1:50 vs 1"=50'

[danashbaugh]

We normally create drawings in decimal, but had an intern create a drawing and he had it set to engineering, so everything was in feet and inches. When he went to create a viewport he selected 1"=50', but what he is seeing is 1"=50". Is there a setting or something so he can make the base unit be a foot instead of an inch? I don't want to create scale lists that are 1"=50' and make the ratio 1:600,  but that was all I could think of.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[doni49]

I think you're asking for trouble if you don't stop and take the time to actually fix the drawing so that the data is correct because until you do, everything you expect to be 1 ft is actually 1 inch.  If you ever attempt to use this drawing with another one, MAJOR HEADACHES!

Sure it may be painful.  But (and I mean this as constructive criticism to try an help avoid future problems not anything mean) that's the price you pay for having an intern do the work without more supervision.  If he's an intern, he shouldn't have been allowed to get it this far without someone checking him.

P.S. what you're asking for is a way to basically mask the mistake so that it won't be so obvious on the face. 

[danashbaugh]

So if it were important, I would just change the units to decimal, rescale the drawing, and be done. But trying to teach him about the world, and can't for the life of me figure out what AutoCAD did.

He used the typical autocad drawing with units in engineering and the scale list proclaiming that 1"=50'. Autocad seems to know what an inch and a foot is in the drawing, so how do we set up a viewport where 1" does equal 50'. Like I said, I am used to setting my CAD unit to feet, and then using 1 paperspace inch = 50 autocad units. for 1"=50'. If I change my units to engineering, where an autocad unit is an inch, what is the proper way to set it up so that 1 paperspace inch = 50' (600 autocad units)?

Again, if this were important, we would just change him to our way, but figure I might as well teach about all the weirdness in the program before he goes back to school where everything makes sense.

[doni49]

ok.  Since you're talking about a profile, I assume that you've got an alignment.  When you measure the distance between 0+00 and 1+00, what distance do you get?  If it tells you 100 ft, then it's not as bad as I thought.  If it tells you 100 inches (or 8.333 ft) then I go back to my previous statement.

P.S.

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@Anonymous wrote:

So if it were important, I would just change the units to decimal, rescale the drawing, and be done. But trying to teach him about the world, and can't for the life of me figure out what AutoCAD did.

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I think teaching him to do it right IS teaching him an important part of "teaching him about the world" -- otherwise you're perpetuating what's wrong in this world.

[danashbaugh]

If I go to paperspace, annotate, measure the line, I get 100'. The problem is that when the paperspace is set up to 1"=50', the printed line is 24" long instead of 2" long. I am curious of the best way to use engineering units, where a unit is an inch, with viewports.

Is there an autodesk scale list that will set up 1:600 as 1"=50'. Because right now, with the drawings set to engineering units and the viewport set to 1"=50', the drawing is actually printing out 1"=4.16667' Is the best way to use engineering units with 1"=50' type scales to set up a new scale list? Just use architectural scale list?

[doni49]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I go to paperspace, annotate, measure the line, I get 100'. The problem is that when the paperspace is set up to 1"=50', the printed line is 24" long instead of 2" long. I am curious of the best way to use engineering units, where a unit is an inch, with viewports.

Is there an autodesk scale list that will set up 1:600 as 1"=50'. Because right now, with the drawings set to engineering units and the viewport set to 1"=50', the drawing is actually printing out 1"=4.16667' Is the best way to use engineering units with 1"=50' type scales to set up a new scale list? Just use architectural scale list?

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All that you've just said indicates that the actual data is set so that 1+00 is 100 INCHES from 0+00.  I say again that you're asking for a way to mask the mistake and if you go that route, I foresee nothing but problems.

If you post your dwg file, I'll take a look and see what I can find.

[Jay_B · Accepted solution]

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dash wrote:

He used the typical autocad drawing with units in engineering and the scale list proclaiming that 1"=50'. Autocad seems to know what an inch and a foot is in the drawing, so how do we set up a viewport where 1" does equal 50'.

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Is the dwg in question a vanilla cad dwg?

If so enter -dwgunits @ command line (note the dash) and plain autocad will tell you what the actual dwg units are in his dwg. 

In C3d simply check it by going to Edit Drawing Settings > Units & Zone tab > Drawing Units > if it states inches the dwg was created in Acad using inches.

[danashbaugh]

I figured it out. The drawing was set to engineering, with the insertion scale set to feet instead of inches. Somehow this was causing the viewports to scale everything down by 12.

[doni49]

That's good to hear.  Thanks for letting us know.