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Knowledge on lineweight, global width associated with plotting

rezniale
Observer

Knowledge on lineweight, global width associated with plotting

rezniale
Observer
Observer

Hello all,

I am starting with AutoCAD at university so I am rookie who is trying to get how things work in short time.

I am pretty confused while working with lines or polylines. We obtained dwg file of 2D airport with existing polylines as taxiways. It has its own defined layer, but they are all edited with global width of 0.2.

This is what I found:
In Model Space, lineweights seem to increase in size while zooming out and decrease while zooming in.

In paper space, lineweights seem to stay constant.

 

New ones behave differently. I've drawn some lines with the same layer as existing ones, but now with global width set to 0 in order to get defined lineweight. If I zoom in or out in model space (not paper - here all lines are static), those lines do not change width at all. Is this behaviour normal? I enclosed pdf with a cut of created objects with polylines. Left (thick) is set to global width 0.2 and does not change while zooming, second one's lineweight is set BY LAYER (layer is defined 0.2mm) and third is manually set to 0.2mm. Why those objects appear different, when all are set to 0.2? What's the purpose and difference of using lineweight and global width?

Thank you all claryfing this to me. 🙂

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TomBeauford
Collaborator
Collaborator

When you set width for a polyline it's actual width so they look wider when you zoom in and narrower when you zoom out and that width will override it's lineweight setting.

You can set lineweights to most objects for a set plotted width that doesn't change when you zoom in or out for display purposes. 

64bit AutoCAD Map & Civil 3D 2023
Architecture Engineering & Construction Collection
2023
Windows 10 Dell i7-12850HX 2.1 Ghz 12GB NVIDIA RTX A3000 12GB Graphics Adapter
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rezniale
Observer
Observer

Yes, I've already found out, that width override lineweight. But why all 3 objects created by polylines does not have the same "width" when I export it to pdf (like the one I enclosed here)? All polylines are set to 0.2mm.... After I set lineweight to 0.7mm, it looks similar to global width of 0.2mm in model space, but still not in paper space. I just find this strange, or I am missing something.

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cadffm
Consultant
Consultant

Hi,

as wrote above. AutoCAD will not show real lineweights. LWDISPLAY is just a helper for you (technically not needed)

to see differently lineweights.

 

You can set up your Autocad to scale lineweight on screen more or less(Options), but there is no "real mode".

 

Sebastian

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pendean
Community Legend
Community Legend

@rezniale wrote:

...In Model Space, lineweights seem to increase in size while zooming out and decrease while zooming in.

In paper space, lineweights seem to stay constant....


 

That's how AutoCAD works. You cannot change the behavior.

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