Working with "regular sized" paper sheets

[Anonymous]

Hey Everyone,

Thanks again, in advance, for all your assistance on this forum.  Easily the best learning resource for ACA on the internet!  I have another "brain wrapping" question that I've been trying to figure out.  When working with sheets, I'm curious as to how you would work with a standard sized sheet, meaning that I want to set up the page to print 8x10 or 11x17 or any other "standard" paper size.  I know that people will say, "Well just adjust your drawing when printing, or printing to PDF, to fit on whatever paper size you want!".  The only issue with that is that the scale is set up for the larger sheet, and when you shrink it down, the scale is no longer correct.  Does this make sense?  Any assistance would be appreciated!  Thanks again!

KPM

[David_W_Koch]

I am making the following assumptions.  Feel free to point out any that are not correct.

1. You have a layout set up and formatted for a "relatively large" sheet size.  For an example to use in this post, I am going to say 42"x30", but the concept applies to any sheet size (even Metric!).
2. You want to plot the entire formatted sheet on a paper size that is smaller than the formatted sheet size.  For this example, lets say 8.5"x11".
3. You want the graphics in the viewports on the small sheet to be at some recognizable scale.  Lets say that there is one viewport, scaled at 1/8" = 1'-0" when plotted to the 42"x30" sheet.

Plotting to fit is unlikely to give you a recognizable scale on the smaller sheet, unless the printable area on that sheet is an exact multiple of your original drawing size.  The first thing you may want to determine is what the minimum margins are for the printer you are using.  Sometimes that can be determined by selecting the Properties button next to your printer name in the Plot dialog box.  We have a laser printer in our office that has a Printable Area of 8.00" x 10.67" for an 8.5"x11" paper size.  So I know I need to reduce the 42"x30" plot area (we draw a line just inside that dimension on our title blocks) to a maximum 8" high and a maximum 10.67" long.  You can do the math; I know from experience that in order to have a known (or semi-reasonable) scale on the small sheet, that I have to plot the 42"x30" sheet at one-quarter (0.25) size, giving me an effective print area of 10.5"x7.5".  The 1/8"=1'-0" viewport will become 1/32" = 1'-0".  I do not recommend trying to scale off of the final plot.

So, in the Plot dialog, choose Custom from the Scale list, and then enter 1 inches = 4 units below the Scale list.  If you want to reduce the lineweights to match the reduced size, check the Scale lineweights toggle.  I would recommend also checking the Center the plot toggle.

Your paper sizes and corresponding ratios will likely vary.

[David_W_Koch · Accepted solution]

Here is a screen shot of the above in action.  In the background, you can see two polyline rectangles pretending to be title block graphics; the outer one is 42"x30".  I have the plot area set to plot a defined Paper Space View, which runs from 0,0 to 42,30 (as does the outer rectangle).  The Plot scale and Plot offset area settings are as previously described.  These settings have been saved to the layout (not necessary), so that you can see that the title block graphics polyines fall within the plottable area (dashed line).  By setting a scale of 1"=4 units (inches), I will get a plot 1/4 the size of the original plot size, which usually results in viewports with a standard scale (or one that can be interpolated from a standard scale).

[Anonymous]

Hey David,

Thanks a lot for helping out with this.  So yes, you are correct.  Arch F (30 x 42) is the sheet size.  So I guess my first question is, are you able to create sheets to work with that are already "standard" sizes like 8.5 x 11 or 11 x 17, or are you stuck with the 30 x 42?  I've created a few sheets with items at different scales, all noted on the 30 x 42 sheets (1/8" = 1', 1/2" = 1' and 3/8" = 1'), which were all placed on the sheets by right clicking and setting the scale to fit as nicely as possible on the 30 x 42 paper size.  Ideally, I would rather have just put them on the standard paper size to begin with, but I'm guessing that's not possible now.  So, when you're printing your full sized drawings on smaller sheets sizes (30x42 down to 11x17 for example), are you updating your scale to reflect this change?  Thanks again for your assistance with me wrapping my head around this.

KPM

[dbroad · Accepted solution]

Technically, if you include a graphical scale, it doesn't matter what scale you plot at as long as what is depicted is legible and appropriate to the magnification level.  Most of the work I get from others in PDF form cannot be reliably assumed to be a specific scale.  When I attach, I always use a relative scale command to adjust the pdf print to the size of critical vertical and horizontal dimensions.

When I plot details from a larger sheet, however, I usually keep the scale and crop so that I only plot part of a sheet or I create another view that is scale adjusted to fit on the alternative sheet.  Setting up various standard sheets only involves create titleblocks for each sheet size and work type and storing them in templates.

In a pinch, I've even sent clients a scaled down plot together with a foot/inch scale printed out along with the print at the sheet edge so the client can snip and measure with.

[David_W_Koch · Accepted solution]

Your template may be set up with a Layout that has a default paper size of 42x30, but that does not mean that you cannot use the PAGESETUP command to select a different paper size.  If you typically use a smaller size, then you probably should edit your template file and set it up to use that size as the initial default size.

Existing drawings that are already set up for a 42x30 sheet can either be printed to a smaller sheet as noted, or could be reworked to have the sheet size changed to the desired size.  That would require resizing your viewport(s) to fit the smaller sheet size and changing the scale inside the viewport(s) so that you can still see all that you need to see.  Any annotative content would need to have the new scale added to it, and may require reformatting to look correct.