Looking for help with making a working layout/template including printing setup

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I have made a drawing layout with a title block. I made this in a A3 paper layout (not in the model tab)

Now i am starting to get some problems with getting this title block to work as a template. I will add screenshots from the file and print settings.

I am currently using Autocad LT 2018 for mac. My macbook is currently using MacOS Mojave version 10.14.3

First: I placed a rectangle in which i want the drawings from my model tab to show. I placed a viewport over this rectangle but it doesnt show anything?

Second: I cant get the scale right. For some reason the scaling is not working properly for me (probably because i am not an expert with the program, still learning for school) I want the drawing to be 1:50 so that 1mm on the drawing refers to 50mm in reality. I cant figure out how to change the model scale or how to scale the model down within the layout tab.

Third: I have a lot of problems with the printing. I created a new printing setup within autocad which is based on A3 landscape with minimal margins. Then selecting a dwg to pdf file or our A3 printer allows me to select a paper size which is also A3 landscape. Now when ever i try to print the layout is never in the center of the paper neither is it lined out nicely. Whenever i center the plot or change the print margins to the proper printing, it chances everything and either takes half of the layout or the print is on 1/4th of the paper while it should be 1/1. Also drawings are being scaled within the printing which results in the 1:50 drawing being 1:49/1:48.

Sorry if my english explanation is bad. When extra information is needed id love to give more information. Either answer me here or send me an email: mennovis01@gmail.com

Thanks in advance and i hope that somebody is able to give me some advice/tips.

Regards, Menno Vis

[steven-g]

Can you post a dwg file, we can't see settings from a screenshot. First, you are using the Mac version and I have no idea how that differs with Windows so some advice may be incorrect, however, how are you creating the viewport? and how is your paper layout setup, in Windows at least you right click on the layout tab and select "page setup manager" or you can type the command "page setup" from there choose modify and that will bring up a dialogue box with all the settings for that layout, it should be here that you select the paper sizes and orientation etc.

If that is correct then what units are you using in the drawing area "-dwgunits" command, this goes through a series of default values, make a note of those values and post back (pressing enter each time accepts the default and gives the next value).

Are you drawing in Model space using real units so when you draw a line of 50mm you use 50 as the length, forget the idea of scale at the moment that just confuses people.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply, i added a dwg file. When drawing within the model tab i use the dimensions as you mentioned. When i want a 50mm line i will make a line then typ 50 + enter.

[steven-g · Accepted solution]

You actually have 4 viewports which could be part of the confusion, if you turn the "defpoints" layer back on you will be able to see and select the other two, though they are on a layer that is turned off they can still be selected by double-clicking inside the area they contain. I am guessing your problems are due to this because by double-clicking in the layout the viewport that becomes active is not the one that contains the geometry you think you are seeing in the vieport, use zoom extents when the viewport is active and you should see the geometry appear twice. The next thing is that there is nothing in model space that would be really seen at a scale of 1:50 the rectangle is 774 kilometers wide so you would only see a potion of it at 1:50, and the two text items are only 5mm high so at 1:50 they would be 0.1mm on paper.

I would guess that if you can delete the excess viewports that would solve most of your issues.

PS everything else looks ok your units and paper layout sizes are good

[Anonymous]

Thank you Steven for your help. The problems have all been fixed :)!

[steven-g]

Good news. I am glad I could help.