Printing EESCHEMA

[fmasta88]

I still use version 4.02 but I have always had a problem with EESCHEMA: the wiring diagrams are always printed too small! Since I use an A £ printer, is not it possible to print the largest chart? For example with a 2x zoom?

[John_Pateman]

As a workaround what about ‘printing’ to pdf and then actually printing your scaled drawing from there. Plenty of free pdf renderers available for all platforms.

[fmasta88]

I already do so but then I do not print the squaring: there is not an option to zoom the picture and print it bigger? With an A3 printer. Perhaps using TRACE instead of PRINT?

[SembazuruCDE]

@fmasta88

the wiring diagrams are always printed too small! Since I use an A £ printer

I’m assuming you accidentally held the shift key when pressing 4… A4 printer, right?

What is the sheet size in eeschema? Access the setting with this tool bar button:

You can see on my Page Settings for this particular project I have page size A selected. (Sorry, stupid Americanism here… This is Architectural size A, You can see in the list sizes A, B, C, D, and E. Architectural A is also the same as US Letter.)

If yours is set to anything larger than A4 obviously it would need to be shrunken (2x for A3, 4x for A2, 8x for A1, and 16x for A0) to fit on an A4 sheet.

If you need more than an A4 sized sheet to fit your schematic you have a couple options that I can think of:

1. As @John_Pateman already mentioned, print to PDF at 1:1 scale. Then from a pdf viewer you should be able to print “posterized”, which means printing at 1:1 scale on as many sheets as it takes to put them side-by-side to get the original intended print area.
2. Split your schematic up on several sheets.

While writing the above, you wrote:

@fmasta88

I already do so but then I do not print the squaring: there is not an option to zoom the picture and print it bigger? With an A3 printer. Perhaps using TRACE instead of PRINT?

Ok… I’m not sure I understand your meaning. Unless the poster print option is what you want. Different print requesters may call it different things. Here is an example from the Adobe Reader that I have installed on this machine:

You can see here it is called Poster print. It may be just called something like “multiple sheets per page” in other programs. And, no. KiCad doesn’t have this feature built in. (Though your printer driver might.)

[fmasta88]

@SembazuruCDE

You can see here it is called Poster print. It may be just called something like “multiple sheets per page” in other programs. And, no. KiCad doesn’t have this feature built in. (Though your printer driver might.)

Thanks for the reply! The sheet is already set for A3 format 297x420 mm. the problem is that when the mold is printed the pattern is too small, it is difficult to read the components (the squared sheet is printed correctly). I’ve been clear? I print it in PDF, but I have to lose the squaring and the table in order to have a large enough pattern

[spongocoel]

It now sounds like you want to choose a smaller page size so that when you print, the schematic is larger on the paper.

[fmasta88]

@spongocoel

It now sounds like you want to choose a smaller page size so that when you print, the schematic is larger on the paper.

I want to print in A3 format but the scheme is bigger, at least twice

[Sprig]

@fmasta88

I want to print in A3 format but the scheme is bigger, at least twice

Isn’t that what you first asked to fix?

@fmasta88

the problem is that when the mold is printed the pattern is too small,

Without clear screenshots I don’t know what else to suggest.

[Rene_Poschl]

Might be time to look into hierarchical design. (If your schematic does not fit onto a single standard (A4) page then it is too much to comprehend at once. Meaning it should be split into different levels of abstraction to make it easier to understand. But well this is the view of a trained programmer.)

[fmasta88]

@fmasta88

297x420 mm.

I answer the problem: I set the page to A3 format 297x420 mm. and I print the diagram with an HP 7100 A3 printer. The problem is that the pattern once printed is too small (inside the page) it is difficult to read the writing and distinguish the components. I can print it in PDF format and then zoom it in to make it bigger, but this way I lose the squaring etc. Do I have to publish the scheme here to be clearer?

[davidsrsb]

@fmasta88

lose the squaring etc.

Do you mean the grid?

I find that KiCad is clearly readable printed actual size, unlike some commercial CAD software.
Somebody took some care with fonts

[fmasta88]

@fmasta88

297x420 mm.

So, if you in a sheet A3 297x420 mm. you find yourself printed a fairly complex scheme in only 190x50 mm. how do you judge him? To read the code of a component it takes the magnifying glass … and it is not possible in any way to enlarge it, right? What you can do with Autocad (of course we talk about different software, I know, but a way to scale the drawing does not exist?)

[John_Pateman]

I am not clear what the problem is. If you have a small design, you can just chose a smaller canvas size (eg A4) in the page setup dialogue (File >> Page Settings). If you need a really small design, you could even use an even smaller, custom canvas size.

Whatever size you chose will have the standard grid and the title box (unless you change the template)

You can then use your printer dialogue to scale the page up to A3 and print to fill the whole sheet. If your printer driver doesn’t offer a suitable scaling option, use the print to PDF workflow I mentioned earlier and scale and print the pdf.

You don’t need to set the display canvas to the printer size.