I'm new to Worldworks products, and am just building my first models. While working on the gas station from Bits of Mayhem today, I encountered a problem.

I printed out the "Golden Shield" version, and got busy cutting and scoring. When I started final assembly on the big roof, I discovered that the top piece was a bit bigger than the bottom piece. It was like having a box with a slightly oversized lid. Thinking I'd screwed up the printing, I made a fresh copy. Same problem.

I eventually worked around the problem by gluing a double layer of cardstock strips to the sides of the bottom piece. This bulked it out enough that the sides of the top piece were now flush and square when folded over.

I cut everything out very carefully, and followed the score lines perfectly. I printed it out on a brand new colour laser printer, with no scaling or "rotate and center" settings enabled. What did I do wrong?

-jdf

Understand the need for the delta in size for top to fit on the bottom. The misfit in this case was fairly gross. So much so that three of us have had to make significant changes to the build of this item. Not to keen on the concept of having to guess which pieces need to be printed at different scales (especially after having to discover the problem at the cost of cardstock & ink).

Not sure how it would be a printer issue either since the same printer was used to print out the entire gas station on the same settings (but then I'm no computer genius either). To try and test out the theory, I printed both the Gold Shield and the Mayhem Pertroleum roof tops on regular paper with the same settings. I overlaid the sheets on a light table (and switched which was on top just to eliminate that question) and sure enough, the Gold Shield roof was slightly larger. Haven't yet tried to build the MP assembly (anyone out there done it?) to see if it fits better but I am thinking there may be a slight scale problem with that one page. I'm definitely not complaining as I love the set (and everything else WWG I've laid my hands on to date) but might suggest someone review the files and adjust if need be for future buyers.
-jynx

Jynx-

One of the problems is that printers do tend to handle the output differently. The same print from one printer can be off as much as 1/8" on a different printer. I've had the same issue with the PCON set where some people have it (a tile for instance) print perfectly square on one printer, but be off on a different manufacturers printer (mine). At least that is what I have been told...

It really is not feasible for them to test on EVERY printer that is out there. I guess all they can do is to test on what they have available.

What printer are you using? I know that my Hp 5510v seems to have this distortion issue with the PCON Tiles. Maye it is the way the rollers move the page...who knows...I don't.

(BTW...welcome to the boards JD and Jynx)

-Pel

Alas, it is impossible to take into account the individual quirks of every printer out there. Someday, perhaps software and hardware engineers will get together with OS proggrammers and develop a standard by which if I make a graphic 7"x7" it will actualy f(*&^#@ print that way for everyone. Dare to dream...

Yeah... I figured yours went well CapnG.
Absolutely counts. Data is data.
What printer do you use, by the way?

Well after reading this post and posting a reply, I myself did some searching into it as well and found that I printed fine on my HP PSC 750 but had issue's on my other one the Brother MFC-5440CN and with the HP Design-jet 130nr C7791D Ink-Jet Large Format Color Printer. So this is a printer issue and not a design flaw. Like CapnG said, it would be very hard to have a perfect print on every printer. I guess it is just an issue that won't be able to be fixed right now.