AutoCAD 2010/2011/2012 DWG Format

[#1]

Sorry if this has been asked before but I'm really stuck

I have made a landscape model in meters as units in the modeling area. Now, when I want to scale the drawing in the paper layouts, within the viewport, it seems to me like it's scaling as if the drawing was done with millimeters as units.

I think this might have been caused by me starting to draw, thinking I was plotting in with meters as the unit, but then found that it was set as millimeters. I changed the unit setting for the model to meters and that seemed to work fine. But I'm guessing it didn't work.

I have tried using the INSUNIT command and it says the drawing is in 6, which is meters, so why is it scaling as if it was in millimeters on an A3 layout?

[#2]

Adding some screengrabs

This is supposed to be an about 53m by 53m area

[#3]

PernicketyPern, if you drawn in meters, and then you go to the layout, in a A3 (420mmx207mm) and for example you want a drawing at scale 1 to 200 (one millimeter worth 200 times more) therefore, five millimeters in layout are equivalent to one meter. So, active the viewport by double-clicking inside it, command "Zoom" enter a scale factor, enteing nX, then 5 in this case will be five, because five millimeters will be one unit (meter).

hope that helps

Henrique

[#4]

Another cause might be the title-sheet itself.  Check the dimensions of the sheet.  I have had coworkers insert their title-sheet while the units were set to metres instead of millimetres.

[#5]

Thank you so much for answering

I asked somone else and he seems to have solved the problem which I'm going to post for anyone with the same problem:

To solve it so that I could set a scale to the viewport in the paparlayout:

1. opened your dwg and found out that 1=1metre

2. scaled drawing 1000 times using scale tool with a factor of 1000 - drawing is now in mm

3. on a new page layout I set the the printer dwg-pdf printer and set page size correct to A3

4. used the MV command to make anew viewport, went into modelspace (MS command or button at bottom of screen) and scaled the dwg using z > return key > 1/250xp > return

After stage 2 I also set the units to be in millemetsers manually in the main dropdown menu of the program.
This seems, fingers crossed, to have solved the problem.

[#6]

Typically, site plan [& profile] drawings are meant to stay at 1 unit = 1 metre. While your method of scaling the drawing 1000x worked, this will cause conflicts when receiving survey data from surveyors as well as cause conflicts if using Civil 3D (I'm aware you may not be using either, but scaling site plans 1000x is still bad practice)

To get the site plan [metres] to scale properly in a viewport  on a Layout title-sheet [millimetres], you enter a Zoom Scaling factor such as: 1000/500xp  (aka 2xp) and the viewport will have a hard-copy plotted scale of 1:500.

Traditionally, metric details are drawn at 1 unit = 1 millimetre, and the scale factors range from 1:1 up to 1:200 (where you can input a Zoom Scaling factor of 1/1xp 1/10xp up to 1/200xp).  But as I said before, site plans are drawn at 1 unit = 1 metre, and their scale factors usually start at 1:250 and go up from there (where the you can input a Zoom Scaling factor of 1000/250xp, 1000/500xp, etc)

[#7]

Thank you, I do see your point and it's good to know for me and other people who come across the same problem.
This is very helpful and I will use it for another time.

Thank you again, taking time to answer and help a novice like me is very much appreciated.

[#8]

Glad I could help in some way!

[#9]

Hi,

another option to put in the scalefactors could be to rename the predefined scalings.

If you have a scale named "1:1" (estimating you have a millimeter drawing) just rename it to "1:1000" and do that for the other scales too. Then create a new drawing with that scales that is your new template + within the _OPTIONS (tab "User Preferences") you can set your scales for metric (and imperial, of course) to be default when you do a _-SCALELISTEDIT ==> option _RESET. Once you defined that you can reset it on all your drawings.

HTH, - alfred -