Printer Configuration

Modified by Susan Riege on Aug 15, 2018

Summary

The Printer Configuration dialog provides controls to define what is printed and to which printing device it is sent.

Access

The dialog is accessed in the following ways:

From the Schematic or PCB Editors, click Outputs | Documentation | (click the image, not the drop-down) from the main menus.
Right-click on a document entry in the Projects panel then choose the Print command from the context menu (where available).
Click the Print or Printer Setup buttons in the associated Print Properties dialog for the document type (accessed using the relevant Page Setup control).
From the Print Preview dialog, either by:
- Clicking the Print button at the bottom of the dialog.
- Right-clicking then choosing either the Print command or the Setup Printer command from the context menu.

Options/Controls

Printer

Name - this field reflects the currently chosen printer to which the printed output will be sent. Use the field's drop-down to choose another printer from those currently installed for your computer. Depending on the chosen printing device, the following fields (below the Name field) will populate with read-only information about that device:
- Status - the current state of the selected printer. For example, if the printer is online and able to accept print jobs, its status will be Ready.
- Type - the type of printing device selected.
- Where - where the printer physically resides or the port to which it is connected.
- Comment - any comment for the device.
Properties - click the button to display the printer driver dialog for the chosen printer. From this dialog you can define the paper source, layout and gain access to advanced property settings for the printer.
Retrieve Defaults - click this button to retrieve the default settings for the chosen printer from the current printer driver for that device installed on your computer.
Set Defaults - click this button to set the default settings for the current printer driver.

Print Range

Use the controls in this region to specify which pages are to be printed when the prospective print job includes multiple pages. Choose one of the following options:

All Pages - enable this option to print all pages in relation to the print-based output being generated.
Current Page - enable this option to print only the currently selected page.

When printing from within the Print Preview dialog, you can choose the current page (as determined by a red border). If printing directly, the current page will always be page number 1 (the first page presented when the pages are loaded into the Print Preview dialog).

Pages - enable this option to print a range of pages. Use the From and To fields to specify the start and end pages in the required range, inclusively.

Print Range controls are only meaningful when the Print What option is set to Print All Valid Documents.

Copies

Number of copies - use this field to specify the number of copies of the page (or page set) to be printed.
Collate - enable this option to print the copies of the document(s) in proper binding order. For example, for a print job involving three pages and two copies, enabling this option will generate collated output (1,2,3; 1,2,3). Disabling this option will produce uncollated output (1,1; 2,2; 3,3).

Print What

Use the control in this region to specify what is to be printed. Choose one of the following options from the field's drop-down listing:

Print All Valid Documents - choose this option to print all documents of the same type (schematic, PCB, or text) that have been added to the active design project.
Print Active Document - choose this option to print only the active document.
Print Selection - choose this option to print only those selected objects on the active document.
Print Screen Region - choose this option to print only the region of the active document that is visible within the main design window.

Think of this control as print filtering. You can confirm what each option gives by accessing the Print Preview dialog, ensuring you are printing exactly what you expect to be printing.

Printer Options

Printer Job Options - use the options available from this field's drop-down to determine how the output is sent to the Windows Print Queue. Choose to Print as a single printer job, or Print as multiple printer jobs.

Content