Default Print Options for a Project in Altium Designer

The Default Prints tab of the Project Options dialog

Summary

This tab of the Project Options dialog enables you to set up the default print outputs for various editors of Altium Designer. It is these nominated defaults that are used when running the following print commands from the editors' main menus:

• File » Print
• File » Print Preview » Print

Access

This is one of the multiple tabs available when configuring the options for a project that are accessed from within the Project Options dialog. To access this dialog:

• Click File » Default Prints in the Schematic or PCB Editor.
• Click Project » Project Options in the Schematic or PCB Editor.
• Right-click on the entry for the project on the Projects panel then click Project Options from the context menu.
• Right-click in the design space of a schematic sheet then click Project Options from the context menu.

Options/Controls

The main area of the tab presents a listing of all supported print-based outputs that can be generated from the schematic and PCB editors. Output types are grouped into the following categories:

• Assembly Outputs
• Documentation Outputs
• Fabrication Outputs
• Other Outputs
• Report Outputs
• Validation Outputs

For each entry, the following information is displayed:

• Output Description – what is output by using this print output type.
• Supports – the editor for which this print output type is supported.

• Default Print – indicates whether this print output type is to be used as the default print type (enabled) or not (disabled).

  Only one print output type can be set as the default print type for each editor.

Additional Options

• Configure – click this button to access an associated dialog with which to configure the currently selected print output. The dialogs involved include:

  • Print dialog – to configure Assembly Drawings, Composite Drawing, PCB Prints, PCBLIB Prints, Schematic Prints, Composite Drill Drawing, Drill Drawing/Guides, Final Artwork Prints, Power-Plane Prints, and Solder/Paste Mask Prints.

    The Print dialog is available when the UI.Unification.PrintPreviewDialog option is enabled in the Advanced Settings dialog. When this option is disabled, the following dialogs will be accessed when clicking the Configure button:

    • PCB Printout Properties dialog – to configure Assembly Drawings, Composite Drawing, PCB Prints, PCBLIB Prints, Composite Drill Drawing, Drill Drawing/Guides, Final Artwork Prints, Power-Plane Prints, and Solder/Paste Mask Prints.
    • Schematic Print Properties dialog – to configure Schematic Prints.
  • PCB 3D Print Settings dialog – to configure PCB 3D Prints.
  • PCB 3D Video dialog – to configure PCB 3D Video outputs.
  • PDF3D dialog – to configure PDF3D and PDF3D MBA outputs.
  • Advanced Text Print Properties dialog – to configure Report Prints, and Text Prints.
  • Wave Print Properties Form dialog – to configure SimView Prints.
  • Layer Stack Report Setup dialog – to configure Report Board Stack outputs.
  • Report Manager dialog – to configure Bill of Materials and BOM Compare reports.
  • Comment Export Configuration dialog – to configure an Export Comments report.
  • Differences Setup dialog – to configure a Differences Report.
  • Electrical Rules Check Setup dialog – to configure an Electrical Rules Check validation report.
• Page Setup – click to access a page setup dialog for the currently selected print output. In the dialog, you can configure the printout with the chosen printer in terms of paper, scaling, and color settings. You can also access the relevant configuration dialog, the printer setup dialog, preview the printout, and ultimately print the output from the selected printer.
• Set To Installation Defaults – click to set all options to installation defaults.