Plot lineweights in viewports don't scale up or down

[michelle_wecke]

Hi people who know more than me.

I need to get some form of resolution to my problem.

I freelance for a guy who assigns line weights to each layer. There is not CTB for it.
When I set up my drawing in paper space I use various scales ... you know, as one tends to do when doing details.
When I print it, every viewport has the same lineweight ... but yeah, I really don't want that. When I print a drawing at 1:10 I want the lines to plot thicker because it then looks like I'm not a first year who knows nothing about lineweights.

I have tried assigning a lined weight to the layer in a viewport but that is such unneeded work! 
Is AutoCAD not able to scale the lineweights automatically?

If not, is there a techy on here who could make that a thing for the next release - AutoCAD 2020 - now with lineweight scaling so that you can save 4 hours of unnecessary work.

[michelle_wecke]

For Lineweight only it is simple to write/buy a plugin <<< that is even more helpful that anything Rob put forward. Even his "easy" way isn't explained. I do not know which pugin to get and I can't write plugins.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

tricky discussion here ...

I want to put the finger on some points mentioned inside this thread:

>> that line is also "zoomed in" making it thicker.

>> So a brick at 1:50 -0.5, 1:20 -1.0, 1:5 -5.0.

If I forget CAD, if I forget CAD-standards, if I forget AutoCAD ... back the the time where we used drafting boards and drawing pens (like Rotring which I guess was known worldwide) ... I never would have been able to draw with a 5mm lineweight, that would not work because every type of paper would start getting waves.

Also with lineweights starting with about 1mm it gets difficult to see the exact width of the brick-wall.

There was also mentioned that no solution was offered ... well, one suggestion was done to create different CTB for different scales ==> this can be a solution, have you tried it?

The real solution is not available out-of-the-box. But ...

you can use different CTB

you can use different viewport overrides where you even don't need a CTB, you can define in one viewport that your wall outline is displayed with 0.25 and in another viewport it shows up with 2mm ... the only handicap here is that AutoCAD is limited to 2.11mm lineweight, so a lineweight of 5mm can't be done this way (and to be honest, I never have seen any paper with lines with such lineweights (not fillings).

So if you want to start with CTB or if you want to start with viewport lineweight overrides and you need help then please let us know this.

- alfred -

[RobDraw]

I said that I couldn't make any assumptions about what they are saying because it is being filtered through a misguided drafter.

I thought you were a professional but it's apparent that isn't true. Doesn't your area have a regional CAD standard that government agencies refer to and even require to be followed?

For someone that isn't interested in standards, you're the one who can't seem to drop it. I'd love to be able to see your face when you discover that it is a thing and what you are describing, scaling lineweights in relation to the scale of the drawing is not acceptable in many professional environments. That method fails outside of a small range of scales. I will acknowledge that different lineweights can be used for the same thing depending on the type of drawing but that's a far cry from the direct ratio that you are describing. Let's say you have a 2mm lineweight at 1:100. At 1:1000 it would be barely visible. In a 1:10 detail, it would be so thick that it would hide nearby linework. I'd love to see samples of your drawings at a variety of scales using lineweights the way you describe them.

[michelle_wecke]

I think that when you get away from programs and into hand drawings, you do get the problems of “waves” and smudging and all those other bits and bobs that go with drawing by hand. Plotters are remarkably better at not saturating paper to that extent though. The joys of drawing evolution from one medium to the other.

Personally I used thick sharpies to get my thick lines on high quality trace paper and didn’t have too much of an issue with paper warp. I’ve also had the opportunity to experiment with liquid ink and getting deep saturation on water paper. Sure these were not for construction purposes, but not all drawings are for those purposes anyway but they were architectural plans and sections. I really do love my brush pen set (acts like a paint brush but it’s a pen) and have had great success in those too. My point is that even with exaggerated thickness, you can have a beautiful legible drawing.

I doubt I would want a 5mm thick line on a construction drawing, just want to know if there is a way to simply click something that could magically scale lines (probably “appropriately” would be a better way to state it) so that a 1:200 isn’t clunky and a 1:5 doesn’t disappear into illegible homogeneous mess of thin lines.

Yes I have tried CTB’s but unless I can apply it to each viewport, it’s not helping. Can you apply a CTB per viewport?
Yes I have used overrides on lineweights in viewports but that was part of my big main question above and how it chews time to override every viewport to appropriate scales.

My sheets usually (lately because I am trying to help builders not mess up my builds) have a plan of the building to locate where the detail is found – 1:100 / 1:200. Then there is a 1:50 of the plan or section with a 1:20/1:10/1:5 detail set. Progression orders to make builders understand where the details are coming from. So any one sheet could have about 10 viewports at 3 or 4 different scales. If I don’t remember to set the first scale override and copy that viewport to get the next detail/plan whatever, then I need to override again and again and again and again … because you cannot match override properties in viewports yet (even that would be a good solution if some tech guy who codes CAD sees this or someone with some plugin sees this and can point me there) and you cannot copy a viewport from one sheet tab to another without it reverting back to default viewport settings (and if someone knows how to override that issue, please let me know).

So yeah, I have tried what I know should work but it either doesn’t work (CTB) or it takes too long (override). I would try the plugin but I don’t know what to look for or where to look for it. I may stumble across it at some point.

[Alfred.NESWADBA · Accepted solution]

Hi,

>> Yes I have tried CTB’s but unless I can apply it to each viewport, it’s

>> not helping. Can you apply a CTB per viewport?

No, but you can use VP-overrides so a viewport with scale A matches to part 1 if CTB and viewport with scale B matches to part 2 inside the CTB.

>> how it chews time to override every viewport to appropriate scales

If you have templates prepared with layouts and viewports for different scales it's only a one time job to create them, after that you can use them for every new project.

- alfred -

[michelle_wecke]

I'm not entirely sure I understand.

Say I have a wall with linetype 01 "red" set to 0.35 in the CTB, it will print 0.35 in 1:100. How does "part 2" fit in? Would I not have to create another line over that so that the other part of the CTB would affect it? I might be muddling your solution.

Viewport overrides are the only solution I have managed to get to work at the moment. I've unfortunately worked on some very large projects lately (warehouses, factories and game lodges) and I do like the idea of a template. I will need to set up some viewports and set a big note to not delete them (old habit of keeping tabs clean - I will need to make an exception).

Thanks for your effort.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

As a sample:

In viewport 1 for scale 1:100 you can use colors 1,3,5,7,9,11... ... where you can assign your wall layer color 11 and inside the CTB you can assign color 11 a thickness of 0.35

In viewport 2 for scale 1:50 you can use colors 2,4,6,8,10 ... override the layer-color for wall to color 12 and inside the CTB assign lineweight 1.0 to color 12.

Hope this can be understood 😉

- alfred -

[michelle_wecke]

Yes, it's the override colours in viewports like you would override lineweights in viewports. Also a solution that would require templates. I think the key is making a usable set of templates with all the scales I could possibly need and hopefully I don't mess up the scales.

Thank you.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> I think the key is making a usable set of templates with all the scales 

This is something general, having all layers, (most used) blocks, dimstyles, textstyles, layouts ... defined is one of the keys to work efficient and structured ;))

- alfred -

[RobDraw]

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@michelle_wecke wrote:

Hi people who know more than me.

I need to get some form of resolution to my problem.

I freelance for a guy who assigns line weights to each layer. There is not CTB for it.

---

A couple questions:

Why are you changing your employers standards? In my world, that would be unacceptable.

How is setting up a .ctb going to work if the file doesn't use one?

[michelle_wecke]

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@RobDraw wrote:

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A couple questions:

Why are you changing your employers standards? In my world, that would be unacceptable.

How is setting up a .ctb going to work if the file doesn't use one?

---

I'm not changing his standards and I am not setting up a .ctb for him. I'm not sure how you even read that from what I wrote.

I got a very good response from @Alfred.NESWADBA. His response was actually a great example of someone actually being helpful. You could learn a thing or two from the way he constructed his response and the actual advice he gave. Now please, go away unless you have some form of constructive advice related to the question. 

[RobDraw]

Request denied.

Why don't you answer my questions but instead choose to go on about something unrelated? Having trouble coming to grips with the fact that I am addressing things that you missed? Or is it that your standards are not as widespread as you thought? Or is it that you are too stubborn to admit that you have been wrong about several things?

As you can see by your clients drawings. Having lines at the same width despite the scale is a thing. It's called a standard and if your client is using that standard, you should have a talk about changing the way his files print. Just saying. 

[Anonymous]

Hey Alfred,

Thanks for your input. I will check how i can manage a workaround with that VP override system.

As for you, Rob, just leave the discussion, you arent doing anything good for it. I dont come across such a weird and childish discussion on a forum for a long time, let alone your condescendent tone in your answers. Maybe its Covid and your stuck at home for a long time or whatever, but go steam somewhere else.

[RobDraw]

Request denied.

You are not the person I was addressing. If .ctb solves your issue, great. The OP has bigger problems that need addressing.

[agolkari]

Hi, Are you still on it? Have you found any solution? I was seeking something like annotations working on lineweights and haven't find yet. I use "Layer states". I've saved a couple of lineweight for different scales and on VPs will restore the suitable one.