Architectural symbols chart

[Anonymous]

Has anyone come up with a chart for symbols on different paper sizes.  Symbols like the elevation symbol, detail symbol, etc.  also text heights.  I use 24 x 36 occasionally but I use 11 x 17 on a daily basis. 

[pendean]

chart for symbol sizes? I take it you do NOT draw at 1:1 scale then?

[Anonymous]

I generally draw at 1:1, 6"=1'-0", 1"=1'-0", and a few other's... i'm trying to come up with a standard text height and standard symbol sizes for different drawings at different scales. 

[Charles_Shade]

Annotative Text perhaps?

Annotative Blocks?

Annotative etc...?

And I hope you plot to those scales AFTER drawing at 1:1

[pendean]

You should ONLY draw at 1:1. Never at any other scale, that's what makes CAD different than clunky paper drafting, being able to reuse and change your plot scale at will instantly without the mess of replacing or rescaling anything drawn.

Your text, dimensions, notes, blocks and so on are all at 1:1 (whether you draw text in viewports or over viewports).

You PLOT at 6"=1'-0", 1"=1'-0" and so on by setting up viewports in paperspace.

Annotative features of Text and Dimensions (and blocks) go a long way to resize automatically when you simply change plot scale.

May I ask if you've taken any formal CAD training? It might benefit you immensely if you could spend some time, hands-on style, with a friend or a paid professional to walk you through these rather than remotely like this. Let us know.

[Anonymous]

I always try out hatches, linetypes, text, dimensions and certain symbols (blocks) at 1:1 scale first, in paperspace, and print them out at 1:1 to see if they are to my liking, according to my "practiced eye". An old textbook told me to use 3/32" for a lot of typical text, which I do, but you should realize there may be instances of needing a few more, slightly larger examples in your work. As Dean said, the next step is to make all of these objects annotative. If you really are new at this, I'd advise a structured classroom environment. But as a head's up, read up on the following very important things:

1. Modelspace/Paperspace and Layout Tabs

2. Annotation Objects

3. Cannoscale in Modelspace

4. Layering Standards

5. Linetypes

6. Manipulating Viewports in Paperspace (assigning scales to, rotating views, layer freezing, overrides, and locking)

7. Defining Text Styles first, and Defining Dimension Styles second.

8. External References

That should be enough for starters. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tips!

[Anonymous]

Sorry Dean, I meant I PLOT at those sizes... Everybody knows that I draw at (my desk) lol.  I have to learn how to use the annotative features.  I'm assuming to draw all symbols and dimensions in model space and make them annotative and then they will resize accordingly to my paper space scale size?

[pendean]

Correct, that's the cool thing about Annotative objects/text/dimensions, they do what you describe: the trick becomes understanding 'where' they resize when they do. Practice helps grasp the usefulness and annoyances.

[Charles_Shade]

...and you have to assign the scales. It won't just happen...

I like that part about using and getting used to. Heave done that myself so still find Annotative objects cumbersome. Of course if I was working with regular gait here recently, then; well... who knows.

[Anonymous]

What I found is cool is an annotative dynamic block -- a simple example is to take an annotative block (such as that light switch) and add the alignment parameter in the Block Editor. Did I mention it has editable attributes too? The S can be made any letter (such as D for dimmer), and another is used if I want to indicate 3-way...

I still create it and test it at 1:1 scale first, since that's the "finished" size I want in the legend and across all of the viewport scales. And Chuck I think there's a setting to have AutoCAD add the scales automatically as you change the viewport scale -- I think it also works in modelspace as you change the CANNOSCALE...

OP this may sound obvious, but no need to make a 24x24 ceiling diffuser annotative. You can however, make it dynamic so a lookup chart can be used to select from a list of sizes, and add grips to drag it with, and a rotation parameter so you can just grab it and rotate it by increments instead of using the rotate command, just sayin'...