topic Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings in AutoCAD Forum

Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 19:23:30 GMT

I feel like there are several posts similar to this already, and I've searched and tried the solutions on those to no avail.

I'm using AutoCAD 2016, and when I copy objects or blocks from one drawing to another, even if the units are specified on each drawing, the scale is usually ignored. The source is typically (mm), and the target (in).

The prevalent solution seems to be -dwgunits, but with scale objects on insert and match insunits both set to "No" on both drawings, doesn't seem to impact anything. I tried various other permutations of settings for it.

I've tried setting both to unitless.

I've set insunitsdeftarget and insunitsdefsource as appropriate, and as unitless.

I remember being able to do it in the past, but when I asked my co-workers, they have the same issue and are just manually scaling things... I'm at a bit of a loss, and don't know what I'm missing.

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Alfred.NESWADBA — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 09:01:39 GMT

Hi,

>> even if the units are specified on each drawing, the scale is usually ignored

Start command -DWGUNITS .. there you can set if the units-scaling should be used or ignored.

- alfred -

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 12:33:01 GMT

I've already tried several different settings with -dwgunits

Whether scale upon insert is set to yes or no, or match INSUNITS to drawing units is set to yes or no (of different combinations there of) doesn't make a difference.

If I set the insert units in options to millimeters for source and inches for target, or unitless for both it doesn't make a difference.

I've been purging after every attempt to make sure I don't have any remnants of anything.

Starting from a blank drawing yields the same results.

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Alfred.NESWADBA — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 13:07:27 GMT

Hi,

>> If I set the insert units in options to millimeters for source and inches

>> for target, or unitless for both it doesn't make a difference.

In case your 2 drawings, the one you copy from, and the other you paste to, does have units set, then both variables INSUNITSDEFSOURCE as well as INSUNITSDEFTARGET are irrelevant.

>> Starting from a blank drawing yields the same results.

In that case please:

create a new drawing, draw a line with 1000 length, create a second drawing and use copy & paste to copy the previously created line into, save both dwg-files and upload them here
start command _ABOUT and show us a screenshot from that dialog

- alfred -

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 13:39:59 GMT

Files attached.

I know I've read that dwgunits will override insunits, but since nothing else was working I tried it, and wanted to document my troubleshooting.

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Alfred.NESWADBA — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 15:01:09 GMT

Hi,

please install updates, your AutoCAD 2016 has not installed any of the updates.

Let us then know if you have this issue again.

- alfred -

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 15:18:08 GMT

Okay, I have put in a ticket with IT, but I'm not sure if it is the root cause, unless it's a bug that exists across 2 years... I am having the same issue in AutoCAD 2018 on another computer, same line test attached, if you care to look at them prior to any updates.

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Alfred.NESWADBA — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 16:22:53 GMT

Hi,

In both of your drawings the line is 1000 long, so it does not look like scaled.

Both drawings have Inch as unit (INSUNITS as well as listed in -DWGUNITS).

So for me all looks well.

- alfred -

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

pendean — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 16:48:35 GMT

LINE objects do not rescale when copied between files set to mm or m or inch or any other unit size: your line comes in at the same 1000 units it is drawn at.

The tip/ability you are trying to use applies only to blocks and XREFs as well as a few key items only.

Could that be your actual problem, you are wanting something to happen to objects the program does not address?

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 17:15:47 GMT

pendean, that may be the issue... if I xref the drawing of the part I'm working with, or bring it in as a block it scales correctly. (Seems to ignore blocks made with shift+ctrl+c, shift+ctrl+v but those probably aren't counted as true blocks)

Is there any way around this if I only want to copy specific geometry and have it scaled?

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 17:16:35 GMT

alfred, should I have changed the units on my initial drawing to mm? You didn't mention it in your instructions, but it doesn't sound like it would have scaled according to pendean

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

pendean — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 18:02:24 GMT

You need to do the math and manually scale your line as part of the 'paste' function my friend: note that there will be a small error depending on how far you go with your rounding.

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 12:17:43 GMT

Well, since there hasn't been any other activity on the thread, I'll share my intermediate solution, should anyone else come to this thread in the future needing the same thing.

I set up the following macro to a keyboard shortcut. This is only useful for scaling from mm to inches

^C^C_pasteclip x 0.0393701 y 0.0393701

Thank you everyone for helping with the troubleshooting and help.

Re: Copy/Paste scale problem between drawings

mromagnoli — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 00:21:19 GMT

I don't understand why Autodesk still doesn't resolve this issue!

The solution is very simple, paste all copy elements as block (Paste as Block)
Then go to the properties palette and change the scale in X, Y and Z to 1
ready!

I hope you find it useful!
Greetings