GOT CONFUSED ON SCALES

[wizengr]

I get confused on the differences (or similarities) between

1. The Drawing scale on the Unit and Zone Tab of the Drawing Settings dialog box
2. The Viewport Scale on the paperspace (Layout Tab)
3. The plot scale in the Page Setup or Plot dialog box.

How do they work together? What is the effect of each on a plotted Plan Sheet?

[mathewkol]

1. The Drawing scale on the Unit and Zone Tab of the Drawing Settings dialog box
   No effect on plotting.  It doesn't matter at all what this is set to in model space when viewed in a paper space viewport.
2. The Viewport Scale on the paperspace (Layout Tab)
   Viewport scale affects the scale of the model being plotted in the sheet, so, big effect during plotting.
3. The plot scale in the Page Setup or Plot dialog box.
   This affects the overall scale of the plot, so, big effect.  Your plot scale MUST be 1 unit = 1 unit if you want C3D labels to be the correct height on paper.

How do they work together? What is the effect of each on a plotted Plan Sheet?

[wfberry]

One thing to point out on Matt's answer to No. 1.  You may find it usefull to have your model space scale the same as your viewport scale if only to view how the label sizes will appear if you are working in Model Space.

Bill

[Neilw_05 · Accepted solution]

I'll add a few thoughts that might clarify some things for you,

The drawing scale in the drawing settings dialog affects the height of text, the size of dimensions, the display of linestyles (the length of the gaps and dashes), the size of symbols and other elements in model space. It is the same setting that you apply from the tool bar when working in model space so you don't need to go to the drawing settings to change it. This setting sets the default annotation scale when you create annotative objects. If you change the drawing scale all your annotative objects will resize accordingly in MODEL space (it does NOT affect their display in paper space). This can be useful when doing your design work to aid in making everything readable while you work. However you may need to plot your model at different scales.

Consider a map of a large area. You may need to show the entire site in a vicinity map and also enlargements of various portions for more detail. To do that you will need to use paper space so you can create viewports at varying plotted scales. So when in paper space you decide on the plot size for sheet (i.e. 22x34). Before you start laying out your sheet in paper space you will want to limit the extents of your workspace to the size of the sheet. This is where the page setup settings apply. When you apply a sheet size of 22x34, Autocad reads the printer driver limits for that size of sheet and displays those limits in paper space (if you tell it to in the Plotting options). As you note, there is also a scale setting in the page setup manager. The scale setting allows you to change the plot scale of your sheet. Typically you will plot your sheet at full size (1:1) but what if you wanted to print your 22x34 sheet layout to an 11x17 sheet for a quick review? In that case you can apply a scale of 1/2 (1:2). Then when you print your map it will come out of the printer at half size. So this scale setting simply enlarges or reduces the size of your entire sheet at plot time. It does NOT cause the annotation of your map to increase or decrease to compensate. If you plot your sheet at half scale, all your text will be half as high on the plotted sheet.

Now for the viewports on your sheet. For your vicinity map you will create a viewport to show the entire site. Assume that it will fit the viewport when scaled to 1"=100'. Now you want the labels on your map to be readable at 1"=100'. How do you do that? Each viewport has it's own viewport scale. When you set the scale for your viewport to 1"=100' all the annotative objects scale to suit the plotted scale for that viewport. Thus if your text height is set to plot at 0.1 inches high, it will be scaled up to a height of 10 units for that viewport. The same will apply to the enlargements. You can create any number of viewports on your sheet, each with a different plot scale and the annotative objects will be resized to maintain the plotted height (i.e. 0.1").

Now what about the annotation you put in your sheet that is not in a viewport? That is also controlled by the Paper space scale. If no viewport is selected the paperspace scale is applied to all annotation in paper space. Thus if you want to place text on your sheet in paper space you would set the paper space scale to 1:1 and draw your text at true size (no scaling applied).

So the bottom line, drawing scale affects all the annotative elements when working in model space. Plot scale affects the plotted size of the sheet, and paper space scale controls annotative elements in paper space and can be applied independently to each viewport.

HTH

[rileyjr2005]

I am new to this forum, but i have a question on this. I have a file that i'm trying to scale to a pdf. I go to layout, change my paper size and then change my drawing to the correct scale, but am not having no luck. I did this on the drawing before and it went perfect. On this drawing, it is showing i need to go to a much larger scale to make it look right.

Any suggestions?

[Neilw_05]

You will need to provide more info. What do you mean you are having no luck?

A screen capture might help.

[rileyjr2005]

I was sent a drawing by an architect and what i need to do is make sure the scale is correct. When the drawing is open, i change it to layout, go to page setup manager, change the paper size to what i need(30"X 42"), and then change my drawing to 1/8" scale and it is showing my drawing a lot smaller than it needs to be.

I did this to a different drawing and it worked just right.

Have you had a problem like this before?

[Neilw_05]

I'm still not clear on what you are seeing but I'll venture a guess. In the page setup, what is the extent of the output? Is it set to Layout or is it set to Extents? Try setting it to Extents. Also compare your page settings with the drawings that behave properly and note any differences.

[wizengr]

If I understand your question well. Drawing Scale is set in the Settings tab of Toolspace or at the right hand side corner of the Modelspace bottom status bar. You set the paperspace scale in the Layout Tab for the size of the paper you want to plot.

[neilyj666]

In my experience architects work in their own peculiar world of mm rather than m, may be worth checking this for your particular units?

[rileyjr2005]

First of all, thanks to all of you for your help.

Second, most architects are different characters. He sent me 2 drawings. The first one i could scale just fine, but the second one is totally different, but the page sizes didn't change. My best option is to get with him on this.

Thanks again.