topic Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS in AutoCAD Forum

SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

moise.ntirenganya — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 17:10:31 GMT

Hello,

I have question here !

How can I scale drawing and make them bigger without changing their dimensions in model space.

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

Alfred.NESWADBA — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 17:29:20 GMT

Hi,

>> How can I scale drawing and make them bigger

>> without changing their dimensions in model space.

You can use XRef and insert the source drawing into a new drawing and set the scale for the XRef to the value you need.

Besides of that ... I would never want to have any geometry in the modelspace that shows dimension values that are not true/show values different from the measured distance/angles.

- alfred -

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

S.Faris — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 17:58:21 GMT

Hi Moise,

As Alfred mentioned I am also not recommending you to do such a thing unless it is something that's unavoidable for some reason.

Option-1

Select all the elements that you want to scale (drawing elements+dimension etc...)
Convert it into a block(Type B(enter) provide a name and select a basepoint)
now you can scale the drawing and the dimension value stays same(but dimension size will get scaled too)

Option-2

Select all the elements that you want to scale (drawing elements+dimension etc...)
Scale it to what ever scale you want to scale it to(Lets say x2times)
Now filter and select all the dimensions scaled
Go to properties and under Primary units section change the value of Dimension scale linear to half of what it is now(if it is 1.0 ->change it to 0.5).

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

scot-65 — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 23:05:08 GMT

An extension to Mr. Faris option #2:

Investigate DIMLFAC.

Take note of the scale factor one used to scale up the drawing.
Inverse that number to set DIMLFAC.
Command -DIMSTYLE "Apply" and select the desired dimensions.
[notice the hyphen "-" in front of the command name].
DIMSCALE remains unchanged.

Example:
Scale the drawing up 6 times.
The inverse is 1/6 or 0.166667.
Set DIMLFAC to 0.166667 - (setvar 'DIMLFAC (/ 1.0 6))
-DIMSTYLE "Apply".

???

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

neaton — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 00:44:58 GMT

Are you scaling the because the drawing units are incorrect? If so, use the -DWGUNITS command to change to the correct units. AutoCAD can change the drawing units without changing the drawing elements; watch the command prompts for whether to scale the drawing elements or not.

Nancy

@moise.ntirenganya wrote:

Hello,

I have question here !

How can I scale drawing and make them bigger without changing their dimensions in model space.

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

moise.ntirenganya — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 10:04:47 GMT

Dear Alfred,

Thanks for your help!

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

ruturaj_arale — Mon, 08 May 2023 10:37:41 GMT

To Scale without changing the dimensions of your drawing, follow these steps:

Step1 : Select the objects that you want to scale.

Step2 : Select the Scale tool from modify toolbar or Type “scale” in the command line and press Enter.

Step3 : Specify a base point for the scaling operation.

Step4 : Enter the scale factor that you want to use. Press Enter to complete the scaling operation.

Step5 : Go to Annotation –> Dimension Style Manager –> New –> Give New Style Name (Scale2)–> Click “Continue” –> Primary Units –> Enter Scale Factor value –> Click “OK” –> Click “Close”.

(Note: Scale factor Value = 1/Scale )

Step6 : Now Select all the dimensions –> Go to Annotation –> Select new Created Style (Scale2).
You can see all the dimensions are now at original scale.

Learn More..

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

e_reiciunas59BEV — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 06:35:47 GMT

Exactly that.

I did get a drawing and copied it to my drawing. Now the drawing is very small, but the dimensions it came with - are correct. What I want to do is to scale the drawing to its right size and keep the dimensions, as those were the correct dimension to begin with. But after scaling the drawing to its right size the dimensions are scaled as well, which makes the dimensions too big. And I do want to avoid to reapply all the dimensions, as there are many of them.

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

pendean — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 16:22:57 GMT

@e_reiciunas59BEV wrote:
...Now the drawing is very small, but the dimensions it came with - are correct....
...What I want to do is to scale the drawing to its right size...

That is confusing: unless the dimensions are all fudged (manual overrides), you content should be drawn at 1:1 scale an you need to not scale it up or down unless you are trying to get it to 1:1 scale again.

OR... did you insert a drawings done in mm into a file set to use FEET or METERS and that's your actual problem?

It is time you shared your problem DWG file over here please.

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

e_reiciunas59BEV — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 14:02:40 GMT

Thanks for a reply, here is mine, though a bit late:

Units of both drawings are the same - mm.

I include the drawing with which I originally was working (Mine.dwg) and the drawing, which i received (received.dwg). As I stated in my first message, i copied the received to my drawing and then scaled it, so it would be 1:1. In the "Mine.dwg" you can see, the copied drawing and the scaled one, and the difference between my own applied measurements and the ones, that came with the drawing.

Hopefully the dwg files will help to clear things up 🙂

Thanks

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

pendean — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 17:11:46 GMT

Your "received' drawing is not to scale (I used DIST command): it appears to have been deliberately done that way to avoid their content from being used as is.

In the "MINE" file, the drawing appears to have been fix/has been scaled correctly (I used DIST command to verify, nothing else) but your active dimension style have 50x scale factor overrides reflecting different distances (plus your text/dimtext is soo tiny because you did not fix that in your DIMSTYLE settings). If I use the STANDARD dimension style, the correct distances appear.

Are you just trying to plot in your layouts without using annotative text/dimstyles, and trying to use the dimstyle scaling to fix your 1:50 viewports?

That's very old school but it's also not done that way. let us know.

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

e_reiciunas59BEV — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:29:55 GMT

What I wanted is to take the drawing, copy it to my drawing and leave it there. Scale it if needed.

What I did NOT want do, was to re-measure every dimension that came with the drawing.

I do remember trying different DIM-Styles, but the results were still bad. But I may have tried the DIM-Stile-change in the received drawing with the DIM-Styles from that drawing and not my own DIM-Style, which led me to abandon the idea and write in the forum.

Now I tried to change the existing dimensions to my own DIM-Style - the drawing is scaled to 1:1 and the numbers are correct.

Thank you for the solution!

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

pendean — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:32:27 GMT

I suspect DIMLFAC, not "dimension scale", was the variable you are looking for @e_reiciunas59BEV

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

e_reiciunas59BEV — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:01:05 GMT

DIMFLAC was set to 30, I did change it to 1 but nothing changed.

Edit:

I have also noticed, that when I draw a line 100mm and measure it, the dimension says other number. Now I have checked it again and it was 30 times more. After I did set the DIMFLAC to 1, the measurement shows the correct number. The problem is, if the dimension is already there, changing the DIMFLAC setting doesn't change the shown value, I must do the dimension anew.

Re: SCALE WITHOUT CHANGING DIMENSIONS

jskalaXDDX5 — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:51:51 GMT

If it's an issue with dimension style maybe -DIMSTY APPLY might be a faster way to update than re doing the dimensions...or maybe MATCHPROP?