Three Printing Scenarios

Direct printing
Asynchronous printing
Technical illustration

 

 

Direct printing
  Direct (or "office") printing is the simpliest scenario which aims at printing directly the document.

  1. Define the print settings to be applied when printing the document. This is done via the File > Print command which opens the Print dialog box.

  2. Click OK to validate your settings: they are transmitted to the printer driver which, in turn, send the print job to the printer: the document is then printed on the output (paper, vellum, polyester, etc.) you specified.
 

This is illustrated by the scheme below (click the thumbnail to see the full-size picture):
 

 

Asynchronous printing
  Asynchronous (or "virtual") printing lets you work in a more complex environment because in that case, third-parties, a plot server and distributed printers are involved.

  1. From a Version 5 session, select the Print to file check box to store the image printout in a file in the location you specify. This is done via File > Print which opens the Print dialog box.

or
 

From a third-party application (e.g. Multi-CAD), use the print functionality to store the image printout in a file or in database.

  1. The plot server or database application retrieves the file.

  2. The file containing the printout image is browsed in a viewer such as a CAD or a Web viewer.

or
 

The file containing the printout image is sent to a printer. Depending on the options you selected, either one or many documents are printed.
 

This is illustrated by the scheme below (click the thumbnail to see the full-size picture):
 

 

Technical illustration
  Technical illustration lets you generate documents that will be available on a wide variety of supports. This printing mode is also a "virtual" printing mode since no direct printing is required, it is a file format-oriented mode.

  1. From a Version 5 session, open the document (SVG, JPEG, etc.) to be printed then select File > Print. In the Print dialog box, select the Print to file check box to store the image printout in the location you specify.

or
 

From a third-party (e.g. Multi-CAD), use the print functionality to store the image printout in a file or in the documentation database.

  1. The server environment retrieves the document from the database.

  2. The document is then transferred to people such as technical writers or web designers who can work on the document as needed.

  3. Finally, the document can be displayed on the world-wide web, printed in books, stored on CD-ROMS, etc.
 

This is illustrated by the scheme below (click the thumbnail to see the full-size picture):