DIAdem Report Dimensions

[SchaengelK]

Hello Community

I have found seen that my problem has happened before, but unfortunately, mine has not simply disappeared!  https://forums.ni.com/t5/DIAdem/Diadem-Scaling-is-off-when-I-am-printing-or-exporting-to-PDF/m-p/393...

I'm using Diadem15 SP2 Prof Ed (our engineering wants us to stay with 2015 for the present for other reasons) to collect some data, analyze it and fill the report.  Everything works fine as long as my (Lenovo Thinkpad) is in its docking station.  But when I take the notebook out to the floor to collect the data, the resulting PDF is shrunken (please see attached comparison).  I checked (eg with Excel) and the same does not happen, so it appears to be a DIAdem issue.  I've tried all sorts of things without success (print button, export as PDF, HTM, PPT, "report.Settings.Page.Dimensions.SetPredefinedPageSize" etc.)  Any help available?  Thanks very much in advance.

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi SchaengelK,

I see links below your post, but they don't pop up screenshots for me, they each take me to the discussion forum overview page.  The two scenarios I'm aware of where DIAdem PDFs display with odd text scaling are when you have your Windows Display set to a text size other than 100% or when you are printing while remote desktopping to the DIAdem computer.

Are either of those the case for you?

Brad Turpin

Senior Technical Support Engineer

National Instruments

[SchaengelK]

Hi Brad

Thanks for the reply. 

I've checked the display text size for both monitors (more on this below) and it's set to 100%, so that does not appear to be the problem.  There is no remote desk-topping going on either.

I have re-attached the photo file showing the two outputs - they were separately printed using the command:

"Call Report.Sheets.ExportToPDF(ResultDataDIRString & SaveString & ".pdf",FALSE)" .  The only system difference between print events was the state of the computer display. 

I have attached a second photo showing the two displays:  a Dell monitor (5:4)(1280 x 1024)(right) and the Lenovo notebook display (16:9) (1920 x 1080). 

When the notebook is closed and in its docking station, the display is "full" - it fills the Dell monitor screen.  But when notebook is open (as in the photo), the upper and lower "black bands" mimic the notebook display and change the monitor aspect ratio.

The "smaller print pdf output" occurs when I run the script with the notebook open at my desk (as seen in the photo) or when I'm out on the plant floor without the Dell monitor.  

If I were able to set up the report under the "compressed" condition only - that would be OK!  But I can't even do that.  So any help you can provide would be most welcome.

Thanks very much!  Best Regards, Kevin

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi SchaengelK,

I see your images now, thanks for re-posting.  Have you tried checking the "output print data as graphic" checkbox in the REPORT section of the "DIAdem Settings" dialog?  I'm not sure what's causing the even shrinking of the output when your laptop is disconnected, but this has helped with other printing and PDF output oddities in the past.

The cause that jumps to mind, based on your description of events, is that often a laptop will use a different screen display resolution when attached to a docking station and external monitor, vs. when it is disconnected and using its smaller built-in screen.  This is also an opportunity to have other settings cached differently, such as the text display size <> 100%, but I agree that the shrinking does not match what I've seen with text display size before.

What operating system are you running on that laptop?  Windows 10 introduced its own PDF printer, which in some cases gets used instead of the DIAdem PDF Printer.  I'm not sure if that happens with DIAdem 2015, but it's definitely an option to use the Windows 10 PDF printer in newer DIAdem versions.

Brad Turpin

Senior Technical Support Engineer

National Instruments

[SchaengelK]

Hi Brad

Thanks for the reply! 

Yes, I did try the "output data as graphic" option, but I suspect this particular report is too "busy" for that.  The outputted graphic doesn't approach the neat appearance one sees in the Report pane.

However, after coming back and buckling down to the Layout Parameters, and reading the help file carefully, I see that with a User-Defined Page Size, and paying attention to one's chosen format height-width ratio (since we use A4 here that's roughly 1.4) one can experiment with heights and widths until one finds an acceptable output.  Mine turned out to be 13."  I don't know what that'll look like using the big monitor, but this routine's designed for the plant floor anyway.

Thanks for all your help (I've never written before, but you've helped me through a huge amount of issues in the past).  Thanks again, good luck, Kevin

[Brad_Turpin · Accepted solution]

Hi Kevin,

That's great news!  PDF export formatting is a tough one to troubleshoot, I'm so glad you figured it out on your own.  Happy to have in some small way facilitated.

Brad Turpin

Senior Technical Support Engineer

National Instruments