Technically, printing your plot involves sending the plot image to an output device, print spooler, or file. Typically a printer represents the output device, but you could also print to a plotter, film recorder, file or typesetting machine (for example, you could print your plot to a PDF). Use this option generally if you do not wish to use the output in another program.
To print a plot, choose “Print” from the Project menu. Tecplot RS supports the standard printer drivers for Windows operating systems.
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Type Ctrl-P to access the The Print dialog includes the following options:
• Print Setup Click the Print Setup button to open your platform’s Print dialog and set up a printer, including choosing a different printer or adjusting such settings as the colors used and the paper orientation.
• Send Output to File (Linux) Generates a disk file of the output rather than sending it to a printer. (This feature is in the Print Setup dialog in the Windows version of Tecplot RS.)
• Copies (Linux) Indicates how many copies of the printout to make. (This feature is in the Print Setup dialog in the Windows version of Tecplot RS.)
• Render Options Use the Render Options in the Print dialog to control the appearance of your printed plots. In the Windows version of Tecplot RS, these appear in the main Print dialog. In the Linux version of Tecplot RS, a Render Options button appears instead, leading to a separate Print Options dialog where these options may be set.
• Color Check the Color control for color output; uncheck this box for monochrome output.
• Render Type Choose “Vector” to create print output using the drawing commands of the printer. The printer renders the plot, yielding higher resolution, but the printer cannot render some plot options, such as translucency, contour flooding with Gouraud shading, or contour flooding using continuous color distribution.
Choose “Image” to create print output using an image from Tecplot RS. Tecplot RS does the rendering at the specified resolution, usually less than the printer’s resolution. However, in this case, Tecplot RS can render all plot options.
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To preserve the quality of text in your plot, choose the Vector render type. |
To preserve quality of color in your plot (translucency, contour flooding with Gouraud shading, or continuous contour flooding), choose the • Force Extra Sorting for all 3D Frames This option becomes available when you have chosen the Vector option. Checking this box will cause Tecplot RS to use extra sorting in all 3D frames. When printing 3D plots in a vector graphics format, Tecplot RS must sort the objects so that it can draw those farthest from the screen first and those closest to the screen last. By default, Tecplot RS uses a quick sorting algorithm. This method works quickly, but sometimes operates less accurately and fails to detect problems, such as intersecting objects. If you choose Extra Sorting, Tecplot RS uses a slower, more accurate approach that detects problems.
• Resolution (dpi) When you have the Image option selected, you can access this control. Type the resolution in dpi in the text field to set the print resolution. Larger resolutions may result in an out-of-memory condition, or produce very large files. Smaller resolutions may yield less attractive output images.