Annotation scale/viewport scale/plot scale in C3D and regular AutoCAD,

[JamaL9722060]

Annotation scale/viewport scale/plot scale in C3D and regular AutoCAD,

I’m not sure if the regular AutoCAD and AutoCAD C3D have the same behavior concerning the Annotation scale/viewport scale/plot.

I tried to plot my drawing (attached) in the C3D with scale of 1/1000, 1/2500 & 1/5000 in the same A4 paper as I did the regular AutoCAD (attached).

I couldn’t know at which Annotation scale/viewport scale/plot scale this drawing can be produced in the C3D? why what works in the AutoCAD doesn’t work in the C3D?

Thank you

Best

Jamal

[tcorey]

AutoCAD Civil 3D supports custom-programmed objects like Surfaces, Alignments and Corridors. AutoCAD does not have the special programming to understand these objects, hence the lack of label support.

You should download AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Object Enabler and install it on any system that includes plain AutoCAD. This will incorporate into AutoCAD special programming that understands Civil 3D's custom objects.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=19052749&linkID=9240618

Tim

[JamaL9722060]

Thank you for the help tcorey,

My issue here is just to be able to print the same drawing (while working in the C3D) in different scales on the same A4 paper. Is that possible in the C3D. I’m not talking here about the contents of the drawing.

In the regular AutoCAD, printing same drawing with different scales in the same paper (A4) is quite simple, why it is complicated in the C3D?

My problem here is that the C3D is not able to print the same drawing in different scales in the same sheet but not the other way around (regular AutoCAD is able to do this)

Please, have a look on my attachment in my previous post

Best

Jamal

[tcorey]

It sounds like you want the Civil 3D labels to be smaller in a smaller scale viewport? Not gonna happen. Civil 3D labels automatically scale to match the viewport zoom scale. Nothing you can do about it except explode the labeling.

[JamaL9722060]

Please, have a look on the attached screenshot. Is this where one can change the size of the default point? But it is not correlated to a particular annotation scale!

In the AutoCAD (attached), the “paper text height”, for example, is associated with a particular annotation scale and thus it gets bigger and smaller (based on that value) as the annotation scale chnages.

How about the “paper size” of the annotation objects in the C3D? how might they be controlled?

Best

Jamal

[andrewpuller3811]

These settings work for me, on my machine.

Marker
    Leader stops at marker    Yes
    Marker Rotation Angle    000.0000 (d)
    PDMODE    3
    Point Marker Size    0.002
    Point Marker Size Type    Use drawing scale
    Point Marker Type    Use custom marker
    Point Marker Fixed Scale    (1.0000m,1.0000m,1.0000m)
    Orientation Reference    World Coordinate System
    Marker Block   

The custom marker is only the X chosen on the Marker tab of the point style.

If I view some points through a viewport, do a regen to make sure the points are redrawn at the viewport scale, then zoom in or out, then regen, the point markers appear the same no matter the viewport scale chosen.

[AllenJessup]

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@JamaL9722060 wrote:

 why what works in the AutoCAD doesn’t work in the C3D?

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That's a good question. The only answer is that it just DOESN'T! You have to accept that to work in Civil 3D. Cifil 3D isn't the type of program that you can just open ocasionaly and plot or edit a few things. It's very powerful which means it's horendosly complicated.

Try following the advice Andrew Puller gave. My setup is shown below. I also have a style of Basic 0.5 that shows the marker at half the normal height.

[tcorey]

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@JamaL9722060 wrote:

Please, have a look on the attached screenshot. Is this where one can change the size of the default point? But it is not correlated to a particular annotation scale!

---

Hi Jamal,

Yes, that's where you set the value and yes, if you pick Use Drawing Scale, the points will automatically scale when you change the Annotation Scale. You might have to RegenAll.

I see you have a size of 0.001. Is that a thousandth of a millimeter? Sorry, provincial American here ;--)  If so, your points probably are re-scalling, but you can't see it because they are so small. Try starting with a height value of 1. (I hope that's not meters!)

Best regards,

Tim

[troma]

To reemphasise what others have said, C3D objects use the 'Viewport Scale', not the 'Annotation Scale' to set the size they will be seen at in the viewport.  This is annoying in my opinion, but this is the way it is.

One workaround I often use is to scale up the paper and then scale down the plot.  

If you want a 1:5000 plot to look like 1:1000 annotation, scale everything in paperspace by 5.  Put the viewport at 1:1000.  Then plot at 0.2 size in the plotter settings box.  The effect is the viewport scale is 1:1000 but the scale on paper is 1:5000

[JamaL9722060]

Thank you very much guys for the input. Your comments are valuable.

1. I feel that my question is still unanswered! What I need is to have my drawing printed with three scales (1/1000, 1/2500, 1/5000) in the same A4 and to have the size of point and size of text proportionally re-sized accordingly

1. Attached how the drawing looks like on the AutoCAD

1. Attached how the drawing looks like in C3D

Till now I couldn’t derive the equation that correlates Annotation scale & viewport scale & plot scale such that at the end of the day we can print the drawing the scale we need with PROPER text and point size!

Best

Jamal

[andrewpuller3811]

Ok, that makes a bit clearer as to what you want. It seemed from you previous questions that you want the point symbols and contour labels to stay the same size relative to the paper size no matter what the viewport scale is, which is the normal behaviour of civil 3d objects.

To get your point symbols to stay the same size in relation to the model, set the point symbol size to "Use fixed scale" or "Use size in absolute units".

Your contour labels are a different story.

You will need to create an express for the text height to counter the scaling that civil 3d does automatically.

 Create an expression that has you text height divided by the variable {drawing scale conversion}

I have attached a modified versio of your file with a copied style and expression that causes the contour label to stay the same height relative to model space no matter the viewport scale.