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CAD tip # 8425:

Question CAD
% platform category

Batch print for multiple drawings, multiple printers and copies.

One of the most requested tasks in an architectural or engineering office is a fast and convenient printout of multiple drawings at the same time, in a specified number of copies and paper formats, and possibly to multiple printers or plotters.

An advantageous method of such "super-batch-print" is using the CAD publishing format DWF (DWFx) with the free application Autodesk Design Review (see Download).

First you have to publish the individual drawings to the DWF format - you can do so from virtually any CAD software (incl. AutoCAD, Inventor and Revit), often you can do so automatically, during any standard save of the drawing file.

Once you have collected your DWF files, run the Design Review tool and from its application menu ("D-REV") choose Print > Batch Print Wizard:

Print Wizard

The Batch Print Wizard will lead you through the individual steps of the printing process. In the first step, choose your DWF and DWFX files, that should be batch-printed. Design Review will immediately show their size (format) and the number of sheets in each file:

List of files to be printed

In the next step, you can setup individual print parameters for each CAD file - you can direct them to a specific printer, choose the number of copies for each one, select the paper size (larger drawings will be tiled on smaller sheets), specify scale, color settings (only grayscale, black-and-white) and paper orientation:

Print parameters

You can finish the print wizard with the "Next" button and start printing with the "Print" button. Please note that the paremeters specified in the batch print wizard can be stored to a definition file .BPJ (batch print job) - you can easily repeat the same job in the future.

Wizard completed

You can also run a previously defined batch print job (by the BPJ file) directly from the Windows command line, using the command (example):

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Design Review\DesignReview.exe" C:\Batches\MyFile.BPJ

resp.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\Autodesk Design Review 2012\DesignReview.exe" \ut\print1.BPJ

DWFACAD

* CAD

19.1.2012 6256x FAQ

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applies to: DWF/Design Review · AutoCAD ·

See also:
Tip 9147:	Batch publishing to PDF uses different margins than single prints.
Tip 8788:	Batch unification of page setups in DWG files.
Tip 8499:	Batch change of page setups and purging in DWG files.
Tip 7607:	Two commands for printing PDF files.
Tip 7585:	Plotting a series of drawing frames composed in a DWG drawing.

Selected tip: Save command has not incremented the internal version number.

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Please use these tips at your own risk.
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