Arrange Pieces for Print

What you are trying to accomplish

Place every pattern piece safely across the printer pages that will become the tiled PDF. This step is about sheets of paper for home printing—not arranging pieces on fabric for cutting.

Arrange for Print appears when a project has two or more pieces. A one-piece project is placed automatically and does not need a separate arrangement step.

Why it matters

Pieces can overlap on the worktable or land awkwardly across page joins. An overlapping arrangement can hide part of a piece even though it appears to use fewer pages. The safest layout may therefore use more paper than the unsafe stacked layout.

The selected paper size also changes printable areas and page joins. Choosing A4 while loading US Letter, or the reverse, can move joins and clip the pattern.

Step by step

1. Finish Pattern Check, then choose Arrange for Print.
2. Under Paper, choose US Letter or A4 to match the paper that will actually be in the printer.
3. Read Current layout. If PatternForge reports that pieces are sitting on top of each other, choose Separate pieces for safe printing. The unsafe Keep current layout path is not offered for an overlap.
4. Otherwise, choose Arrange pieces to use fewer pages or review the current placement yourself.
5. Read the result honestly. If separating overlapping pieces needs more pages, keep the additional pages—the earlier count was low because one piece hid another.
6. Inspect the Print preview. The dashed Overlap areas belong to neighboring printer pages for taping; they are different from two pattern pieces overlapping each other.
7. Select a piece in the preview. Drag it to move it, or use Rotate 90°, Reset, Lock, and Unlock as needed.
8. Read every item under Layout check. Fix piece overlaps, awkward page-edge slivers, large page spans, and fold-placement guidance before continuing.
9. If you choose Use worktable layout, review it again. PatternForge labels an overlapping reset honestly, and it is not automatically safe because it came from the editor.
10. Choose Looks good — export PDF only when the check is clean. If the button says Review issues before export, fix the layout first.

What success looks like

• The paper selection matches the physical printer paper.
• Every piece is fully visible and no two piece footprints overlap.
• Page joins and narrow fragments have been reviewed.
• Fold pieces are positioned deliberately.
• Locked pieces do not prevent a safe arrangement.
• Layout check contains no unresolved warning.
• The final page count reflects visible pieces rather than stacked shapes.

Common problems and recovery

• Auto-arrange uses more pages: Check whether the starting pieces overlapped. More pages can be the honest cost of printing every piece.
• Pieces still overlap after auto-arrange: Unlock or manually move the pieces named in the warning, then check again.
• A piece crosses many pages: Select it and try Rotate 90°. Compare the new joins, not only the page count.
• A small strip lands near a page join: Move the piece so the join falls in a more manageable area.
• The wrong paper was chosen: Switch to the paper in your printer and review the entire layout again.
• Reset restores an unsafe layout: Treat Reset to overlapping worktable as a starting point for repair, not as approval.
• You edited piece geometry after arranging: Reopen Arrange for Print. A layout confirmed for the old shape should not be trusted for the changed piece.
• You need a fabric cutting layout: Arrange for Print is not a fabric marker, nap planner, stripe matcher, or cutting-layout optimizer. Plan those real-fabric constraints separately.

Quick safety check

Before exporting, identify every piece by name in the preview and confirm that none is hidden beneath another. Then verify the paper choice one more time. A low page count is never more important than a complete piece.

Related tools and next step

If piece or seam evidence is incomplete, return to Complete Pattern Check. When the layout is clean, continue to Export and Print at Actual Size.