topic Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper in AutoCAD Forum

How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

mparalex — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 10:30:45 GMT

Hello everyone.

I have some house designs on autocad for my university all designed in 1:1 scale(their actual dimensions).

I need to plot them with a border that has a sign at the bottom left with information about the design.

The design needs to be in 1:50 scale and to be printed in A3 paper and the sign with the info needs to be at A4 paper size when it is printed with the design. In essence the design of the house is in the middle of the A3 paper in 1:50 scale and the sign with the info is in the bottom right in A4 size so i can fold it properly and give the assignment to my professor.

How can i do this?

I will attach a .dwg file with one of my designs and the sign

Thanks for any answers.

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

paullimapa — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:19:32 GMT

when you say fold A3 size to A4 size do you mean the way it looks graphically below where A4 is in landscape and the sign is in lower right corner? Of course you cannot see the entire 1:50 scale dwg when folded in half. You’ll have to unfold to A3 in portrait orientation to see the entire plan. Am I interpreted what you are saying correctly?

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

mparalex — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:25:58 GMT

In essence i need to print my design inside an A3 paper with my sign(at the bottom right corner) in A4 size when printed. If the design is to large for an A3 Paper i will print in A2.I am not sure if you understand me.

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

Wheelie22 — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:52:10 GMT

Do you know why there is a Paper Space ?

If you draw 1:1 in the Mode Space, you can make a viewport in the paper space that is 1:50 and put your Sign, I think that is the Title block also on there. And you can make a Paper Space A4 or A3. But you will have to scale your Sing because it is 1:1.

This is an A3 on the paper space with an viewport scale 8:1 , 1:50 is to small, and your Sign scale 20.

is this what you mean ?

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

mparalex — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:36:08 GMT

I do not seem to undestand that question i am so sorry. I am an undergraduate civil engineer struggling with a extremely large assignment in constructions. 🙂

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

Simon_Mathews — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 14:32:24 GMT

in autocad , you draw everything in modelspace 1:1 (wether that be metres or millimeters etc) then in paperspace where you would normally have your A3 drawing border , you place a viewport within the drawing border and then define that viewport with a 1:50 scale.

see a atttached for a custom scale list to make your viewport to that scale

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

richard_387 — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 16:37:15 GMT

Printing from Paper Space is the proper way to do it, but I do things in an improper way that works.

Paper Space is not very flexible, in that one gets a restricted view through the viewport. One cannot see what is just outside the viewport. So I have several blocks that are the sheet size (minus peripheral margins) drawn for the various sheet sizes A4, A3, A2, A1 etc. Having decided on the scale for the printed drawing, It is easy to insert these blocks at the required scale. Now one has a box that can be moved about the drawing to see how the layout fits and to see if anything can be juggled around to make a good drawing. I print always from Model Space, but having juggled the drawing around to fit the sheet, one can always go back into Paper Space knowing what will appear in the window.

Having inserted several sheet sizes into your drawing, it is easy to see that your drawing will not fit on an A3 sheet. If you squeeze together the dimensions top and bottom, the drawing will fit an A2 sheet.

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

pendean — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 17:02:17 GMT

@richard_387 wrote:

Printing from Paper Space is the proper way to do it, but I do things in an improper way that works.

Paper Space is not very flexible...

It's only so when you try to use it as MODELspace and not paperspace. That's when it fails.

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

dany_rochefort — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 17:48:35 GMT

@mparalex Your requirements will not work.

- First your design is too big for 1:50 scale on A3 sheet. It will work with 1:75 on a A3 however.

- Second your title block that should be A4 when printed takes up half of the A3 page and overlaps your house plan

- Third your insertion units are in inches while you are drafting in mm, so antyhting inserted will be 0.03937x smaller than what it should be

- Last : 1 autocad unit in metric is equal to 1mm and not 1m. So your whole house plan is 1000x too small and you will never be able to correctly scale it onto a metric sheet size, which is also in mm NOT in meters...

So yeah: good luck with that 👎

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

pendean — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 18:13:13 GMT

@mparalex wrote:

...I have some house designs on autocad for my university all designed in 1:1 scale(their actual dimensions)....

Your DWG file has units set to INCHES

Problem with that is... your door here for example is 0.6 inches wide

That's less than the width of my smallest finger.

So your entire model needs to be corrected first before you would even consider plotting this to any scale, let alone a sheet. SCALE command after you change DWG units correctly using DWGUNITS command in your AutoCAD version.

Come back with the corrected plan and your A3 setup ready to plot after that for guidance on how to PLOT to a scale if you still need it.

Best wishes.

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

dany_rochefort — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 18:39:44 GMT

@richard_387 The drawing does fit on a A3 sheet a scale of 1:75 and above. The A4 sheet size title block doesnt make sense. Way to big compared to normal title blocks

Re: How to print 1:1 model space in 1:50 in A3 paper

paullimapa — Sat, 23 Sep 2023 15:25:29 GMT

First of all, you have to determine exactly how is this plan drawn. You mentioned 1:1 scale.

But this can be 1 unit = 1 mm or 1 cm or even 1 Meter. There are ways to determine exactly which one this is.

Since this is an Architectural floor plan, you can use the DIST or DIM command to measure a door width.

Since they both show 0.75 which would be a typical size residential door if it's 0.75 Meter and not cm or mm.

Then this proves that this drawing is drawn as 1 unit = 1 Meter

Next, run the UNITS command and make the following adjustments:

Under Length:

The Type is as you've set properly as Decimal for a metric drawing.

The Precision though should not be 0.0000. There's no reason for a 4th place precision since there should be no measurements smaller than a mm. So I changed this setting to 0.000.

The Insertion Scale should not be left as Inches since this is a metric drawing and in Meters. This setting is used when the current drawing is referenced or inserted into another drawing. AutoCAD will use this value to scale the dwg up/dn to match with that other drawing's drawing unit.

Then I noticed that your DIASTASEIS dimension style is missing some settings like extension lines so I made the following adjustments using the DDIM command which I typically implement with drawing Architectural floor plans:

Under Lines tab uncheck Suppress Ext line 1 & Ext line 2

Under Fit tab:

Fit options: select Always keep text between ext lines

Fine tuning: check Draw dim line between ext lines

Next go to Layout1 to setup the 1:50 scale plot:

Since AutoCAD typically creates a Paperspace vport for you already in the default Layout1 you can use this to see how large of a Vport you'll need to accommodate a 1:50 scale plan drawn at 1 unit = 1 Meter.

By default, AutoCAD's Layouts are also set up to use paper sheet sizes in mm.

So you'll need to convert from Meter in Modelspace to mm in Paperspace.

The typical method to properly change the zoom scale factor of a Paperspace Vport is to enter into the Vport by double clicking inside it and then use the ZOOM command ##XP factor. Since the scale factor you want is 1:50 then we're looking at 1/0.050XP = 20XP. Since this 20 = 1 unit scale is not on the typical scale list then I used the ScalelistEdit command to add this in:

Though not required, it's easier to be able to select 20:1 from the scale list instead of having to enter 1/0.050 or 20.

Now you can select the Paperspace Vport and on the Properties palette select under Standard scale's dropdown list 20:1

After expanding the size of the Paperspace Vport so the entire plan can be seen, next is to determine which paper size would work ie: A4, A3 or A2

Run the PAGESETUP command and select Modify the current Layout1

This Page Setup window looks very similar to the PLOT command window.

For printer with DWG To PDF.pc3 selected, now you can try various Paper sizes to see which will fit in the Plot area setup by default as Layout with Plot scale 1:1 mm.

What I ended up selecting for Paper size is A2. Since the top rows of dimensions don't fit I created an additional Paperspace Vport on top collapsing the space between the top dimensions and the floor plan.

I also created another Paperspace Vport on the right to squeeze in the sign with the info on the lower right.

Now when the A2 size paper is folded once = A3 size paper and then folded again = A4 size the the sign with the info will still remain in the lower right.

Lastly I placed the Paperspace Vports on a Non Plot Layer

see attached wg.

As you've heard from others your design floor plan at 1:50 will not fit on A3 size paper.