how to scale a drawing?

rkent,

 

Thanks for the information.

 

So then it'd be: 1 drawing unit to 18 paper units? (You need to know that information to add a scale to the VP scale list.)

 

TMC.

Yes that is correct, however as Remark Pointed out it should exist in the default imperial scales, 3/4"=1'-0".

I just picked on it and interestingly enough they have it set as 0.75 drawing units to 12 paper units, but it all gets you to the same place.

Thank you for pointing that out rkent. To make it clearer I went back and changed it to: 1/96xp is equivalent to 1/8"=1'-0" and so on. I hope that avoids any confusion I may have caused.

I didn't think you caused any confusion, I was pointing out to The Mad Cadder that they took 3/4" and somehow came up with 3:4, but it is all good.

Just out of curiosity I open two new drawings in AutoCAD 2010.

The first one was a template that utilized imperial units. I went to Layout1 and checked the scale list. All of architectural scales, such as 3/4"=1'-0", were listed exactly as shown. The second one was a template that used metric units. I went to Layout1 and checked the scale list. No architectural scales were listed and the scale list was much shorter than that found in the imperial drawing template. There were a total of 17 scales shown that went from 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:5 and 1:8 all the out to 2:1, 4:1, 8:1, 10:1 and 100:1. 1:18 was not shown nor did I expect it to be primarily because this would be a rather odd scale for a metric drawing. In the imperial template there were a total of 33 scales listed.

Mad Cadder. I suggest you do the same and compare scale lists to see what is commonly available. And, as been pointed out, if a scale is required that is not shown then the scale list can be edited using the SCALELISTEDIT command.

Just out of curiosity I open two new drawings in AutoCAD 2010.

 

The first one was a template that utilized imperial units. I went to Layout1 and checked the scale list. All of architectural scales, such as 3/4"=1'-0", were listed exactly as shown. The second one was a template that used metric units. I went to Layout1 and checked the scale list. No architectural scales were listed and the scale list was much shorter than that found in the imperial drawing template. There were a total of 17 scales shown that went from 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:5 and 1:8 all the out to 2:1, 4:1, 8:1, 10:1 and 100:1. 1:18 was not shown nor did I expect it to be primarily because this would be a rather odd scale for a metric drawing. In the imperial template there were a total of 33 scales listed.

 

Mad Cadder. I suggest you do the same and compare scale lists to see what is commonly available. And, as been pointed out, if a scale is required that is not shown then the scale list can be edited using the SCALELISTEDIT command.

I have customized my default metric scale list, so that it shows every integer increment from 1:1 to 1:40, as well as a few others like 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, and increments of 5 up to 1:100. Rarely do I need any values which are not already on my drop down scale list. Having said that, I need to get with my own program and stop using the z > xp prompts.

Unless you have an older version of AutoCAD I can't think of a good reason to go and use Zoom > n/XP inputs but as they say "each to his own."

Unless you have an older version of AutoCAD I can't think of a good reason to go and use Zoom > n/XP inputs but as they say "each to his own."

Farce of habit.

Just how I learned to do it.

I'm going to stop using it, as I dislike lengthy "shortcuts", and I know better.