Printing Charts longer than 200 inches

[tauceti 0]

I have finally found a Printing Service that can print my charts as long as I need, but he needs my files to be in PDF format. For months now I have tried every PDF creator that I have been able to download even Adobe Acrobat Pro but not one of them will create a PDF file longer than the magic 200 inches. The chart I wish to print is 13 metres long by 52 centimetres wide.

 

I am happy to purchase a PDF Creator if I can just find one that will do the conversion.

 

I have tried many of the suggestions in the forums including the excellent instructions from the Ottowa TMG Group to no avail.

 

Any guidance would be very appreciated.

 

Tauceti

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

Tauceti -

 

I assume this is a UK style top-to-bottom chart - very long and narrow from your measurements. One work-around for a chart that long (which requires a very long wall - with no doors or windows - to display) is to make a chart with 2 generations. Color code each of the children in that second generation and create a separate color-coded chart for each of those lines. This has an additional advantage of giving reunion participants, for example, an opportunity to have printed a chart of their own line. There is an example in the forum thread here.

 

Virginia

[RobinL 0]

Two topics here:

A. longer/wider PDF files

I had a PDF writer that would create files up to 650" (16.51m) in either direction. This was the DocuDESK deskPDF v2.55 which I had used for over 8 years without problems. Recently they released deskPDF 2014 Studio X.as it had some new features that I required.

 

To my dismay, the "Postscript Custom Page Size" option is very broken (ignores the setting and produced 1 page at the same standard size of the Windows Default Printer). I have been in a many message dialogue with DocuDESK Support for the last 3 months about getting this functionality re-instated. To my knowledge this was the only product that would work beyond the Adobe 200" limit. I have been promised a beta version to test once it is available. I will add a commentary to this thread once I have had the chance to test the update.

 

B. Re-shaping the chart (NOTE: This process should be first tried on a COPY of your saved. VC2 file until you are confident with your chart editing skills. It is also sensible to save intermediate versions under temp names as after each creation of a group. Grouping can take a seemingly long time on larger charts.)

 

On page 243 of "Getting the Most Out of The Master Genealogist" Compiled and edited by Lee Hoffman, I described a technique to reshape a chart

1) While viewing the chart at View > Normal, In Tools > Diagram >Diagram Measurements, make the height at least 3 times the current height - this gives you new space for the later operations.

2) By selecting the left-most large sub-branch of the tree, grouping it, dragging it down the page, and then to the left..

3) Then grouping the remainder of the chart to the right hand piece , then dragging it to the left to close the gap.

4) This process can be repeated on other large sub-branches, to form a second or third row of branches.

5) When you are done, ungroup all the grouped sub-branches.

6) Use Tools > Diagram > Size to Components to reduce the canvas down to the required size.

 

Typically, the minimum length/width of the re-shaped chart is governed by the width of the largest sub-branch - that is, it spans the full width of the final page. So you may be able to reduce a very wide chart to one that is about 1/3 wide and 3 times higher..

 

A helpful display hint before you start moving sub-branches is to

i. Select one individual in the second or third last generation, right-click menu > Select Generation

ii. While all these boxes are selected, right-click > Properties, Line tab , change line colour to red, [OK] out

iii. Now when you have finished all the reshaping, all persons with a red outline are all at the same generation, making it easier to compare cousin-ships in such a chart.

 

BTW: It is unlikely that this technique would reduce the 13m width sufficiently to get it under the 5.08m (200") limit but it may work. This can take some effort but it does make all the content to be easier to display. Virginia's method may be easier for you to achieve. It depends on what you want finally.

 

RobinL

[tauceti 0]

RobinL and Virginia

 

Many thanks for you input and timely assistance. What a learning curve I have been on.

 

I now have all of my charts printed using less than the 200" with the exception of the main chart showing all persons on my data base. You have given me a couple of suggestions that I will work on to produce the best result.

 

Cheers

 

tauceti