Printing Suggestions
Posted April 8th, 2009 by dotson2007
in
I've been fooling around with depiction for a few weeks. I have two suggestions for future development.
1) I'd like additional elements. I work at a university public safety department and would like to use elements to indicate thefts or accidents, etc. Additionally, with a major disaster drill coming up, the ability to depict different agencies would be great "PD" and "FD" are nice, but they don't quite cut it.
2) A print preview and greater printing options. Having used one of the competition's products, I know that the ability to have a border, title, legend and few windows can go a long way to contributing to that extra level of professionalism.
Comments
Printing Suggestions
These are great suggestions.
You can actually create any new elements you want and can take any image file and use it as the icon for the element. Please look in the Help documentation for "Creating new types of elements" to learn how easy it is to make your own elements by adding and deleting properties of an existing element; then saving it to your library under a new name.
We're working on enhancing the Print options and will include your great suggestions on our list of print features being considered.
Printing
It would be wonderful to be able to print a full page image of a depiction. Some of the work I am doing needs to be shared in a printed format with others. The half page printout I am getting isn't going over too well.
Are you print to Landscape mode?
Regarding your problem getting a full page image, is your Depiction window wider than it is high? If so, to fill as much of the page as possible, you will need to print in Landscape orientation.
On Windows Vista, you can switch between Portrait and Landscape via the Preferences button that appears on the Windows' Print dialog.
In either orientation, Depiction will expand the image of the Depiction window to be as wide and tall as possible while staying on the page, and while keeping the aspect ratio of the Depiction window being printed.
Please let us know if this helps.
Printing
The depiction I am trying to print is taller than it is wide. When I print I get a frame about 8"wide and 5" high containing the depiction. I haven't been able to readily figure out how to adjust output so I can get an 8x 10 printout. I was going to try to print to pdf but it looks like I don't have enough memory at the present to do that.
Also, have I missed
Also, have I missed something or does Depiction print what is on the screen, not what is in the boundaries of the Depiction? I too have situations where a printed copy is used to pass along information but the current version produces a map too small to read details. My depiction area was roughly 1 square mile.
Print Screen
Depiction prints what is on your screen. In fact, it takes a screen capture, makes an XPS file, and prints that. To get better sizing, do your own screen capture then paste it into something like PowerPoint or Paint, where you can resize it and set the image to your preferences.
Best,
George
Depiction Support