dashed lines

I have a questions that has been plaguing me for weeks. I am an electrical contractor flying solo in the drawing dept since the economy has forced us to cut our full time draftsperson a few months ago. I dabbled in AutoCAD around release 14 and haven't touched it in several years. Muddling through and getting by, but need some help.

 

I draw lines in model space on top of an architects background showing conduit runs and when i go to view them in the viewports of my layout, the ones I make dashed are not dashed. I'm sure i'm setting it up wrong, but I've adjusted the linetype scales, plot styles, etc...... This is a pretty simple 2D line, so i'm sure its not complicated for experts, but its a bit much to digest how ALL these scales and styles and layers and layouts and veiwports mesh together to give you your end result on a sheet of paper.

 

Any help on a step by step would be much appreciated. I'm new to this site, so it might take a bit to navigate.

type LTSCALE and set it to 1. type PSLTSCALE and set it to 1. type MSLTSCALE and set it to 1. Make sure you haven't clicked the line and set the Linetype Scale in Properties to anything other than 1. Above the Command Line, to the right you'll see a Scale list, this is your "Annotation Scale" setting. Set this to whatever scale you will be setting your viewport to. This is the best practice for viewing and maintaining quality control in linetypes.

I follow you until this:"make sure you haven't clicked the line and set the linetype scale in poperties to anything other than 1".........In model space, with nothing selected, the properties window on the left defaults the layer to the same layer as the line in question........is that ok or is there another area to adjust properties i am not aware of????

I follow you until this:"make sure you haven't clicked the line and set the linetype scale in poperties to anything other than 1".........In model space, with nothing selected, the properties window on the left defaults the layer to the same layer as the line in question........is that ok or is there another area to adjust properties i am not aware of????

Yeah that's fine. I don't think you have done anything regarding this so I wouldn't worry about it. Follow everything else and see if it works for you.

Okay, i did all that and nothing happened. I then changed the line type from DASHED @ to DASHDOT2 and it shows up correctly in model and in my layout. My problem is tentativly solved, but why does is not show up that way with DASHED selected?

 

Also, Why do the lines set up by the architect appear solid in model space, but DASHED in the layouts viewports while mine is DASHEDDOT in both? How/why would you set up to do that? What is the difference between the lines appearance in model vs paper?

 

Thanks for all this help. Sorry for the million questions. I appreciate it.

Okay, i did all that and nothing happened. I then changed the line type from DASHED @ to DASHDOT2 and it shows up correctly in model and in my layout. My problem is tentativly solved, but why does is not show up that way with DASHED selected?

How long is the line? DASHDOT2 is half the scaling of DASHED. Try DASHED2 or even HIDDEN2 and see if that helps.

 

Also, Why do the lines set up by the architect appear solid in model space, but DASHED in the layouts viewports while mine is DASHEDDOT in both? How/why would you set up to do that? What is the difference between the lines appearance in model vs paper?

Are you opening the file you received from the Architect? Who knows what settings they use. What is the LTSCALE, MSLTSCALE, PSLTSCALE set at? Also, what is the Annotation Scale in Modelpace set to? Is it 1:1 or is it 1/8" = 1'-0"? If none of those yield any error then what is the actual object linetype set at when you select it and look at the Properties Palette? These are the five main things I look at when linetype scaling is off in both model or paper space.

Quick and dirty-

 

Try the following-

 

Go into model space and Select All

Open the properties box and change the linetype scale to 0.5

Close the properties box

Type in- CELTSCALE

Type in- 0.5

Type in- PSLTSCALE

Type in- 1

 

All dashed lines, (existing and new lines), should now appear in paperspace, and will plot, with dashes about 3mm long with 1.5mm gap – in all viewports regardless of the viewport scale.

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