would like a little help from you acad experts

[clanda]

Hi, being a novice and trying to find my way around AutoCAD, I would apprieciate help with a couple of things. I anyone can help.....cool! Firstly I am using ACAD2002. Basics seem to be going fine but the layout/plot stage is a bit concerning. My situation is:- I have set limits to a little larger than a standard (A3 page 420x297) x 100 (because I want to plot at 1:100) I have (in order to test the size my drawing fits on) drawn a rectangle of 42000x 29700. The floor plan i have draw fits inside this (obviously drawn at 1:1). The problem is when i go into layout and set the scale (in page layout) to 1:100 and the sheet size to A3 for plot, the drawing to me SHOULD fit nice inside the layout, but it does not. At 1;100 it is but a fraction in the lower lefthand corner and even when changing it to another scale (for eg: 1:50) it filled about an 1/8 of the layout. What am I doing wrong??? Im sure its something simple but ive had a good play around and nothing.........If that wasn't enough another question I have is when you have a drawing of say for eg; elevations.dwg and you have your layers and settings set for that and you draw only the floor plan in that particular drawing and then you have another on for eg; section.dwg or details.dwg, where you have different layers etc set for that. How do you plot different drawings on on layout, seeing as though each .dwg has its own layout????? Do you create a master/plot .dwg and insert everything you what (along with obviously all the layers and setting from each drawing) on a particular layout into that, create different view viewports and hide various aspects, if so how would you plot each thing at different scales on the one layout????? I'll stop now........sorry for the novel....hope i've made sense and someone can answer my queries......cheers!

[gcp310]

Look in the help section of Autocad. read up on the use of viewports. create a layer called VP and set it to no plot in the layers dialogue box.

you can create more than one viewport per layout.

for multiple drawings in the same dwg file, use more than one layout. right click on the layout tab and it should bring up a list of options.

do a search on this forum for templates, you use templates to avoid long setup times on new drawings.

hope this helps

g

[f700es]

just a few things to add to gcp's good info....

Layer "defpoints" can be used for viewports since by default it will not show up on a print.

I haven't used "limits" since r9, I really would not worry with them.

Good luck.

[vizwhiz]

My situation is:- I have set limits to a little larger than a standard (A3 page 420x297) x 100 (because I want to plot at 1:100) I have (in order to test the size my drawing fits on) drawn a rectangle of 42000x 29700

if you are setting up limits in modelspace to the above area that is ok
make sure when you set up the paperspace layout that you make The paperspace titleblock to be 1:1 DONT MULTIPLY THIS by 100

Then make a viewport with the scale factor of the viewport to be 1:100 or that is = 1/100xp

i dont work in metric so (i Think) the A3 sheet size you mentioned, 420x297 should be the correct paperspace titleblock layout size

see if the floorplan looks more correct with this method

Thanks

Randy

[gcp310]

i forgot about defpoints layer. Good choice.

G

[clanda]

OK thanks for the info guys. Won't use limits anymore (I wondered this as you can draw outside of them anyway).......... I can create a layer VP and set it to non plot OK..............or create a layer defpoints instead OK...........I'll rephrase my original question:- If I have drawn a floor plan at 1:1 in model space ie; 12000mm x 22000mm etc etc, how do I plot that at a scale of 1:100 on and A3 sheet of paper??? In the page setup dialog box under layout settings I have set the paper size to A3 (landscape) and the plot scale to 1:100. To me the drawing should fit snug inside the sheet, but it does not. vizwhiz cheers for the suggestion of going into the viewport and setting the scale factor to 100, this actually increases the model drawing to for eg;1200000mm x 2200000 which dooesn't seam right and doesn't solve the problem. I can't work out what i've done wrong.

[f700es]

OK thanks for the info guys. Won't use limits anymore (I wondered this as you can draw outside of them anyway).......... I can create a layer VP and set it to non plot OK..............or create a layer defpoints instead OK...........I'll rephrase my original question:- If I have drawn a floor plan at 1:1 in model space ie; 12000mm x 22000mm etc etc, how do I plot that at a scale of 1:100 on and A3 sheet of paper??? In the page setup dialog box under layout settings I have set the paper size to A3 (landscape) and the plot scale to 1:100. To me the drawing should fit snug inside the sheet, but it does not. vizwhiz cheers for the suggestion of going into the viewport and setting the scale factor to 100, this actually increases the model drawing to for eg;1200000mm x 2200000 which dooesn't seam right and doesn't solve the problem. I can't work out what i've done wrong.

Layer "defpoints" will be created automatically ;)

I don't use metric so bear with me but what I do is scale the viewport.
I create a viewport, it has my drawing in it. I double click in the view port and the border will get thick. I then give it a zoom command. I draw 1:1 and want to print at 1/4" = 1'-0" so I scale the viewport to this...

I type:

Zoom

ACAD come back with
Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or
[All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window] <real time>:

I give it "1/48xp" whichis the scale factor for 1/4" scale (1/4" goes into 1 foot 48 times).

You can also single click on the viewport frame and then set the scale in the properties box (r2000i and above I believe).

This way you can have several viewports on a sheet with different scales to them.

Hope I did not confuse you more.

[clanda]

Ahhhhh........ yes f700es you champion!! thankyou. For my acad2002 version single click on edge of viewport and changing scale to 1:100 in properties fits my drawing nicely on the sheet. Actually doing it the other way you metioned and setting it to 1/100xp works the same way!! SO....I have in the page setup dialog box settings as follows: page layout size-A3, plot scale 1:1, and in properties/or viewport scale factor 1:100.......easy......cheers mate! Just one thing, i realise there is a myriad of methods to accomplish certain tasks in acad, but is the method you described for scale/layout the standard?? Another question if you where drawing say a multi level structure would you draw each level/story in different .dwgs or on in the same .dwg with different layers for eg: wallslevel1 and wallslevel2 etc etc. and turn off different layers in the subsequent viewports?? Also for elevations,sections,details etc that you may want printed on one layout?? Thanks for scale/layout info again man.....a huge help!!

[vizwhiz]

Then make a viewport with the scale factor of the viewport to be 1:100 or that is = 1/100xp


This didnt work for you??

[Mr T]

Irespective of your drawing or it's size what matters is the size of sheet your plotting on.

Sine everything is proprtionate eg 2 A4 = 1 A3 then work to that proportion.

Use SCALE TO FIT in the plot options and then dimesnion accordingly

Enjoy

Nick

[f700es]

Ahhhhh........ yes f700es you champion!! thankyou. For my acad2002 version single click on edge of viewport and changing scale to 1:100 in properties fits my drawing nicely on the sheet. Actually doing it the other way you metioned and setting it to 1/100xp works the same way!! SO....I have in the page setup dialog box settings as follows: page layout size-A3, plot scale 1:1, and in properties/or viewport scale factor 1:100.......easy......cheers mate! Just one thing, i realise there is a myriad of methods to accomplish certain tasks in acad, but is the method you described for scale/layout the standard?? Another question if you where drawing say a multi level structure would you draw each level/story in different .dwgs or on in the same .dwg with different layers for eg: wallslevel1 and wallslevel2 etc etc. and turn off different layers in the subsequent viewports?? Also for elevations,sections,details etc that you may want printed on one layout?? Thanks for scale/layout info again man.....a huge help!!

Cool, glad you got. Like a ray of light from above huh? ;)

As for the second part of your question...different floors and such. It depends I guess. Sure you can have everything on one drawing but it will get big if you have a lot of info. This is what xrefs (external references files) are for. Good luck.

[gcp310]

or you can also select the viewport and under the properties dialogue box under the misc section, change the viewport scale there. it also gives you the option to set the hidplot option if you do 3d.

G

[clanda]

Yes sorry vizwhiz........ I do owe you an apology. I was interpreting your answer wrongly and therefore actually multipling the model inside the viewport x 100!! My fault!....so upon playing around further I discovered where I went wrong......which of course was one of the ways you did mention...cheers. Also still unsure where to draw everything ie: On different .dwgs, different layers within same drawing, or xref (which i havent got into yet) as f700es suggested. Is there a standard way of doing it or is it just personal choice? I may need to put different things on one layout is all. Ie; details on the same layout as section/elevations etc. Could I possibly draw everything on a separate .dwg and xref .dwgs to others i want on put on their layout?? How do you guys do it all?? Sorry for all the questions, i'm from an archicad background. Ive basically used the help menu (which is very good) to teach myself acad2002, but some things are just a little ambiguous or not mentioned in an exact or entire manner.

[vrichard]

You can have more than one layout per drawing if you want. If I'm going to be producing plans, elev's & sections for the same building I draw everything in model space and then I put plans & maybe some sections in one layout and elevations in another layout. Right click on the Layout 1 tab and select New Layout. Or if you use a standard drawing sheet just click on From Template when you right click on Layout 1.

Hope this is of some use.

Vics