Not printing to scale

[iamreavis]

Has anyone else had this problem?

Our drawings are set to 1/4" = 1', and all of the print settings are set to 100% scaling, center on page, etc. yet plotted dimensions do not jive with physical paper size. On longer dimensions, they are off about 3" in 50'. THIS IS A HUGE ISSUE!!!

Some heads are going to roll over this, and if I can't fix it one of them will be mine!

RA2008, HP Designjet 500 42

[iamreavis]

The problem is getting weirder...
Dimensions printed horizontally on the page are off, but ones printed vertically are dead on. Another printer in the office is dead on both ways.

Anyone else using the HP500 have this problem before?

[gwnelson]

We have the same plotter and although I never checked scale the printed image looks like the screen image.

Do you have the latest drivers? Have you taken a look at printing a large square or rectangle & measure print (used to have to do this all the time back in the CalComp days) just to see where you're off?

You can calibrate printers in ACAD when you make the pc3 file but I didn't see any native calibration in the properties. I would check driver first.
Good luck.

[Steve_Stafford]

If you haven't yet, try printing without the Center option, use no margin or user and see if that makes a difference. It probably will. It did for me recently.

[iamreavis]

We have been running some tests since this issue came to light...

It seems the linework is off in the direction of the paper feed. They are correct perpendicular to the feed direction, so it must have something to do with the paper feed mechanism. The dimensions check out when printing to another device.

Our AutoCAD people are having the same issue, although we've never noticed it before because we usually print at larger scales (1"=60' or 100'), but once we went back to check, the linework along the paper feed direction is slightly off as well (a line 200' long scales to about 199').

Very annoying, but it looks like a plotter issue as opposed to a Revit issue.

Thanks very much for the prompt responses and feedback.

[Steve_Stafford]

...Very annoying, but it looks like a plotter issue as opposed to a Revit issue. Thanks very much for the prompt responses and feedback...aah...the "old paper getting stretched by the rollers gambit, 99 call the chief!"

[gwnelson]

aah...the "old paper getting stretched by the rollers gambit, 99 call the chief!"

You'd get that if you were using Fruit Rollups instead of Vellum.

[iamreavis]

Okay, there is an 'Advanced Calibration' menu in the plotter that prints a series of lines and dots, then you have to feed that back through the plotter for it to scan. This is particular to each type of paper so we will have to do this when we change paper types, bond or mylar or whatever.

Ain't technology cool?

[lhanyok]

We are having print scaling issues as well. Our drawings are printing just slightly larger than they should, for example a dimension that should be 25'-10" is printing at 26' 4" (I'm scaling this to 1/4"). It's not related to the paper feed direction, however. I have taken the following steps already:
1. Made sure it was set to Zoom 100% and not Fit to Paper
2. Tried every option for Paper Placement in the Print Setup dialog
3. Printed to a pdf first, then printed a hard copy from Acrobat - which printed to scale
4. Exported the view to .dwg and printed from AutoCAD - which printed to scale

Any ideas?