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scale bar woes

11 REPLIES 11
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Message 1 of 12
autoMick
1008 Views, 11 Replies

scale bar woes

Is it just me? A search of the internet doesn't seem to indicate it's a widespread issue, but I still can't get it sorted out.

 

All I want to do is to add a reasonable scale bar to a layout and plot to PNG.

 

I've attached a simple drawing, containing a rectangle 100m long.

The coordinate system is set and the dwgunits are metres.

In the layout I've set it to plot to a 1600 pixel wide PNG

 

Either the native scale bar tool doesn't work properly or I'm not understanding scales or (most probably) both.

 

What is the proper procedure I need to follow to set up my drawing/annotation/layout scales and how do I use this information to properly configure the native layout scale bar?

 

Thanks

 

- Mick

 

Civil3d user in Australia since 2012.
11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: autoMick

Hi,

 

>> The coordinate system is set and the dwgunits are metres.

>> In the layout I've set it to plot to a 1600 pixel wide PNG

It is not defined (definable) how many pixel are plotted within one Millimeter ... and that's the reason why plot-scaling (or viewport-scaling or any xxx-scaling) can not work.

When you output something to 1600pixel that can be plotted to 5mm or to 50mm, it's not under control of AutoCAD.

 

When you have plot-units set to Millimeter then AutoCAD can handle the calculation from model-units ==> scale ==> plot units.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 3 of 12
autoMick
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA

Hi Alfred, that makes sense - although I'm not sure what the solution is? How is it possible to set plot units for a PNG? Is this even what I need to do?

 

The picture below is of a layout/scale bar that works just fine for printing to pdf or physical media. I just want to be able to setup a scale bar that will also work for plotting to PNG. What's the solution?

 

Thanks

 

- Mick

 

Capture.PNG

Civil3d user in Australia since 2012.
Message 4 of 12
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: autoMick

Hi,

 

I guess the easiest solution is to open the PDF and convert it to a PNG.

 

HTH, - alfred -

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 5 of 12
autoMick
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA

That's my current work around - but surely there is a direct/proper way to do this?

Thanks

- Mick

Civil3d user in Australia since 2012.
Message 6 of 12
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: autoMick

Hi,

 

I don't see so many alternatives as long as you are using values depending on plot-scale(s).

 

What you might do: install PDFCreator (>>>from here<<<), then you can create a page-setup for PDFCreator and within the options of PDFCreator you can change from PDF output to PNG output (without changing then the layout in AutoCAD)

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 7 of 12
kcobabe
in reply to: autoMick

In order to answer this correctly you will need to decide what resolution you want to print this at.  Typically it's 600dpi for good detail 300dpi for okay and 150dpi for I just want a print.

 

Next you need the size of the print as if you were going to print it.

 

After that you can either figure it out with a forumla or take the lazy way out and use a online calculator to figure out what your pixel dimensions need to be.  Here's one that I use:  http://www.pixelcalculator.com/

 

Now all you need to do is create a custom size that works based on the output.  When you print a scale to fit may work, but to be correct I would use 1:1 since your layout should be 1:1 anyway.

 

I do this for digital PE seals all the time.  In my state the seals must be 2"x2" so all of my engineers I have stamps in JPEG that measure to exactly that when printed to 600dpi.


R10 - 2020 ACAD
2008 - 2020 Civil 3D
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Message 8 of 12
autoMick
in reply to: kcobabe

OK - so a typical situation where I would want the PNG version is to insert in a word document. The margin width would be typically 6" and 300dpi would be ideal: so 1800 pixels wide and lets say 1500 pixels deep. In the pick you can see I've set up a custom paper size called MS Word with these dimensions
I'm interested in your comment about layout being 1:1, would you be able to explain how you set up all your scales. Is your model at 1:1 or scaled? I don't fully understanding all the scaling options - so need a bit of help here.
Thanks
- Mick

Capture.PNG

Civil3d user in Australia since 2012.
Message 9 of 12
kcobabe
in reply to: autoMick

If you are inserting it into a word doc the scale issue would almost be moot anyway.

 

However, should that be the case, just let the Word image editing tools handle it.  Obviously whatever percentage you reduce it by will be the reflected scale anyway.


R10 - 2020 ACAD
2008 - 2020 Civil 3D
2014 - 2020 Plant 3D
2014 - 2020 Revit
V8i - V8i SS4 Microstation
Infraworks
2018-2020 Inventor
2020 Navisworks
Message 10 of 12
autoMick
in reply to: kcobabe

OK, yes granted that word will scale it anyway, which is why the whole process should be so simple. It's not the drawing dimensions that I'm having trouble with it is creating a suitable scale bar.

A typical situation where I would want the PNG version is to insert in a word document. The margin width would be typically 6" and 300dpi would be ideal: so 1800 pixels wide and lets say 1500 pixels deep. In the picture you can see I've set up a custom paper size called MS Word with these dimensions
I'm interested in your comment about layout being 1:1, would you be able to explain how you set up all your scales. Is your model at 1:1 or scaled? I don't fully understanding all the scaling options - so need a bit of help here. My drawing units are in metres. In the previous file I posted, I had a layout window that I wanted to be approximately 150m wide in real world dimensions, so to fit that into 1800 pixels the scale I guess should be 12 pixels = 1m? What settings do I use on the scale bar to make it work?
Thanks
- Mick

Capture.PNG

Capture2.PNG

Civil3d user in Australia since 2012.
Message 11 of 12
kcobabe
in reply to: autoMick

Conversion:

conversion.png

 

Sheet Setup:

image size.png

 

DPI scale:

dpi.png

 

Final product is an Image that will print 2"x2" at 300dpi

final.jpg

 

Should you need to use a different scale, for a different size just do what is above.  Other than that you should just let the program you are inserting it to handle the scaling.  Should you absolutley have to change it in cad just apply what ever your percentage is going to be to the scaling.  Example you want a 50% = 300 X .5 = 150.  I get this:

 

50%.jpg

 


R10 - 2020 ACAD
2008 - 2020 Civil 3D
2014 - 2020 Plant 3D
2014 - 2020 Revit
V8i - V8i SS4 Microstation
Infraworks
2018-2020 Inventor
2020 Navisworks
Message 12 of 12
autoMick
in reply to: kcobabe

Thanks for that detail kcobabe. I think I'm OK with that side of things now, but I still haven't resolved the scale bar side of things. Even though I can get my drawing to be plotted at the right resolution/size, getting a scalebar to work seems impossible. Does anyone out there use the native scalebar tool with their layouts AND plot to PNG/TIFF etc.
Thanks
- Mick
Civil3d user in Australia since 2012.

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