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nmgmarques

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Hi.

 

Can someone please help me understand why this:

Ashampoo_Snap_2013.03.08_14h54m26s_001_.jpg

 

is printing out like this (with all text scaling down about 1/2)?

IMG_20130308_145725.jpg

 

It's driving me nuts. I am trying to create a "title block" I think it's called. I'm not even sure if i'm doing it right. Pretty sure most of the mesurements are off (center lines and coordinate system lines and distances...). I'll attach the file if someone is interested in taking a look. Any and all help greatly appreciated.

A3 Horizontal.dwg

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Are you planning in printing directly from model space or do you envision making use of a paper space layout in the future?

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Are you planning in printing directly from model space or do you envision making use of a paper space layout in the future?

 

As a total noob (well not total, but pretty noobish), I have no idea. I can tell you that most of the drawings I will be making I will have to print out to A4, A3, A2 and A1. With title blocks and preferably an automatic scale. Does this help?

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What part of the drawing is driving you nuts?

 

What type of drawings will you be creating?

 

A long, long time ago in a CAD world far, far away model space was created and it was good. Everything went into model space and drawings were done much as they were on the drafting board manually.

 

Then along came paper space and with it came layouts and viewports. Now it got interesting.

 

Model space held our geometry. Layouts became the home to our title blocks and borders. Plotting from a layout is done at a 1:1 scale. If you want text that is 2.5mm high that's what you instruct AutoCAD to use.

 

Interestingly enough users now had a choice as to where they wanted to put their text and dimensions. Some stayed with the default system and kept both in model space (using a new feature called Annotative Scaling). Some decided it was too much of a hassle and decided to put both in their layouts. Dimensioning then required the enabling of a feature called Associative. I suggest that newcomers to AutoCAD explore both methods and see which one works best for the type of work that they do.

 

I would like to make one suggestion.

 

If you decide to use layouts and subsequently viewports too then consider creating a layer specifically for your viewports (call it VPorts), assign it a distinctive color (maybe magenta?) and set the layer to "no print" in the Layer Properties Manager. I think you'll find it most useful.

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What part of the drawing is driving you nuts?

 

What type of drawings will you be creating?

 

A long, long time ago in a CAD world far, far away model space was created and it was good. Everything went into model space and drawings were done much as they were on the drafting board manually.

 

Then along came paper space and with it came layouts and viewports. Now it got interesting.

 

Model space held our geometry. Layouts became the home to our title blocks and borders. Plotting from a layout is done at a 1:1 scale. If you want text that is 2.5mm high that's what you instruct AutoCAD to use.

 

Interestingly enough users now had a choice as to where they wanted to put their text and dimensions. Some stayed with the default system and kept both in model space (using a new feature called Annotative Scaling). Some decided it was too much of a hassle and decided to put both in their layouts. Dimensioning then required the enabling of a feature called Associative. I suggest that newcomers to AutoCAD explore both methods and see which one works best for the type of work that they do.

 

Right now I'll be focusing on creating a general layout of the plant floor and where machines go, equipment, stuff like that. Later on I'll be progressing to 2d part drawing or 3d part drawing and plotting the drawings in 2d views. Example of layouts I am updating. Bottom right was updated by me today. The rest is part of the old original drawing. I'll have to "frame" that bottom right section in to a title block and margins and print it to A3 with the scale displayed.

Heller PFH 10-1000_v02.dwg

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You may wish to consider creating templates for the different types of drawings that will be done. Each template will have some pre-defined layers, linetypes, text styles, and alike so you can hit the ground running and not have to recreate the wheel each time you start a new drawing.

 

Back to your original drawing. What seems to be the problem?

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Re: Heller PFH drawing. Not much in the way of detail there. You should see what one of our process building layouts looks like. I work at a small chemical plant. What type of plant do you work at?

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You may wish to consider creating templates for the different types of drawings that will be done. Each template will have some pre-defined layers, linetypes, text styles, and alike so you can hit the ground running and not have to recreate the wheel each time you start a new drawing.

 

Back to your original drawing. What seems to be the problem?

 

That's the idea. Create templates.

 

The problem, as you can see in image 1, the borders seem to be correct and the reference grid numbers and letters seem to be in place, as does the text of the title block. But when I plot it to the plotter, the text portion comes out as seen in image 2. Smaller than it should. About 1/4 size of the total drawing. But plot -> preview shows all good.

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We build refrigeration compressors. The building has 4 halls. This portion is from hall 2, where we have our CNC mills, conventional machines and such.

 

I'd love to see a sample of your work. My goal is to start changing some of the hundreds of outdated drawings and start giving them some detail and make them look... well, at lack of a better word... more professional.

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I would strongly recommend that you consider placing your title block and border in your layout and not over in model space. One thing you should know however is that AutoCAD displays a dashed outline in a layout which it deems to be the limits of the printable area. This is very important to remember because anything that falls on or outside of the dashed lines will NOT print. That means you will have to shrink your title block and border to fit WITHIN these limits.

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So in other words, I won't be able to print out a ISO regulation drawing? Like 20mm margin from left and 10mm margin from right, top and bottom?

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Portion of plot plan.jpg

This is one corner of a process building.

Tanks, pumps, mezzanines, stairs, building columns, etc. are all included in every such building layout. We have four process buildings and five tank farms. The tank farm layouts are just as detailed.

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So in other words, I won't be able to print out a ISO regulation drawing? Like 20mm margin from left and 10mm margin from right, top and bottom?

I am not able that question for you as I do not work in metric units or plot to metric sized paper. One of the other forum members who do can and most likely will answer your question.

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Without looking into this much, I'd say the answer to that is "YES YOU CAN". If you get it drawn you can print it. But do yourself a big favor at this stage of learning AutoCAD. Take ReMark's advice and learn to use layout tabs and paper space. I am surrounded by folks who have used AutoCAD for years and yet to this day only a few of them have mastered the layout and paper space method. This is the element for which AutoCAD was designed for. And getting stuck with working only in and from model space you will sell yourself short.

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Jesus H Christ! There's not a hope in hell I can make anything as good as that. Not at my current level. Maybe some way down the line. For now, it's mostly lines and rectangles for me :) Thanks for showing me that. Gives me something to aim for. Good stuff.

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Without looking into this much, I'd say the answer to that is "YES YOU CAN". If you get it drawn you can print it. But do yourself a big favor at this stage of learning AutoCAD. Take ReMark's advice and learn to use layout tabs and paper space. I am surrounded by folks who have used AutoCAD for years and yet to this day only a few of them have mastered the layout and paper space method. This is the element for which AutoCAD was designed for. And getting stuck with working only in and from model space you will sell yourself short.

This is my problem. The people that have made these drawing in the past have made them in a kind of "makeshift" fashion. It's all been thrown together with a bit of duct tape and glue. I have no patience for this. I know the drawings aren't all that detailed, but at least what I have done has some structure and at the bare minimum, my text is aligned :P

And they have been creating a title block drawing and just pasting that on to model space and scaling it up or down to get the part they want in there, then just plot -> window and pick the edges. And their title block isn't even up to ISO standards and in some cases, it's even got parallel lines to give the illusion of 0.7mm line thickness. I just can't stand that. I'm nitpicky that way.

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While it may look impressive it really isn't. It's just lines and circles, text and hatching. That's it.

 

Are you going to be around much longer? I want to take a shot at something with the title block and border you posted originally. Can you bear with me another 10 minutes or so?

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While it may look impressive it really isn't. It's just lines and circles, text and hatching. That's it.

 

Are you going to be around much longer? I want to take a shot at something with the title block and border you posted originally. Can you bear with me another 10 minutes or so?

Take as long as you need. If I don't reply right now, I'll reply as soon as I can. And my thanks. You have no obligation to do anything at all and still you are taking time to help me, so thanks!!!

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OK...Nice meeting you and I'm sure we'll bump into each other again. Cheers.

 

Nice meeting you too. It's not that often you find people that are so willing to help. It's quite a refreshing change.

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