Toad Data Modeler 6.5 - User Guide

Page Setup

1. Select File | Page Setup.
   
2. Select page size, margins, orientation etc.

To define the page size on your own, select Custom from the Page box. Define Height and Width on the right.  

Note: The measure unit can be set in Settings | Options | General | Select Unit of Length - inches or millimeters. Page Format settings are saved with a model.

 

Option	Description
Fit to Page	Select this option to print the entire model on one page. This option is model-dependent.
Enlarge	Select a scale of your model for print.
Portrait/Landscape	The option selected in the Page Format dialog will be automatically set in the Printer Properties dialog. You can set a different orientation for every model, the option is model-dependent.
Printer	Select your printer. Then in the Page box you can see formats that the selected printer supports (enabled items) and other formats (disabled items). (This feature should solve problem with printing on plotters.)

Preview

Click   on the toolbar (or select File | Preview).

PDF and Plotter Printing

Toad Data Modeler allows you to print ER diagram of your model to a PDF file, which is especially useful step in order to print the diagram to a plotter.

Printing to PDF is similar to printing to printer:

1. Go to File Menu | Page Setup and configure printing properties such as your document size, orientation, margins...
   
   
2. Once you're done configuring, go to File Menu | Print. There are also several options available on Settings tab.
   
   
3. Click OK to print the PDF document. Some PDF printers display an additional configuration dialog in order to print the PDF.

PDF Printing Limitations

There are several situations, where you may not be able to print the PDF file at all, or the result may not look as intended. Usually, this is not limitation of TDM itself rather than a limitation of some component TDM uses.

Windows PDF size limitation

Toad Data Modeler uses Windows GDI (graphics device interface) to print PDF files. The GDI has 129 inches (about 3200 millimeters) limitation, meaning neither height or width may exceed the limit. If any size of the PDF exceeds 129 inches, you will receive a warning message when you try to print the PDF.

If you print the document anyway, its page size will be reverted to A4 (which is default).

PDF printers size limitation

PDF printers which allow you to customize print properties right before printing the actual document (Adobe PDF Printer, PDF Factory) seem to have one limitation in common. If you configure the page size in the PDF printer properties (which is not recommended, see the note above), the height and width should not add up to more than 129 inches (about 3200 millimeters). If the width+height is more than 129 inches, one of the two things will happen:

• You confirm the Print dialog, but nothing happens afterwards (Adobe PDF Printer).
• You confirm the Print dialog and get "The Margins are set outside..." error (PDF Factory).

Printers using properties set in Page Setup seem to handle larger sizes well (e.g. PDF Creator, Bullzip PDF Printer, Nitro PDF).

Printing to Plotter

When printing to plotter, it is recommended to print PDF of your model ER diagram first. Toad Data Modeler supports variety of common plotter paper size formats, but you may find yourself in a situation where you need to print diagram larger than 129 inches, but you keep running into various limitations (mentioned in chapter above).

To print such a diagram, follow these steps:

1. Know your plotter paper size. In our case, let's say the desired size is 150 to 75 inches.
2. Calculate the paper size height to width ratio (e.g. 150/75 = 2).
3. Create a PDF file with the same ratio as your desired paper size. Make sure it does not exceed any limitation (e.g. 100x50, 50x25). Also make sure that the model looks good enough when printed (Does the model fit on the 50x25 paper size? Or should you rather print 100x50 PDF?).
4. Print the PDF file to your plotter. The PDF file should be upscaled (e.g. 100x50 should be multiplied by 1.5 -> 150x50). It may be necessary to configure the upscaling in your plotter settings. Since the diagram image has been vectorized when it was printed to PDF, it can be upscaled at no quality cost.
5. The result should come out as a sharp, clear, well readable diagram of your model.

Create New Project

Projects are used to group multiple models, files and other items.

To create a new project

• Select File | New | Project

• Check Create TDM Directory Structure to create a project with a predefined directory structure

• Check Use Version Control to create a version controlled project. In the following steps you will need to configure it in order to create a new project. You can set up Version Control system for your projects anytime later

To select a version control system

• Select a type of version control system:
• Git - Enter the path to the Git client executable (e.g git.exe)
• Subversion - Enter the path to the svn client executable (e.g svn.exe)
  • Check Use Read Only Locking Mechanism to enable locking files (set read-ony attributes to them)
  • Check Non Interactive to disable all interactive prompting
  • Check No Authentication Cache to not save authentication tokens into cache

• Click Next to enter details of your repository

To setup your repository

• Subversion - Enter the path (server address) to your subversion repository
  • Enter your User Name and Password
  • Check Checkout an existing repository into the working directory to checkout the files into your project folder

• Git - Check Initialize Local Repository to initialize your local Git repository
  • Check Configure Remote Repository to enter details of your remote Git repository, click Next
  • Enter the path to your local Git repository and check Clone an Existing Repository to the Working Directory if you want to pull the latest files from your remote repository