Hi,
>> model scale, plot scale, Annotative scale
Model scale:
By default a model should always been created in the real size and units, so if a table is 1m long it should have the length of 1 and units set to meter (or 1000 length and units set to mm, ...). If a model is not created in the real size you'll always would have troubles measuring distances/areas/volumes and when this model should be inserted into another project.
Plot Scale:
As a model might be larger than your paper size it's needed to be plotted at a different scaling.
So in case a building is 20m x 20m you can't plot it with that size, therefor a plot scale is used, e.g. 1:100 to send the building 20/100 = 0.2m to the printer/plotter.
In AutoCAD you have layouts (which represent a paper) and onto that you can place viewports (which show the model)... these viewports get the plot scale assigned.
Annotation Scale:
Objects like dimensions, text, blocks (and hatches) have a fixed size. E.g. when creating a text inside the above building (20m x 20m) to write room-name and area you might create a text with 1m in size to be able to see that content in model-space. However, when you then plot this with a plot scale of 1:100 the text would only be 1mm high, not really easy to read.
Now annotative scaling comes to work: you can assign the text to be annotative, e.g. resize the text for plotting to be always 2.5mm, independent of the plot scale. The text will be 2.5mm on paper independent if you plot that project with 1:50 or 1:200.
Hope it's better to understand now, even if a lot more of documentation could be written here 😉
- alfred -
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2025
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(not an Autodesk consultant)
