Scaling and metric vs imperial

AutoCAD 2009 Civil 3D (new) user.

Hi, I've been having trouble with making a drawing then creating a layout and having the scale I measure it by hand after plotting it out at 1:1 equal that of the viewport scale in the bottom right corner.

To explain with an example: I start a new autocad drawing, then I draw a line and type in 600. I create a new layout and use the 11x17 classic template. Then I go into that layout and double click in model space to bring my 600 length line into extended view. The viewport scale at the bottom says 0.01999.. and so I take the rounded reciprocal of this and change it to 1:50. I right click on the layout and plot at 1:1 and hand measure my line with a 1:50 metric scale and it's around 15.24m. The only way it makes any sense is that 15.24m/2.54 to convert between metric and imperial is 600 inches.

Format - Units says decimal. I want to be drawing in metric which I believe it is but having my viewport scale match that and can use that to make a scale bar for my plots. Or do I just have to accept that I need to divide the viewport scale by 2.54 everytime to make my scale bar? In which case the viewport scale would say 1:50 but my actual scale would be 1:19.7 (50/2.54)

Help! thank you =)

what scale do you want in you layout? try this, after you double click on the layout,zoom and type 1/50xp then enter. then try to plot it in 1:1 and measure the line.

Hope this helps

That's the same thing as setting the scale to 1:50. The point isn't what scale I want per se it's that the scale in viewport seems to think my 600 m length line is really a 600x2.54 = 1524 length line. Sorry if any of my mm to cm to m 10ths are off, but the point is the problem is between metric and imperial.

A 600 m line can fit on a landscape 11x17 piece of paper but at a scale of 1:2000.

I mean just have a look a your 1 foot or 30 cm length scale if you have one and on 1:2000 scale the entire length can represent 600 m. But you put 1:2000 (or 1:200 or 1:20 whatever) into the viewport the line won't fit properly. It only lets it fit in the 1:50 scale range or what appears to be the a conversion between metric to imperial as 1 inch = 2.54 cm. And to reiterate I don't mean I can't change the scale to anything I want to, I can, it's just the viewportscale and what I draw are in metric and imperial rather than as one metric agreement (I believe).

OK, I believe the problem is from this. If you select a 11x17 page in page setup manager the viewport scales are for that. If you select A3, the metric equivalent then the viewport scales change to match that.

Although 2 Q's I have still arise. 1. Is it possible to select 11x17 or any other imperial sized paper and have the viewport scales 'adjust' to this as if it were a metric paper size. and 2. Should my viewport scale match exactly my scale ruler. By that I mean, the line of length 600 I drew fits nicely at a 1:2 scale but it's really a 1:2000 scale as the line is supposed to be 600 m. I realize autocad is probably set to draw in mm, but I don't want to type in 600000 and have my dimension show 600000. Either type in 600000 and dimension shows 600 m or type in 600 as drawing units in m and dimension be in m. Sorry if this is confusing, I'm confusing my own self trying to explain this better.