confused scaling of device when added to drawing

[MuirEng]

Hi,

I have two drawing files, and as far as I know the settings are indentical.

both drawing files contain the same XREF, same xref settings. Both drawing files have same unit settings including "units to scale inserted content" (meters)

Drawing file A has a device (a street light) and this is at correct scale relative to the XREF

When I copy the device to drawing B it comes in at 1/1000 scale. Copy achieved either with copy paste or using style manager then deviceadd.

it looks like a mm to meter conversion but I can't figure out why, or how to set drawing B so that it comes in at proper scale.

so Autodesk answer dudes, what's going on?

thanks

[braudpat]

Hello

Welcome to the Answer Day !

Just a few "stupid" questions :

Q1) Have you checked UNITS into the 3 DWGs (A, B and the XREF)

What are they ? : same, different ??

Q2) Have you drawings coming from ACAD Archi, ACAD MEP, etc ??

DWGs with special AEC objects ...

Regards, Patrice

[dan908]

Hello,

It sounds like the block has an insertion scale set up to be mm or 1/1000. Is the block a wblock or a drawing file or anything? It really sounds like the insertion scale setting from units is set to mm in the block and meters in the drawing it goes into.

If you have some example drawings, feel free to strip them down just a block and an empty file, and I could take a look.

[MuirEng]

in model space:

units in XREF are Decimal, Insertion Scale Meters

units in Drawing A are set to Decimal, insertion scale meters

units in Drawing B are set to Decimal, insertion scale meters.

the problem relates to devices - not blocks, but of course the device reference a block.

the referenced block has units set to "unitless"

this is interesting:

in drawing A - "insert", select the block referenced by the device. Comes in at expected scale

in drawing B - same operation. I need to scale by 1000 twice. i.e. the block is one millionth of expected size.

clearly some setting is different betwen the two drawings.

Files are shared here:

Device Scaling Mystery

[MuirEng]

once answer day is over there is no more help?

[sthompson1021]

If you use the -DWGUNITS command on both drawings are the drawing units set the same?

[JDMather]

Attach example files here that exhibit this behavior.

What does the command -dwgunits return in each file?

[john.vellek]

Hi @MuirEng,

It appears that you are working in AutoCAD Electrical. I will move your post to that forum so that you can obtain a solution much faster. I am not familiar with Devices as opposed to Blocks in AutoCAD.  I am sure they must be an AEC object which I can't really break apart and analyze in vanilla AutoCAD.

I am sorry that I can't help you directly.

Thanks for your patience

[MuirEng]

NO!

I am working in AutoCAD MEP!

move it back!

[MuirEng · Accepted solution]

Hi guys,

the problem is indeed DWGUNITS. I used the UNITS command but was not aware of this command.

One drawing reports in meters, the other is mm.

I expected that there was some setting problem but didn't know how to get to it, and now I do!

Thanks!

[dan908]

Hoping to get my post in here before it moves again, a device was originally created using the wblock command which has a units set for it:

So, yes, the xref and drawing 1 and drawing 2 will all have the units at meters, but the device itself still has the units set at what it is set at.

If you could attach some stripped down drawings I could take a quick look at them. I am not as familiar with MEP, but it should be that the scales on the devices just need to be the correct one. The problem is the only way to change the insertion scale on a wblock after it is created is to open the drawing itself and change the units there. But, you should be able to see the insertion scale on the device in the properties of the device. I can't think of a scenario though where the device comes in 10^6 smaller. I doubt the block was drawn in microns. Likely it was scaled and then marked unitless maybe. And the copy paste is perpetuating the original scale change. If you inserted the same device from the device palette or design center would you get the same result or is it only copying and pasting from the drawing?

[dan908]

Nevermind I saw that you got it.

Basically the same thing, but I way over explained.

Anyway, keep an eye out for it in the future because those devices (or wblocks in general) are going to really depend on the units.

A lot of people set all of the dwgunits settings to unitless and manually scale everything as an alternative, but it does work right, there are just a lot of individual places it is set.

[TRLitsey]

Hi MuirEng, In answer to your Answer Day question.  This is a community based board. You will always find peer to peer help here, and some AutoCAD folks come through often. The ANSWER DAY is a thing AutoDESK does periodically. Thier teck folks are out in force on all product boards. It is a day that you have a very good chance to chat or question the AutoDESK experts and a lot of the Expert Elite are present as well.

Welcome to the board, good luck