Here are some tips and tricks to help ensure the highest quality views and plots from SACS.

Views

Views can be selected, created and modified with the Display > Views windows.

Click the Add View button - to create a new view. This view must be added to an existing folder or a new folder to help organize your views.

Folders can also be created using the Add Folder button - .

Any time a Volume or Plane view is created it will be placed in the Unsaved Views folder. These can be moved to the a user-created folder and the view will be saved for future use.

Views can be updated to reflect the current view in the active window by right-clicking the view and selecting Update from Active Window.

Member or Plate Group selections can be associated with a saved view. While a view is selected, select the desired elements using Display > Selections > Group. Most likely you will want to deselect the Show unattached joints option as well.

The visibility options for each view can be customized using the View Properties box. These options will correspond to the options found in the Display > Options and the Display > Labeling Options dialogs. You can also use those dialogs to set up your preferred visualization options and then update the view from the active window.

Note that there are some results labeling options which can be set in the model file. Those options won’t have any effect until the analysis is performed and results database (PSVDB.*) is viewed in Precede.

Plotting to PDF

When plotting to PDF you will be prompted to select a printer driver. Most computers will have Microsoft Print to PDF and Adobe PDF. We recommend that you use Adobe PDF as there are more options which can help optimize the print job.

Select a custom Adobe PDF Output Folder and the PDF printer will automatically name the PDF as the view name instead of prompting you for input.

Select Screen as the Adobe PDF Page Size and PDF will scale the image to match the screen size. Note that this option can create an odd page size so you may need to rescale the image when physically printing the document.

Deselect View Adobe PDF results to prevent Adobe from opening the PDF once the document has been printed.

Deselect Ask to replace existing PDF file to automatically overwrite the a PDF instead of prompting you.

These settings can also be applied as the default settings for all PDF print jobs by modifying Adobe PDF printer settings. Search for Printers and Scanners in the Windows search bar and open the Adobe PDF printer.

Then open the Printer properties to modify the Adobe PDF Properties. The Adobe PDF Document Properties are located under Advanced > Printing Defaults.