Community
AutoCAD LT Forum
Welcome to Autodesk’s AutoCAD LT Forums. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular AutoCAD LT topics.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Scaling/Plotting & LISP

10 REPLIES 10
Reply
Message 1 of 11
myank
999 Views, 10 Replies

Scaling/Plotting & LISP

I draw mortgage surveys for surveyors using AutoCad LT 2000.

It sometimes becomes necessary to scale the linework of the boundary and buildings down to

fit a specific template or border. Normally we use 11" x 17" or 18" x 24" in portrait or landscape.

One client had someone write a LISP routine for his full version AutoCad which automates

in some way scaling issues. Fair enough; when I recently sent him a drawing which I "manually"

changed from 20 scale to 40 by using a scale factor of .5 he says the resulting plot is out of scale when he opens it/attempts a plot in his AutoCad. Part of his template (supplied to me) is a North arrow with a scale label/text line and a graphic scale grid bar. I changed these for the drawing referenced above using the ATTEDIT command. When I asked him if these if these entities are what the LISP routine uses as either data or a trigger I could not get a clear answer.

Bottom Line: I have plotted this drawing and used an engineer scale to check the dimens.

On the Money. Has anyone encountered anything similar? Should I send him drawings in these cases where the scale is not 20 in my own template? Would one need a full version AutoCad to see or review the LISP? Plot 1:1?

Any help appreciated as I have no way of knowing what this person who wrote the LISP has done

and I need to continue working for this client without this aggravation.

10 REPLIES 10
Message 2 of 11
heinsite
in reply to: myank

Are you still doing your plotting from Model space?  If so you could avoid all these issues by drawing everything full scale and plotting from a scaled viewport in Paper space.  Original linework really should never need to be rescaled just to fit a plot template.

 

Dave.

------------------------------------------------------
Dave Hein, P.E.
Message 3 of 11
myank
in reply to: myank

Dave

Thanks for reply to admittedly somewhat vague post/question

Yes, I am still plotting from Model space

More or less self-taught

In the case where the linework has to be scaled down to fit an existing template,

how do you get the linework into the border so that you have a "finished" product

which is visually & verifiably correct in terms of spacing vs. other elements of a drawing

(legal description, notes, legend, etc.) to then take through the process of scaling a viewport?

Scale the template up, then insert linework, then scale viewport in Paper Space, then plot?

If this is the case, seems convoluted as opposed to doing one scale command,drag into border & plot.

In my existing scheme of things, if client needs digital version (for instance) an engineer who needs to click

lines or use Dist command, a separate drawing is produced @ 20 scale.

Message 4 of 11
heinsite
in reply to: myank

Your question really boils down to learning how to use the new system of Layouts and paper space versus plotting from the model.  It's worth studying and learning because it really does make things easier.  Here is the basic idea, not meant as a full instructional because we'll probably fill it in more as you grasp the idea and others chime in:

 

All linework in the model should be drawn full scale in the units you normall use in feet / meters/ architectural / parsecs / whatever.  Annotations can be done either in the model itself or later in paper space (on the Layout tab(s)... there are two schools of thought on this.  Personally I'll annotate some things in the model and other things exclusively in the layout.  This gets into annotative scaling which might be a bit much right now.

 

The Layout is used as a "view" into your model.  You create viewports (VPORTS) in the layout to display the model.  The beauty of this is that the viewports can be scaled to see all or parts of the model.  Multiple viewports can be placed on a layout using different scales.

 

Time for a quick example.  Start a NEW drawing.  Use the acad or acadlt.dwt as your template to start.

 

1)  Click the Layout1 tab and Ctrl-A select everything and delete it. 

 

2)  Draw a property line in the model.  Make it big (!)... something like about 1,500' wide from east to west and 850' or so from north to south.  The shape doesn't matter, but make it irregular. 

 

3)  Go to the Layout1 tab again.  To show how this all works, type VPORTS at the command line and select Single (for a single viewport).  Fill the layout from upper left to lower right.  Typically this viewport would be put on its own layer.  Notice that your complete model is shown. 

 

3)  Click the viewport edge to select it.  Notice that in the lower right end of the status bar a scale number shows up.  The default layout on my system defaulted to 8 1/2"x11" paper so the scale for this viewport came out as 0.006834, or about 1:146.  Let’s say we want extra room for notes, etc.  Click the small down arrow in the viewport scale setting and select Custom.  If you don't already have a 1:200 scale click Add.  Make the name 1:200 with 1 paper unit = 200 Drawing units.  Click OK and OK to exit the dialog.

 

4)  Now select the viewport edge again and in the Viewport scales box click the down arrow again and select your new 1:200 scale.  The model shrinks in the view.  The drawing is now at 1" = 200' scale.  Typically now we would click the little yellow padlock to lock this scale.

 

If you now wanted to work in the model you could do so from right here in the Layout tab.  Double click inside the viewport to “activate” it.  The border should become thicker.  Anything you draw now in the model will be just like if you were back in Model space.  Double click again anywhere *outside* the viewport to de-activate it.  You’re now back in paper space.  You could have just as easily drawn something new right here in the Layout.  And snapped to objects in the Model as well.

 

It’s worth playing around with this from here on your own.  I’m sure you’ll come up with lots of questions because it might be a whole new way of working.  But it’s very efficient once you get the gist of things.

 

Dave.

 

 

------------------------------------------------------
Dave Hein, P.E.
Message 5 of 11
heinsite
in reply to: heinsite

... by the way.  I'm completely self taught too!  Smiley Wink

 

Dave.

------------------------------------------------------
Dave Hein, P.E.
Message 6 of 11
heinsite
in reply to: heinsite

It just hit me... you're still using LT 2000!  Paper space isn't going to work for you until you upgrade to a more recent version of AutoCAD.

 

Sorry for the confusion, but think of it as a preview.  In your version you have to scale the linework and compute scale factors to fit drawings on various paper sizes.  It's all so much easier now.

 

Dave.

------------------------------------------------------
Dave Hein, P.E.
Message 7 of 11
pendean
in reply to: heinsite

Paperspace in LT2000 works just like it does not in LT2013: don;t confuse papersapce with Annotative objects and text.

Message 8 of 11
heinsite
in reply to: pendean

Thanks for that update, Dean!  I don't go back far enough with AutoCAD to remember when paper space made an appearance.  So it's just the annotative objects stuff that won't work for him.  He still will have to compute scale factors for annotations... unless he does everything in paper space.

 

Dave.

------------------------------------------------------
Dave Hein, P.E.
Message 9 of 11
pendean
in reply to: heinsite

Your advice is otherwise spot on: the OP and his client need to work together on using paperspace as the client wishes it to be used.

Message 10 of 11
myank
in reply to: myank

Gentlemen:
Thanks for input;

for what it is worth the idea is to realize as early as possible

the scale that the drawing will end up at, get it there and then dimension

I usually leave a full scale copy of boundary and house off to the side to use

to go back and get dimensions.

In this type of drafting the first objective is to get a boundary that closes,

a house which closes (is square) and get the house tied to dxf underlying the boundary

 

Appreciate confirmation of what I suspected which is the problem is in the

functionality difference between LT and Full AutoCad

I still submit that letting someone do "custom programming" as a solution

to what is essentially a non-problem is a strong second in terms of culpability

It seems to me that if I can output/plot this drawing in "valid' or accurate 40 scale

however this was done, my client should be able to do so if he has a more full featured

application.

Would PDF be a workaround?

 

 

Message 11 of 11
heinsite
in reply to: myank

I think you might have gone a little off track.  In your application there really would be no difference between the workflow in either the full version of AutoCAD or LT.  In both cases you need to scale your boundary and internal objects down somewhat so they fit on paper.  The trick is to figure out how to scale the original linework so it fits in your Model space title block.  Here's how I might approach it... Dean will likely submit a few additional ideas.

 

Draw the boundary and building objects all full scale in the Model.  In a separate area draw the Title Block boundary and other information also to the scale that fits for the paper (11x17, 33x34, whatever) you want to use.  Make a block out of the boundary and building linework objects and insert it inside the Title Block "viewport" area.  You'll be able to tell in short order what kind of scale factors work. From here simply complete your annotations and printing as you normally would.  Printing to PDFs is now a convenient way of communicating with clients who don't have AutoCAD.

 

I think a LISP routine, while it might be useful if you created it and knew exactly what was going on, is largely unnecessary here.  You can do all this in LT quite easily.

 

Good luck!

Dave.

 

 

 

 

------------------------------------------------------
Dave Hein, P.E.

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Autodesk Design & Make Report

”Boost