Prints

Prints is the tab where the model becomes paper. You compose sheets: drop views of the structure at a chosen scale, add connection details, tables of quantities and calculation reports, write your notes, fill the title block, and take the whole thing out as PDF or DXF. Everything on a sheet points back at the model, so a sheet is a layout, not a copy.

Views of the modelConnection detailsSummary tableNotes and textTitle block
One sheet, five kinds of block. Only the title block has a fixed home; everything else you place.

Paper, and how much fits on it

Sheets are landscape, in the five ISO A sizes. The size is a property of the sheet and can be changed after the fact: blocks keep their position in millimetres, so going from A3 up to A1 gives you room rather than rescaling what is already there.

SizeDimensionsTypical use
A4297 × 210 mmA single detail, or a one-page report.
A3420 × 297 mmDetails and small elevations. The size most offices print in house.
A2594 × 420 mmA frame with its details alongside.
A1841 × 594 mmGeneral arrangement drawings.
A01189 × 841 mmThe whole building on one sheet.

Scales come from a standard list, from 1:25 up to 1:250, chosen per view. Two views of the same thing at two scales on one sheet is normal and expected: the plan at 1:100 and the corner at 1:25.

The same view, drawn five ways

A view placed on a sheet carries a render mode, and the mode is what decides whether the block reads as a drawing or as a picture. Changing it does not change the view, only how that placement is drawn.

ElevationDetailShaded 3DTechnical 3DLine 3D
One geometry, five finishes. The last three are the same 3D figure with different treatment.
Elevation · Flat 2D line drawing of the profiles. The default, and what most sheets are made of.
Detail · Metalwork double-line style: each member drawn with its real width, the way a fabrication drawing shows it.
Shaded 3D · A vector axonometric with shading. The hero figure of a sheet, and the one people recognise the building in.
Technical 3D · The same figure with the finish of the Connections tab: flat white, dark outline, nodes trimmed.
Line 3D · The same figure with no faces at all, only the visible edges, with what lies behind hidden by depth. It is the isolated 3D turned into a line drawing.

Placing a view processes it: the 3D is turned into 2D lines once and the lines are saved with the sheet, so opening the drawing again does not rebuild the geometry. The shaded perspective is the exception, because it is an image rather than a drawing. Measured on a twelve-frame shed, the shaded figure is 11,385 faces and 2.1 MB, while the line drawing of the same view is 1,942 strokes. Saving the first one per placement would inflate the project; so it stays live.

What else goes on a sheet

Connection details

Any detailed node can be dropped on paper as a dimensioned block, at its own scale.

Summary table

Quantities taken from the model: profiles, lengths, weights. It updates with the model, it is not typed.

Report blocks

Support reactions, load combinations, wind and connections, each as a table block you place on the sheet.

Text boxes

Your own notes, in your own words. Titles picked from the standard list translate with the interface; anything you type stays exactly as you wrote it, in every language.

Automatic tags

Profile and dimension labels generated from the model. Each one can be rewritten or hidden, and rewriting one by name changes every label with that name on the sheet, including the ones a new bar will create later.

The title block

Fixed at the corner, filled once, applied to every sheet in the project.

Where to go next

Compose a sheet, place a detail and export the DXF, in the browser. Free.

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