Re: Scaling, printing, etc. in Dia

[Lars Clausen <lars raeder dk>]

On Sat, 2004-09-18 at 20:04, Chris Green wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 18, 2004 at 09:37:09PM +0200, Lars Clausen wrote:
> > On Sat, 2004-09-18 at 18:11, Chris Green wrote:
> > > 
> > > As I modify and change diagrams the horizontal and vertical rulers
> > > seem to have totally arbitrary scales and origins.  Is there any way
> > > to arrange things so that 0,0 is at the bottom LH corner of a single
> > > drawing area that can be printed on a single (or maybe more) sheets of
> > > paper?
> > 
> > You're wanting an 'edge' to the drawing area, so that you are forced to
> > stay within a single sheet?  
> > 
> Well, sort of.  It's just odd the way that the scales and size of the
> display change as one does things.  For example I've just discovered
> that if one drags the select box off the edge of the visible drawing
> area everything changes (the display area etc. that is) to keep you on
> screen.  This is part of what I find disconcerting, maybe it's just a
> change from what I'm used to where the scroll bars allow one to move
> to anywhere that you have drawn and trying to pull the selection box
> will stop at the edge of the visible display.

The scroll bars can still be used that way (also the little preview in
the lower-right corner), but we want to allow selection to be easy and
not require going to the scroll bars.  If you move too far outside the
drawing area, it will scroll really fast, which can be confusing. 
Ctrl-E always allows you to see the entire diagram and nothing more
(ought to have a little border on it, though).

> > > I've discovered the 'Page Setup' window but I can't see how that
> > > helps.  If you set it to "Fit to: 1 by 1" then the page varies in size
> > > as you draw which is most distracting and the edge of the drawing is
> > > at the edge of the paper with no margins so does it all print?
> > > 
> > > I also found with "Fit to: 1 by 1" I could end up with a drawing
> > > window that couldn't be scrolled to cover the whole page I was trying
> > > to draw on.
> > > 
> > > Have I missed something somewhere?
> > 
> > If you set it to a certain scaling factor (e.g. 100%), you can see the
> > sizes of the pages, and constrain yourself to within however many sheets
> > you want.
> > 
> Yes, OK.  I think what I'm after is a way to see most of an A4 sheet
> (I have a 19" monitor running at 1600x1200) with a (say) 1mm grid for
> positioning.  At present the grid seems rather too coarse for
> positioning boxes exactly as one wants on an A4 sheet.

Try with 100% scale in page setup going to 250% zoom.  That should also
change the grid to 1mm.  On my 1280x1024 it takes up a little more than
fits on the screen.

> > There's no way to set 0,0 to be the bottom-left corner.  I can't see any
> > reason it should be hard to do, but I don't know if it's worth adding
> > another option for.
> > 
> Probably not, I think my problems are as much due to my unfamiliarity
> with Dia and my  preconceived notions about how things should work!

Dia isn't trying to copy any other program, though we attempt somewhat
to follow the Gnome HIG.

> I'll keep playing and no doubt come up with more queries.

You're most welcome, it'll help you and may give us new ideas.  For
instance, I'm adding the little extra area to Ctrl-E, which should make
it easier to select around things and see the borders.

-Lars