Scale problem between drawings

[Anonymous]

We work with differents architects who draw sometimes in mm, sometimes in cm, sometimes en m.

We have created 3 differents pre set A3 presentation to have our page and our footer ready for any option.

I am working on a newly received drawing and when I import my presentation my footer is completely at the wrong scale with the text at the wrong place.

I have tried INSUNITS on 0 or 5,

MSLTSCALE on 0 or 1

LTSCALE on 1

CELTSCALE on 1

each time on both drawing

In both drawings units are on decimal and cm

everytime I erase the presentation and purge before trying again but it still does the same thing.

Any other idea?

Thanks for your help,

[oswaldodcb]

Hello @Anonymous

In which units do you have the Layout?

Please send a photo of the "Page Setup Manager" or PLOT window to see the configuration of the units of the presentation,

Like this:

[user181]

Have you checked to see if their drawing has the same text style as yours and they have a different font assigned to it? If you insert into their drawing the text style will use their assigned font.

[TrevN]

Are you saying you have your border in model space?

If you had your border in paper space, you'd only need one A3 file.

Or am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

@oswaldodcb: I change the plot scale unit depending on the unit they used to draw.
I will put 1mm = 1unit when they are in mm, 10 if they are in cm and 1000 if they are in m so I can use the scale easily when I am on paper space.

@user181: we created our own text style to avoid this kind of problem, and it shouldn't affect the bloc anyway, should-it?

@user181: my border and footer are in paper space.

[pendean]

Are you using XREF command to bring in the consultants drawings into yours?
Or are you actually drafting inside their DWG files?

And do you use Annotative text/blocks/dimstyles by chance, or still doing it old-school?

[Anonymous]

@pendean: not using xref, staight into their drawing ans not using annotative, proper old scool 😉

[pendean]

That's probably why you've hit this snag and will need to rethink how you want to do this work moving forward: spend time/effort fixing drawings from tohers, or just XREFing their files into your working-just-fine-as-you desire files to get more done in a day.

May I ask if you are getting paid to constantly change other people's files? Would the bosses (or your bank account if you're a one-man island) be more pleased if you did not spend the time and effort doing that?

[Anonymous]

We are lighting designer and we have to implant our light into architect and interior designer drawings and then send it back to them so they can keep working on it.

So xref is not an option for us, and really often they are sending us drawing with already xref drawings so it quickly become a big mess if we xref their drawing.

And yes we are paid to do it that way 🙂

[pendean]

Good to know: sadly you are going to have to fix each and every file to bring into your standards (then deal with the fall-out when they get the files)
OR
you all adopt your individual partners' standards when working in each of their files, more work for you upfront once but after that it's all gravy.

We do that latter for clients with very strict standards, when xrefing their files into ours are not an option.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

We do adopt their standars has a lot of them have really strict one so we gave up trying to have our own.

Still, how do I fix that scale problem if all my settings are the same in both drawing?

Where does this problem come from?

[user181]

Is there any chance you could post the two drawings? It would be easier to figure out that way. If you don't want to post the arch. drawing maybe you could save a copy and erase the arch stuff in model space and just post the problem in paper space. 

[Anonymous]

Here are the 2 drawings.

Thank you for your time!

[user181]

The units of your bureau ACAD TYPE.dwg are set to unitless and the units in the fichier probleme.dwg are set to centimeters. If you use the command UNITS on the fichier drawing and set them to UNITLESS and erase your presentation and purge the blocks out and then do a copy and paste from your bureau drawing it should come in the correct size and appearance. 

[Anonymous]

I put both drawings on unitless, erased the presentation and purged but when I import it back through the design center I still have the same problem.

I tried with both in cm and It doesn't work either...

[user181]

In the A3cm tab of your bureau drawing just use the copy to clipboard (CTRL+C) and then after purging and changing units to unitless in ficher drawing do a paste (CTRL+V) and insert at 0,0 and use regenall.

Just erase the items in tab A3 cm and not the whole tab and then do the copy & paste. Don't bring in the whole layout through designcenter 

[user181 · Accepted solution]

It may be easier in the future for you to create 3 separate drawings of your presentation tabs. One for each mm, cm & m so that you can set the units for each of them accordingly and you can use designcenter to import. Because you have 3 different units in 1 drawing and set to unitless you will continue to have issues using designcenter. 

[Anonymous]

To make your solution working for me I have to do the following:

-import my presentation because my page and printer and ctb are set in my acad type drawing, but then my footer is completely at the wrong scale

-I then erased it in the drawing I am working on and purge

-I go back to my acad type and copy only my footer using ctrl+c and the copy+v in the drawing I am working on and it is at the right scale!

It works but it doesn't make any sense to me! 

Thank you anyway for this at this is the best solution so far!

[user181]

Like I said in my previous post you need to make 3 separate drawings for your presentation tabs because they are different units. 

[GrantsPirate]

I know you marked a post as a solution but I personally wouldn't go with that solution.  I would recommend one title block done in mm for your A3.  Then create custom annoscales for a mm, cm, and M drawings being brought into modelspace.  You simply name each scale for the type of units needed for MS.  So if you use 1:50 scale for plotting you would have three custom scales with names like 1:50mm, 1:50cm, 1:50M, and simply pick the correct annoscale for that situation.

This keeps one title block to edit and maintain, and only one size when plotting, and any text. dims, etc, added in PS are one size rather than multiple sizes.