AutoCAD's paper space and Word's page, reading the stone drawing.
Many fabricators redraw the part in AutoCAD to dimension it, then build the sheet in Word to write on it. In the Marmos print layout the sheet is composed from the order's own drawing: the plan and the 3D view come in as geometry, dimensions measure the stone in real millimetres, and text, arrows and shapes live on the paper. Nothing is retyped, and nothing you move on the sheet changes the drawing, the price or the cut.
The sheet reads the drawing, not a pasted picture
Each order item enters the sheet as a live block: the plan comes from the same document that produced the quote and the cut map. Rescaling, moving or switching the view needs no export. It is what a viewport does in AutoCAD's paper space, without keeping a second drawing file.
Real pages, like a word processor
The sheet has A4 or A3 pages, portrait or landscape, with a fixed height and the printable area drawn on screen. Whatever does not fit moves to the next page, the detail grid splits across pages showing every stone exactly once, and an empty trailing page disappears on its own. What you see on screen is what comes out on paper.
Dimensions tied to the stone
The edge dimension targets an edge of the plan, and the free measurement joins any two points — corners, edges, cut-out centres. The number is the real size of the stone, in mm or cm, not the length of the stroke on paper: rescaling the block does not change it, and moving the plan carries the dimension along. Curved edges are measured along the arc. It is CAD's associative dimension, without layers or dimension styles to set up.
Technical 3D, with 3D dimensions
Any item can become a technical 3D view, the same technical mode as the editor: paper-white solids that hide what is behind, black lines on the edges, a floor with a grid and, if you want, the stone texture. Orbit the camera, press Done and the view locks as an image. Dimensions work on the 3D view too: they measure the true length of the edge in space, not the stroke in the picture, and follow when the camera changes.
Text, leaders, angles and finishes
A text box like Word's, with line breaks, 6 to 48 pt type, bold, italic, underline and colour. Leader lines with an arrow to the point being called out. Corner angles with a choice of which side to measure. And the finish callout, which reads the edge profile from the drawing itself — the name is never typed, so it cannot be wrong.
Shapes with the drawing's snapping
Line, rectangle, circle and pen snap to corners, midpoints, axes, 45° and equal lengths, through the same engine that draws the stone, and lengths can be typed. The pencil is freehand with a smoothed stroke. A shape lives on the paper, not on an item: swapping or removing the plan does not erase the sketch next to it.
Line type, colour and weight
Shapes and dimensions share one picker: continuous, dashed or arrow-to-arrow lines, in black, red or blue. Dimensions choose a weight from 0.13 to 1 mm, and the pencil uses technical pen weights from 0.18 to 1.4 mm. Few colours on purpose: the sheet goes to the shop floor, and free colour turns into decoration.
Snapping, grouping and alignment
Blocks snap to the safe area and the centre of the page, and a guide shows when they snap. Lasso selection, align and distribute, arrow keys, copy, paste and undo. Blocks may overlap if you want them to; they just never start out overlapping.
From approved order to printed sheet
Five steps, without redrawing the part and without leaving the browser. The sheet is built on top of the drawing that already exists.
Open the order's sheet
From the order, open the print sheet and choose Custom. The pre-generated one, the saw sheet, stays one click away.
Pick the paper
A4 or A3, portrait or landscape. Add, remove or reorder pages; header, legend and detail grid come in as blocks.
Place the items
Put each item on the page as a 2D plan or a technical 3D view and set scale and position. In 3D, orbit to the angle that explains the part and lock the image.
Dimension and annotate
Pull edge dimensions and free measurements, mark angles and finishes, write notes and draw arrows and shapes. Choose the type, colour and weight of every line.
Print or export
Print or save as PDF from the browser, and download the DXF of the same stones from the same screen, R12 included.
One screen for what used to take two programs.
Printed sheet or PDF
A4 or A3 pages with the plan in vector, the 3D view as an image, dimensions and text. Printed from the browser, with no plugin and nothing to install.
One sheet for client and crew
Plan, 3D and notes on the same page: whoever approves, fabricates and installs looks at the same paper.
DXF of the same geometry
On the same screen, the DXF of every stone in the order, also as R12 for older machines and CAM packages.
Nothing changes in the order
Working on the sheet only composes the paper: nothing flows back into the drawing, the quote, the cut map or the DXF.
Questions about the print layout
- Do I need AutoCAD to dimension and print a countertop project?
- No. The Marmos print layout does in the browser what usually takes AutoCAD plus a word processor: edge dimensions and free measurements on the part, corner angles, text, leaders and shapes, on A4 or A3 pages. The difference is that the geometry is not redrawn: it comes from the same drawing that produced the quote.
- How is this different from building the sheet in Word?
- In Word the drawing is a pasted picture: you cannot dimension an edge, and when the part changes the picture goes stale. In the print layout the plan is the order's geometry, and a dimension measures the stone in real millimetres and stays right when the block is rescaled. From Word it keeps what Word does well: text boxes, point sizes, bold, colour and fixed-size pages.
- Can I print the project in 3D?
- Yes. Any item can go on the sheet as a technical 3D view — black lines on the edges, solids that hide what is behind, optional stone texture. You orbit the camera, lock the view and it prints as an image. Dimensions work on the 3D view and measure the true edge length.
- Does a dimension on the sheet measure the paper or the stone?
- The stone. Edge dimensions and free measurements store points of the drawing, not of the paper: the number is the real size, in mm or cm, and it does not change when the plan's scale changes. Arc edges are measured along the arc.
- Does editing the sheet change the drawing or the quote?
- No. The print layout only composes paper: moving the plan, rescaling, dimensioning or writing never flows back into the drawing, the price, the cut map or the DXF.
- Can I change line colour and weight?
- Yes. Shapes and dimensions take continuous, dashed or arrow-to-arrow lines, in black, red or blue. Dimension weight goes from 0.13 to 1 mm, and the pencil uses technical pen weights from 0.18 to 1.4 mm.
- What does the print layout not do yet?
- It is not a general-purpose CAD and does not generate machine programs. Paper is A4 or A3, and the 3D view prints as an image, not as vector. For the saw, the reference is still the pre-generated sheet, which reads the cut map frozen at approval. The composition itself is kept: the sheet is saved to the order and opens the same way next time — one per order, and saving again replaces it.
See the sheet that goes to the saw, too
The pre-generated sheet reads the map frozen at approval; the 2D and 3D design page shows where the geometry both of them print comes from.