Dimension styles

[m.granata]

Hello,

I will start by saying I am new to AutoCAD Mechanical.  I normanlly use Inventor and then AutoCAD for a few drawings no suitable for Inventor.  I want to start using AutoCAD Mechanical for the AutoCAD work.  I am using the 2013 version of Inventor Product Design Suite Premium which included AutoCAD Mechanical 2013, both are 64 bit..  I have the latest service pack for Inventor and AutoCAD Mechanical installed.

My question regards dimension scaling.  Typically, when I use AutoCAD I dimension everything in Model Space.  Within the Dimension Style Manager I set the dimension text size, arrow size, etc. to the actual size I want, then, in the "Scale for dimension features" section of the "Fit" tab I select the "Use overall scale of" radio button and set the scale to match the viewport scale .  For example, if I want a text size of 0.1" and the viewport has a scale 1 1/2"=1' I set the text size to 0.1" and the "Use overall scale of" to 8.  The result is a correctly sized text in that viewport.  When trying this in AutoCAD Mechanical the "Use overall scale of" shows 8 but it does not scale the text size, arrow size, or any other dimension property by a factor of 8.  The resulting dimensions end up being too small in size to read.  It seems as if the "Use overall scale of" is not working.  I have to think I am doing something wrong.

Any help to resolve this is appreciated.  Until then I have to keep using AutoCAD for the work not suitable for Inventor.

Regards,

[michaelsu]

Hello,

Thanks for trying AutoCAD Mechanical.

Power dimension behave differently from normal AutoCAD dimensions. You can find the following note in the help page below. Hope it helps.

http://docs.autodesk.com/AMECH_PP/2013/ENU/index.html?url=filesACM/GUID-7B1C5317-E960-49C8-A2F0-D32E...

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AutoCAD Mechanical uses several scaling mechanisms that are not available in AutoCAD. For example, scale areas allow model space to be divided into areas having different scales. Power dimensioning recognizes the different scales and automatically compensates for them (regular AutoCAD dimensions don't recognize scale areas). To preserve this behavior, you must leave scale related settings at their default values. Accordingly, do not to change the DIMLFAC and DIMSCALE system variables - leave them to be controlled by AutoCAD Mechanical.

Instead of using the DIMLFAC system variable, use the Units tab in the Power Dimensioning dialog box or use Scale Areas. Instead of using the DIMSCALE system variable, use the scale settings on the AMtandards tab of the Options dialog box.

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