I've been having problems with printouts since switching to V4.50 about a month ago. Part of our documentation is to print the graphical plot of the system with restraints, nodes, etc. No problem under the old graphics.

But, I've been having a lot of trouble with printing node numbers clearly. I've tried changing the font color to black and that has helped some, but they're still largely too faint to be readable. That's using a Xerox docucenter for printing.

I've also tried sending the printout to an HP Laserjet 5000. The node printout is clearer, but it has a nasty habit of losing digits, particularly when the node display overlaps the piping.

Truth be told, even on screen, the node numbers still don't show up all that well, even when using black text with a white background. Perhaps a change of font, or a user selectable font are in order.

The text that prints at the bottom of the page with date and file name is clear and legible in all cases.

I'm currently running build 040311, but I've been running into this since my original install about a month ago.

To : Edward Klein,
I am not sure which route you took to make color changes to fonts, but I found there are a number of fonts reached by right-click of mouse on the graphics screen. Menu comes up with Properties item down midway of list that has one choice of "display options". That brings up window for Plot Configuration with multiple tabs - including Fonts tab and Visibility tab. The icon for Change display options will get to this same window. I think a combination of "Arial Black, regular, size 12 " has good visibility on screen. The Volume elements for rigids, flanges and valves, seem to over-write the fonts, when in the single line view. The 3D view with the Visibility feature allows fonts to show through the Solids. (Tried setting 85% transparency- OK on screen, but did not try to print.)
Maybe it is just me, but the plot printouts seem to take longer to download to printer , and that is just for a single line plot, not a rendered 3D plot.
Regards, Richard Yee

I agree whole heartedly with Mr. Yees comments. Hoops is nice in some ways but I'm not sure its better than sliced bread.

I'm not saying this is the solution to your particular problem, but here is a link that reiterates something we have said many times before. This may solve some problems.

Also, the HOOPS vendor is in the process of completely rewriting the printing routines in the base library. Hopefully in a very short time printing issues will be resolved.

Richard Yee:

Thanks, that's solved most of the problem. I had forgotten about that pop up menu. Not a good place to bury those options, IMHO. I've gone with Arial Bold 12pt and the nodes are clear now.

Still, my other issue is happening on several different models of printers, so I'm pretty sure it's a HOOPS issue with the node numbers getting hosed during plotting. I guess when I printed to the Xerox, the nodes were to faint to see, but it's clear with the new font that characters are getting dropped. It's happening in the full shaded, hidden wireframe, and non-hidden wireframe. I'm now directing my guys to use the two line plot as that output works with the nodes and looks to be the best for our documentation purposes at this time. I'd prefer to use the hidden line wireframe as I think the piping looks best, but w/o the nodes showing correctly, it's not much use.

I think something more like an ISOGEN approach where the node number is off to the side with a line pointing to the actual point on the piping would eliminate the nodes getting partially painted out by the piping system, or at least making sure that the nodes get written to the printer last so they are "on top" of the piping. I guess we'll see what the HOOPS vendor comes up with.