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Request - set default print-box options


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Curious if it'd be possible to add a checkbox somewhere I could use to set the default print format to something other than "Automatic." My printer is a laser device that's always oriented as a portrait; and some times when I change the settings in my print driver for that device the Designer print dialog likes to reset to "Automatic". If I don't notice and print this way, the whole thing creates a mess on the laser itself. If I could set a switch to have the default be Landscape (so I don't have to worry) I'd be ecstatic. 

If I overlooked such switch or mechanism somewhere I'd be happy to be called "dolt" and have it pointed out to me.

Thanks!

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Hey 🙂 I'm assuming you mean laser cutter vs. printer; either way, I was super stuck until I saw your post... Kept trying to print to the laser and the orientation was landscape/vertical and horizontal/portrait?  What? Lol-- But I'd left it set at automatic since that had always worked for me before coming from Illustrator.  I switched to portrait after immense frustration and reading what you went through and oh my gosh, it worked... (you can see where I did a test file and the bottom part where it began making the file huge and off to the side...) must have stopped it four or five times.  Sooo I don't know what kind of laser you have or if you can do the same thing and it work, but  I just saved a profile for my settings on print after it was successful.  It would be better to have a checkbox like you mentioned though.  Maybe there's a way to save the orientation when printing from Designer that you can preset to keep from messing up future projects.  I know how annoying that can be- 

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Jan3ll3,

Glad my post helped! Yes, I have an Epilog Helix (renamed to Legend) series device for etching/cutting

I had not actually considered the Print Profile mechanism as a way to preserve my print settings within the Designer dialog - Thanks much I'll give that a go!

Also, there are a couple of threads in the suggestions here asking for a hairline stroke-weight option (in my laser system: such an option would simplify sending a cut instruction to the laser instead of a raster etch). I'm not aware that Affinity has ruled it out as a request; but if you think that it'd be useful in your workflow mayhaps you'd like to upvote the idea. Here's an active request thread 

 

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Flobnoit,  I hope it works for you!  The Epilogs are so awesome ❤️ Makes sense now why your way worked for my laser!  I'm still figuring out this transition myself.   All of my old Illustrator files have their cutting lines set to .001 and when I imported them they would vanish to 0 width unless I highlighted them with the node tool and change them to .1 (which luckily still reads as a cut).  But having to change all my files this way will take forever... (& upvoted those threads b/c that would be a great update to see). 

 

You may already have known this but just in case --I did find out that you can make .001 an option but you have to go to:  preferences> decimal places for unit types>  change "points" to 3.   (well I have mine set to points) The problem though is it's still invisible.  .01 is barely visible and .1 seems the best option to work with.  I also found that if you want to select one of your lines that need to be changed and uniform in width you can select its layer box and go up on the menu to select> select same stroke weight and then omg, you can change all of 'em at once!  🙂 Augh, I was so happy when I learned that.  I guess it was added in the update.

 

I really hope they add a hairline width that you can see and work with clearly.  (Even if you have to check and extra setting for better visibility as in a 1 width stroke)  That's how I would work in Illustrator anyhow.

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Aren't they though? :) 

Thanks, yes! I had discovered the increasing decimal places option once upon a time. And glad you're making use of the recently implemented Select Same feature! I've not had a project yet where I can leverage it - but soon! As a heads-up while you port over your artwork (if you haven't discovered it, or simply have better work practices than my colleagues who use Illustrator), I've found that Designer doesn't like to import anything from an .ai file that wasn't on the .ai's artboard. 

The only thing I did not see you mention (and it may not be useful in your workflow while importing/updating your old art files) is the Outline View Mode,  image.png.e565bd27a1d4dbbc0424014d6fc864ef.png (in the software-defaults menu bar) which will toggle the rendering of your file to a line-art mode. My experience is it ignores groups while active, so grabbing and moving things can get a bit hazardous if they are grouped (even grouped expanded text can easily be torn apart this way), but it does allow for quick toggling to make sure a cut line is where it ought to be.  

Also, maybe an unsafe (or rather, inconvenient) habit, but when I'm doing only a vector-cut method (eg. for heat-press vinyl) I actually use 0.2 pt stroke for the sake of visibility, and set my Epilog DPI to only 200 or 300. I've found I only need to use such small stroke values if I'm doing a 600 dpi raster + cut (eg. laserable leatherette). In my experience, Epilog driver doesn't notice the document DPI as reported by Designer, only what DPI you set in its configuration for that job, and calculates Stroke weight as etch or cut based on that. Final observation: strokes MUST be set "Align to Center of Stroke" to vector-  inside or outside just do not register no matter their indicated stroke weight.

 

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