Calibrate allows correction factors for the aspect ratio of the printout. This allows linear errors in the dimensional accuracy of the print to be corrected. The values can be specified in the range of 0.1...2.

Note about colored printing: Electronics always takes the white palette as basis for colored printouts. If you are working with a black or colored background and using self-defined colors, it is recommended to define these colors also for the white palette. So the printer can use your colors, too.

If, when a layout is printed, the drill holes in the pads and vias are not to be visible, select the No Drills option for the Display mode by way of the menu item Options/Set/Misc.

Generating PDF files

If you want to generate a PDF file (resolution 1200 dpi) from your drawing, click onto the small selection arrow in the Printer line and choose the option Print to file (PDF). Go to the Output file line then and specify path and name of the PDF output file. All texts that are not written in Electronics vector font are searchable in the PDF file by means of your PDF viewer.

The PRINT command can be entered directly on the command line, or it can be run by a script file.