Printing to scale from Mastercam

Hi,

Has anybody had this problem before? I'm commonly asked to machine complex contours to match existing shapes, and it's handy to be able to draw up a shape, then print if off to compare to an exist part I'm trying to match. Problem is I can't get the printer to print at exactly 1:1 or 100% from Mastercam. Any Ideas?

In X9 there is an entry field in the lower right corner. Type in 1 so it will say 1:1. By default, that number will usually be something like .3:1 or something so the whole screen fits on the paper.
Also, if you uncheck the "keep scale" box, you can use the middle mouse wheel over the preview area and see the scaling factor change in real time.

I usually draw a 1" long line, print it and measure with calipers. Scale up or down accordingly.

I tried that, and initially it didn't work, but after I printed to a document first and then printed, it was pretty close. Thanks

You don't say what printer you are using, but most print drivers (that's the program between your Mastercam and the printer) have the ability to scale the print. Look for something like Page Setup or Printer Properties or some such in the menus, usually near the Print command. You can probably enter a scale factor there. You may have to examine the options in different tabs. The only problem with this is most print drivers only allow whole number percentages to be entered (98%, 99%, 100%, 101%, 102%, etc.) So if you need to get between those whole number values, like 98.7%, you can't do it.

So, another thing I sometimes do in my CAD program when I need finer control over the print size is to copy the drawing to a new layer and then scale only that layer by the needed factor. My CAD program allows me to enter different scaling factors for X, Y, and Z so I can even adjust for different errors in different directions. Then I print that layer only. This is also a good way to convert everything to black and white when I have a drawing with different colors for different layers. If Mastercam is any kind of descent CAD program, it should have similar functionality.