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Plotting Metric scales in AutoCAD

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Message 1 of 10
AllenJessup
11778 Views, 9 Replies

Plotting Metric scales in AutoCAD

One of our Engineers wanted to draw some typical sections. He's not very experienced with CAD so I set him up to open AutoCAD. He wanted a specific border and to plot at an non-OOTB scale. I set up a layout on my machine and saved it as a template. (I'll add it to the default template once the bugs are out). I started with a metric template and added the layout and created the scale, 1:75.

 

eds.PNG

 

When I edit the scales my 1:75 shows "1 paper Millimeter = 0.075 drawing Meters". Now I had him create a layout from my template. When he sets the 1:75 it is way off. In Editscalelist it shows "1 paper unit = 0.075 drawing units. In my template it shows a Custom Scale as 13.333 in his drawing it shows as 0.0133. Three orders of magnitude makes it obvious that his drawing units are millimeter. I don't seem to remember how to change that in AutoCAD.

 

I had thought that if I opened it in Civil 3D and set that up properly It would solve the problem but no. When he goes to lunch I'm going to try inserting his drawing in our metric template. His drawing was started by a consultant supposedly using out template but who knows. I know it was an old template because we had other problems.

 

If he creates a layout from my template and doesn't change the scale on the viewport. He gets a plot at the correct 1:75. So he can work for now. I just want to clear this up so he can use the templates in the future. We haven't been creating too many new drawings lately. But I haven't had anyone else mention this problem.

 

Basic question is can I get AutoCAD to recognize Meters as the ModelSpace unit for plotting?.

 

Allen Jessup

Civil 3D IDSP 2014
Dell Precision T3610, Xeon CPU 3.70 GHz
Win 7 Pro, 64-bit,32 GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro K4000
Samsung SSD 512GB
HGST (WD) 512GB drive



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

9 REPLIES 9
Message 2 of 10
Jay_B
in reply to: AllenJessup


AllenJessup wrote:

Basic question is can I get AutoCAD to recognize Meters as the ModelSpace unit for plotting?.



Try the -DWGUNITS command, note the dash.

C3D 2018.1
C3D 2016 SP4

Win 7 Professional 64 Bit
Message 3 of 10
AllenJessup
in reply to: Jay_B


Jay_B wrote:


Try the -DWGUNITS command, note the dash.


Good though. I changed to Meters but it doesn't seem to affect the plot scale. Strange thing was that it was originally set to feet but the ratio wasn't one for feet.

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 4 of 10
rl_jackson
in reply to: AllenJessup

I not so sure that you can just modify your template and make everything meters. I would think you would need to start from a OOTB NCS-Metric Template. I just tried using the OOTB on my 13 install and it appears to be corrupt. I can't set units or zone in drawing settings. within tool space.

 

I think this may have something to do with not starting C3D with the Metric Shortcut


Rick Jackson
Survey CAD Technician VI

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Message 5 of 10
jmayo-EE
in reply to: rl_jackson

I also recall having a tough time trying to get a metric dwg from the imperial install/icon. It was a few years ago but I did not get any conversions to work without using the metric install for metric dwg's.

John Mayo

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Message 6 of 10
AllenJessup
in reply to: rl_jackson


@Anonymous wrote:

I not so sure that you can just modify your template and make everything meters. I would think you would need to start from a OOTB NCS-Metric Template. I just tried using the OOTB on my 13 install and it appears to be corrupt. I can't set units or zone in drawing settings. within tool space.

 

I think this may have something to do with not starting C3D with the Metric Shortcut


No. You can't JUST modify the template. It's doable. I've done it! Don't want to do it again!! Unless the money is right of course. Smiley Wink

 

I wasn't altering an imperial template. I started from a metric template and created a layout. The drawing the layout was pulled in to was an AutoCAD drawing being worked on in AutoCAD from IDSP 2014. The Engineer was trying to edit a Typ. Section drawing created by a Consultant.

 

I'm going to dump that drawing in to our Metric template and see if that helps. I was just trying to keep him out of Civil 3D.

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 7 of 10
neilyj666
in reply to: AllenJessup

Metric......in the U.S....!?!?!?!?

neilyj (No connection with Autodesk other than using the products in the real world)
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Message 8 of 10
AllenJessup
in reply to: neilyj666

Yes. A leftover from the ill-fated attempt by the NYS DOT to go to all metric. They've since gone back to imperial.

 

This is one of the Crazy Making jobs. It keeps being delayed, pushed back, unfunded, re-funded. It started in the 1990's in imperial using Softdesk, then it was translated to Metric in LDT, then to Civil 3D. It was just pushed off another year last week. If we don't get it done soon we'll have to translate it back to Imperial. Smiley Sad

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 9 of 10
AllenJessup
in reply to: jmayo-EE

I changed the page setup in the problem drawing so the plotting scale is 1 to 1000 instead of 1 to 1. That at least makes the Custom scale the same as the other metric drawing.

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 10 of 10
AllenJessup
in reply to: AllenJessup

OK. I finally had time to sit down this morning and do what I knew needed to be done. I fixed up a metric template for 2014. I had started this but since we don't start metric projects anymore I never gave it priority.

 

Once that was done I started a new drawing from that template, wblocked out everything from the problem drawing and inserted it in the new drawing. Now the scaling and plotting works fine from my computer. I still have to test it on the other Engineer's computer with his profile. But I think it will work. I'll post when I'm sure.

 

The only problem I ran in to was that when the Layouts came in the scales associated with them were renamed 1:1_1, 1:50_1, 1:75_1, etc in addition to the existing ones from the template. I couldn't delete some of them from the Scale List until I realized that you can't delete a scale that's assigned to a Viewport. I fixed the viewports. Now it's good.

 

I had to relearn some things that I hadn't had to deal with in years. The most important thing is to NEVER for ANY reason let ANYONE start from ANY drawing that hasn't been inserted in the current valid template.

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

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