Printing - print to file & blank printing

Finally getting to the point where I am proficient enough in use of LibreCAD to do some useful (for me) stuff. However in order for this I need to print.
There are clearly a few minor issues around printing, judging from some threads here. Unfortunately I haven't come across anything that explains the couple of issues I have. Any pointers gratefully accepted.

I'm using LibreCAD on Win 7.

1) Often, when I try to print something for the first time after I have opened a drawing I get blank output. I think this is related to the fact that I have an untitled drawing open (it's automatically there when you start the program), it happens to be the first and for some reason printing is defaulting to print this drawing. I cam to this conclusion because when I close this drawing printing/print preview always goes back to the drawing that I was last editing and trying to print. Anyone else noticed similar? Any other way round this?

2) Every time I print the "print to file" box is checked. Doesn't matter what printer is default etc. Is there anywhere I can default this to no? Is it supposed to default to this? 99% of the time one would normally want to print to a physical printer (or perhaps a PDF printer driver under Windows).

Thanks.

1) The initial file shoudn't matter for this, I've never heard, that a wrong file was printed.
I assume you're printing without preview, see this thread http://forum.librecad.org/Export-to-pdf-Problems-tp5716479p5716481.html
It's about PDF export, but LibreCAD uses same methods for PDF and native printing, so this applies to your issue too.
Without preview, the scale and position may be undefined and create empty output.

2) The bad news is, that this is a common issue and there is no setting for it. The good news is, that I've found the source of this weakness and I can fix it later. But you have to install the next coming nightly build to enjoy this fix.

Armin

Thanks Armin.

1) I am printing without preview and of course I then use preview to check what should be printing, so it could very well be this. I'll play around a bit to check when I go through the next set of drawings.
Preview it is then from this point...

2) I'll pick up a copy in a couple of days then if you could let me know what version you put it into. I presume from the way it's presented the windows releases are just install and go like full stable releases.



I'm not a developer, but I have some time I could put to helping with testing or more likely documentation as that is something I have done previously during many years in IT. Are these activities led by anyone in particular to give them a vision and/or keep them consistent? Who to contact to explore whether I can actually offer anything?
Meanwhile, in trying to discover what's in releases I'm not finding what I know as release notes for each release that describe all changes in that release. I presume that's because in some way it's built into the way Github is used to manage the changes and devs can drag up a list of changes in a release. Is there an idiot's guide as to how it works or how LibreCAD developers use it?

Thanks.

Concerning the print to file fix, the nightly build has made a new Windows installer here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/librecad/files/Windows/NightlyBuilds/master/
The latest one, LibreCAD-Installer-2.2.0-rc1-52-g3a218543.exe, contains the fix.

The version is called 2.2.0-rc1, where rc1 stands for release candidate. Means this version should be as stable as 2.1.3 or even more.


Concerning your offer to contribute in documentation, this would be more than welcome.
There is no leader or navigator for LibreCAD documentation yet.
Most documentation is in our wiki (https://wiki.librecad.org/) but it's randomly distributed, individual and not always clearly linked to a specific version.
I have a vague vision to use a service like https://readthedocs.io/ for documentation.
The pros I see is hosting together with code, build multiple formats from one source and clear versioning.
But on the other hand it raises the inhibition level, inexperienced contributors, who possibly can contribute wiki articles, may be unable to cope with that.

I would be glad to hear your ideas.
If you want to start private, you can contact me by 'Send Email to LordOfBikes' link in my profil.
Our preferred chat channels for discussing coding and community issues are IRC #librecad or Zulip, you're welcome to join us there.
Or we can create a new sub forum here, like librecad-doc, for documentation topics.
Get in contact as you wish, then we can also sort out your questions about change log and github.

Armin

I started a couple of pages in the wiki a while back and guess I've been sitting on things until 2.2.0 is released.  I'm willing to contribute too.  I'd like to take the tool descriptions I did a while back and build them out for proper user documents and add other topics.  I haven't used an IRC, but I'll try to find you there.

Gary,

here it is: http://forum.librecad.org/LibreCAD-doc-f5716545.html

I've seen your IRC message, but not while you were online.

Armin

Ver 2.1.3
Compiled 9/23/16
QT Ver 5.4.1
Boost Ver 1.60.0
Windows 7

I've only been using LibreCad a month or two. So far, so good!
I'm suddenly having the "Print to File box checked" problem. It was good before.
Lots of chasing around message postings, with no real luck. But I think I found the answer!

DidiAtLibreCAD Mar 19, 2015; 9:56am responding to "Printer Default" thread.
He identifies the problem being caused by an instance of sending a report to a PDF file.  I did that!
He includes a fix by editing the Windows Registry, and ends with:
"Maybe there will be a bugfixing by developers in the future."

Although that message was posted a year and a half before the compile of 2.1.3, I guess it was never included. I don't have later versions, but I guess it has been fixed in those.
Isn't 2.1.3 identified as the latest stable release? I understand everything can't be fixed going back, but difficulty getting printout is pretty basic.  

Two suggestions: 1. Failure to receive a printout is not immediately obvious that a checkbox in a previous step was the problem. 2. Multiple threads have been posted once the problem is identified, but the responses aren't indicating what the problem is or what to do about it.
Once known, at least the easiest work-around is to uncheck the box. So, I would not call this critical, but lots of effort going into trying to find out why it won't print.

Also, in my case at least, a misdirecting message (maybe because this drawing is large) is indicating that the paper is too small and I should change the paper size - which of course is incorrect. Uncheck Print to File and it prints perfectly. It's only too big for the paper if I were trying to send it to the file!

That's enough for my first post on this forum.

While in a drawing, go to the OPTIONS pull down menu.
 
Adjust the CURRENT DRAWING PREFERENCE==>PAPER==>PAPER FORMAT drop down menu from "Custom" to "Letter" or size to suit the printer/plotter.  Worked for me...