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Scale and the Metric system

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Message 1 of 12
andyfoley
6314 Views, 11 Replies

Scale and the Metric system

I am a Graduate Student in Lighting Design. I usually work in Imperial. I just received a drawing of a newsroom that is Metric. I need to do a lighting design for the space as a class project. I'm having 2 problems with the drawing.

1) The scale is set at 1:150. This seems like a weird scale to me and when I try to import the drawing into my Lighting Design program (WYSIWYG www.castlighting.com) or into Vectorworks neither has an option for 150. Everything is below 100. So all the blocks that I try to import are set on a scale of 100 or below so nothing is scaled properly. What would the proper scale factor be for 150? Or I can save blocks I need from the program back into dwg files but I don't know how to scale them for 150 either.

2) When I try to measure the drawing everything is shown in ft. I went to Dimension and tried to adjust style but it doesn't seem to work.

This is a complete Architectural drawing of the space. All I really need is some general information of a plan view. Then I do a lighting design by simply throwing a couple lighting fixtures ontop of the drawing.

It comes down to me not using the Metric system and then never seeing a scale of 1:150....is this a normal scale on a drawing?

This is making my head hurt.

Thanks for your help
Andy Foley
11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: andyfoley

1. Change the scale: Zoom 1/???xp 2. On the toolbar - Format>Units> You may end up having to rescale the dwg to use imperial.
Message 3 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: andyfoley

First question, are the lighting drawings you are inserting (importing, downloading) all drawn at a 1=1 scale? Second question, assuming they are drawn full scale, then you need to know what they are considering a unit (centimeter, millimeter, meter)... so what are their units? Third question, if you are drawing in feet & inches (asumming your unit is inches) then you should be able to insert or xref their Metric drawings (or a portion of them) into your Imperial at a scale 1/25.4 (for centimeter to inches conversion) or go directly into their drawing and scale them so they can be inserted 1=1. As far as being able to view them, you can (as Jason has mentioned) use an XP factor within a viewport... but I still think you have the size scale to deal with first. As far as support questions for Vectorworks goes, you might want to see if they have a similar message board or discussion groups... we do Autodesk products here. :-) -- Tracy W. Lincoln Autodesk Discussion Group Facilitator Support: http://support.autodesk.com "AndyFoley" wrote in message news:15493586.1095549167477.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum1.autodesk.com... >I am a Graduate Student in Lighting Design. I usually work in Imperial. I >just received a drawing of a newsroom that is Metric. I need to do a >lighting design for the space as a class project. I'm having 2 problems >with the drawing. > > 1) The scale is set at 1:150. This seems like a weird scale to me and > when I try to import the drawing into my Lighting Design program (WYSIWYG > www.castlighting.com) or into Vectorworks neither has an option for 150. > Everything is below 100. So all the blocks that I try to import are set > on a scale of 100 or below so nothing is scaled properly. What would the > proper scale factor be for 150? Or I can save blocks I need from the > program back into dwg files but I don't know how to scale them for 150 > either. > > 2) When I try to measure the drawing everything is shown in ft. I went to > Dimension and tried to adjust style but it doesn't seem to work. > > This is a complete Architectural drawing of the space. All I really need > is some general information of a plan view. Then I do a lighting design > by simply throwing a couple lighting fixtures ontop of the drawing. > > It comes down to me not using the Metric system and then never seeing a > scale of 1:150....is this a normal scale on a drawing? > > This is making my head hurt. > > Thanks for your help > Andy Foley
Message 4 of 12
andyfoley
in reply to: andyfoley

I don't need to move back to Imperial. I want to stay in Metric. My problem is I want to make sure the symbols I am placing in the drawing are in the proper scale. I don't want to have symbols that are in a 1:100 mm scale in a 1:150mm drawing.

My biggest problem was I have never seen a scale of 1:150 before .

Using the XP factor if I enter a factor of 100 will this then factor the drawing to 1:100 mm? This would be like entering a factor of 48 in imperial for 1/2"?

If I were to export a symbol at 1:15 cm would this be the same scale as 1:150mm?

I really just want to make sure that when I add new items to this drawing they are accurate. Its hard for me to visualize the scale factor in metric. I am used to thinking about things in 1/2" and 1/4".

Thanks for the help.

Andy
Message 5 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: andyfoley

I think you're making it a little more confusing then it needs to be. Everything should be drawn up 1:1 regardless if you're using mm, cm, inches or ft. AutoCAD looks at it as units. It's up to you to decide what the units represent. Scaling only comes into play when your plotting. If the drawing was done in 1 unit = 1 mm and the drawing is 1:1 then you need to draw your symbols and blocks the same and import them with no extra scaling. It'll make your life easier down the road. Hope this helps.
Message 6 of 12
andyfoley
in reply to: andyfoley

Yeah. It just hit me like 20 minutes ago that I'm trying to make it was more difficult then it needs to be. For some reason I was thinking I was going to have to add the symbols in paper space. Why am I not thinking about things in terms of model space. The whole metric system just confused me.

Thanks.




Re: Scale and the Metric system
I think you're making it a little more confusing then it needs to be.
Everything should be drawn up 1:1 regardless if you're using mm, cm, inches
or ft. AutoCAD looks at it as units. It's up to you to decide what the units
represent. Scaling only comes into play when your plotting. If the drawing
was done in 1 unit = 1 mm and the drawing is 1:1 then you need to draw your
symbols and blocks the same and import them with no extra scaling. It'll
make your life easier down the road. Hope this helps.
Message 7 of 12
Alison Morrison
in reply to: andyfoley

Andy,
Glad you sorted it out. We use metric in the UK and I'd normally expect everything to be drawn 1:1 in model space, usually 1mm = 1 unit (for architectural work anyway).

To answer your other question about standard scales, 1:150 is not a scale I have seen used before. The most commonly used metric scales are:

1:1 1:2 1:5 1:10 1:20 1:50 1:100 1:200 1:500 ...

The only variations from this that I have seen are where they would be half or quarter the standard scale values (like 1:250, or 1:125) but 1:150 bears no relation to any of these - so I'd say just it's a random value.
Message 8 of 12
old-cadaver
in reply to: andyfoley

In the Far East and Asia I've also seen 1:25

In the Mideast, I've also seen 1:25 and 1:33 1/3
Message 9 of 12
Anonymous
in reply to: andyfoley

It's not uncommon for us to use 1:15, 1:20, 1:30, 1:40, 1:50, 1:60, 1:80, 1:100, 1:150, 1:200, 1:300, etc... & some of our old drawing that were done by hand are 1:25. 1:150 is a multiple of 1:30 (think engineering & surveying using decimal feet). On the other hand I've never heard of a floor plan done to that scale.
Message 10 of 12
chrisb
in reply to: andyfoley

Yeah, yeah. And on Neptune, I've seen .12%^&+ : 0.0@(*^.
So you think YOU get around? 😉 😉
Message 11 of 12
madcadd
in reply to: andyfoley

Hi Andy,

Jason Rhymes replied;

Scaling only comes into play when your plotting.<<

OR...when you are changing the units from anything to anything else!!!

Tracy W. Lincoln replied;

you should be able to insert or xref their Metric drawings (or a portion of them) into your Imperial at a scale 1/25.4 (for centimeter to inches conversion)<<

Correction: That would be for mm to in conversion or 1/2.54 for cm to in conversion. keeping whole numbers in mind (for AutoCAD's sake), 10/254 = mm or 100/254 - cm.

The key is to ascertain if their drawing was drawn at full scale (as it most certainly should be) and what unit it was drawn in. Without this knowledge, how can you proceed?

And if after this your Lighting Design program will not accept a scale of 1:150, you must re-scale their drawing into units that your program will work in. GL
Message 12 of 12
teiarch
in reply to: andyfoley

OLD-CAD: I've got a triangular metric scale somewhere in my museum of penciil and paper drafting artifacts that has 1:33 1/3 on it. Thought this was odd because it gets you way out of the concept of mutiple scales being divisible by whole numbers. Something to use to fit the drawing on a sheet, I suppose....

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