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New at this, ACAD 2016 student version-- Trying to create a 2 D drawing.


Emmettjg

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I have created a 2D drawing in layout 1 page.

I am trying to add dimensions but they are really small.

I built the drawing that I want, but when I went to plot it, it is Very tiny, in a huge grid. (I suspect this explains the small dimensions.)

Anyway, I don't see a way to delete all the excess area around my drawing, to allow the preview to size up the image of the created part.

Anyone have any suggestions?

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I had started the drawing in Layout mode, because I had read on line that that is what I need to do to create a 2D drawing.

I did not apply a Sheet size, as I figured I could force it to a one page 8-1/2" x 11". Well, the drawing is huge, and the area of the drawing that I need is quite small. I will attach it here:

I want to be able to print (plot) this on a single piece of paper, and hopefully dimension some of the items on the page. So far all annotation is enormous.

Thanks for your interest in helping.

Emmett

50SullivanDr.dwg

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I have created a 2D drawing in layout 1 page.

I am trying to add dimensions but they are really small.

I built the drawing that I want, but when I went to plot it, it is Very tiny, in a huge grid. (I suspect this explains the small dimensions.)

Anyway, I don't see a way to delete all the excess area around my drawing, to allow the preview to size up the image of the created part.

Anyone have any suggestions?

EDIT: Just in case you read this earlier, I wrote an entirely different post before looking at your drawing. I see you did draw in modelspace. Which makes me even more puzzled about what "Layout Mode" means. Still, even though I was off as to what tab you had started on, check out the tutorials page anyway. I made major changes to what I wrote after I looked at the drawing.

 

AutoCad is NOT one of the types of software a person can simply pick up and start much of anything without a bit of guidance. Start here >>> AT THIS LINK. It's one of the FREE tutorials here on the forum. It's for 2014, but not different enough from 2015/16 to matter at this point.

 

The dimensions are so small, because you are using a dimension style with a text height of 1". Since you are drawing in modelspace at full size, 1" is pretty tiny for dimension text. Use a Text style in your dimensions SPECIFICALLY dedicated for that single use. Set the text height in the text style editor at 0" (zero inches). This will let the dimension style override the text style height. That way, you can use the same text style in ALL of your dimension styles, no matter how tall you want the text to be in any of them without having to go back and mess with another, or original text style intended for dimensions. Unless you are going to be using ANNOTATIVE DIMENSIONS, Or intending to put all your dimensions in paperspace, you will need a different dimension style for every scale you print your drawings in.

 

I noticed your dimensions are not Annotative, but you have an annotative text style set current. I suggest staying away from annotative anything for now. The learning curve is steep enough without adding all that to it.

 

Your text notes are way big because you are using an ANNOTATIVE text style with a text height of 8". Annotative means that the text height will always be the same height in any scaled viewport in paperspace. 8" is kinda large for paperspace, 1/8" or 3/16" are good sizes for paperspace text and dimension text.

 

Your modelspace annotative scale is set to 1:5 which will make the text appear even 5 times larger than they really are in modelspace, or 40" tall rather than 8" tall. This happens in modelspace if the annotative scale is not set to 1:1, with annotative dimensions, because the program is showing you the relationship between your model geometry and the annotative text as it will appear in a paperspace viewport at that scale. This feature is convenient in helping you to keep notes and dimensions spaced far enough away from your model geometry so they look good and are easily read IN PAPERSPACE, after you set up your scaled viewport in the page set-up/layout manager.

 

You change your annotative view scale using the tool at the bottom of the screen on the task bar. Click the arrow next to the scale displayed and change it to 1:1. Leave the modelspace view scale set to 1:1, UNLESS you are intending to use annotative text and dimensions, which is not recommended at this point, but is learnable along with the rest if you wish. Then, change it to what you intend your final viewport scale to be to place the annotative notes and dims in the clear, in a neat manner. If your annotative items do not change "apparent" size in modelspace when you adjust the annotative scale tool, then that means the scale you changed the view to, has not yet been assigned to those items. Aw cheeeze, this is getting too deep. Just save annotative scaled items until later. They need to be concentrated on all by themselves.

 

The scale 1:5 in a paperspace viewport, assuming your modelspace and paperspace units are both set to inches, means that ONE paperspace unit equals FIVE modelspace units. Therefore, your modelspace geometry will be 5 times smaller on paper than it is in real life. Now, the annotative text style used is another whole animal. These will NOT scale in the viewport. The annotative 8" text height will be 8" tall in paperspace no matter what the scale is. That is why it needs to be a LOT smaller from the gitgo.

 

A house and lot ain't gonna fit on a 8.5x11 paper at 1:5. Since you are drawing in inches, use one of the imperial scales. The largest imperial scale that fits (portrait) without running over 8.5x11 is 1/32" = 1'-0". This means your NON-annotative dimension text needs to be 48" tall in modelspace, in order to be 1/8" tall on paper.

 

Did you make the Standard text style Annotative? You should not modify the Standard text and dimension styles that come with AutoCad for now. You may need the original versions as a fall back to create new styles from. Luckily, they are stored in each drawing, so they still will exist in the next new drawing you create, unless you copy this drawing (Save As...) to a new drawing.

 

By the way, your drawing itself looks pretty good, even though everything is on one layer. I take it, this drawing is for the septic system?

 

There's good reasons why AutoCad 101 classes are at least a semester long, ain't there? See, all of what I wrote is way too confusing, even for me to try and proofread. Just do the tutorials, go to class, and get it into your head step by step.

Edited by Dana W
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Typically geometry is drawn in model space. Title blocks and borders go in paper space layouts. Text and dimensions can be placed in either. If you are going to place them in model space then the best approach is to use annotative scaling. This takes some practice. On the other hand if you elect to place them in your layout the only thing you have to be aware of is that your dimensions need to be associative which is NOT the same as annotative.

 

You do not "force" architectural drawings to fit a piece of paper; they should be done to some sort of scale. Common architectural scales for houses/commercial buildings are 1/8"=1'-0" and 1/4"=1'-0". The same goes for civil engineering drawings (ex. - septic system). These would typically be done at such scales as 1"=40' or 1"=50'. Based on a quick test you could use a scale of 1"=40' and the house will fit comfortably on a 8.5x11 in portrait orientation with a title block and border. A scale of 1"=50' will be too big. The largest scale you can use is 1"=30' which isn't all that common but at least it can be found on an engineer's scale.

 

Questions:

-Are you doing this for your own use or for a friend?

-Is this for an existing house?

-Is the house on city water or well water? If it is on well water where is the well located?

-Are you following city/town regulations regarding placement of the septic field relative to property lines?

-Have you spoken with the town sanitarian?

-How did you determine the size of the septic field?

-Did you have a percolation test done?

 

You would benefit immensely by taking a look at the tutorials here at CADTutor and another website called mycadsite.com.

 

By the way you have one duplicate line and twelve overlapping lines in your drawing as well as a zero-length geometric object and three database errors.

Edited by ReMark
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The property as drawn at a scale of 1"=30' and 1"=40' for comparison purposes. The magenta colored line is a viewport and not a border. The viewport is created in the layout and acts as a window allowing us to see the geometry created back in model space. The text is both cases was placed in the layout and is 1/4" in height. The paper is 8.5x11 in portrait orientation. If you have any questions just ask.

 

Sullivan30.jpg

 

Sullivan40.jpg

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A portion of the 30 scale version with a few dimensions thrown in for good measure (no pun intended) and the property line denoted using a different linetype. All dimensions were done in the layout using a text height of 3/23" (0.09375). 1/8" size text would have been too large in my opinion. Oh, and I changed the font from the default of Arial to something easier to read called RomanS. Arial is a TrueType font while RomanS is a standard AutoCAD .SHX font. I also changed a number of the Dimension Style defaults to make the dimensions look better.

 

SullivanDim.jpg

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Last one. I added a quickly thrown together title block, border and north arrow to give it a somewhat finished look. With the addition of any information the town specifically requires this could be submitted to the building department, town sanitarian, and/or planning and zoning.

 

SullivanTB&B.jpg

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Last one. I added a quickly thrown together title block, border and north arrow to give it a somewhat finished look. With the addition of any information the town specifically requires this could be submitted to the building department, town sanitarian, and/or planning and zoning.

 

[ATTACH]55545[/ATTACH]

That looks pretty good ReMark. You should save that (except for the geometry) as a template and send it to the OP so he could use it for other projects.

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Not sure but this could be a "one off" the OP is doing for himself, his family or a friend in which case saving it as a template won't benefit him in the long run. Anyways, it is simple enough to be reproduced quickly and he could use the practice.

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Looking at the drawing he seems to have a understanding of how to draw. Most beginners don't know how to use a spline or even that there is such a thing. For a beginning effort I'd say he did a really good job. Even though it's a project for a neighbor or family member most likely, he could use the template for learning purposes like you said.

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Good point. I'll take that under advisement.

 

For anyone who might dabble in AutoCAD on an infrequent basis I'd recommend putting text and dimensions in the layout and not in model space unless one is going to dump everything in model space (old school style) and utilize scale factors when it comes to text size and arrowheads for example. Then all one has to do is remember to "plot to scale" rather than 1:1 as is the case when utilizing a layout.

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Wow,

 

Thank you folks for all the help.I appreciate the time you put in.

This program has so much to learn in it, but VERY powerful.

I will take the advice and do the tutorials.

 

Thank you again!

Emmett

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I drew this just to get the sketches (I drew when I helped my friend put in his septic system) onto a single piece of paper.

I was hoping I could put something together quickly while learning how to use Autocad.

I am looking at the sketches you guys did using my original test drawing, they look nice, but I am having trouble getting to the point of being able to set up the geometry to see how it will look at 1"=30'. I keep getting a message that says "selected Layout has an invalid hard copy configuration" So, I have spent some serious time trying to alter parameters to see if i can get a preview, but to no avail. Any on have any suggestions as to how to work through a way to get this on paper?

Thank you in advance.

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Found this at the AutoDesk Forums in response to a similar question posted there.

 

"You get this message when the plot preview is looking for a plotter that is not on your system. Go to page setup and select a plotter that is on your system and try again."

 

Attach a copy of the drawing to your next post. Someone here will test print it to see what the results look like and report back to you.

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Thanks ReMark,

I had figured that out, but when I try to layout my paper space rendition to the model, I cannot seem to get the size of the layout and the image to fit nicely on the page, and still allow for a decent size dimension. I appreciate that the program is very capable, but it seems the thought process to get from model to on paper seems quite convoluted.

(I find I am longing for a simple 2d program like CADRA.)

anyway, I made my model, and I created an 8.5 x 11 portrait page to put it on, and I got it working to a point, and the program hung, and all my settings went haywire.

Any chance you still have that file you created attachment 55545 from? Thanks. Emmett

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Yes, I believe I still have my example drawing.

 

Sorry but I have to go out into the plant for an hour or so. Upon my return I'll check this thread. Time now is 2:29 p.m.

 

OK, it's almost 7 p.m. here in Connecticut and there doesn't seem to be any further activity as regarding this thread so it's off to satisfy my Netflix habit. Catch you on the flip side. Goodnight.

Edited by ReMark
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I might be persuaded to part with a copy but first I'll need your email address. Put it in a form similar to the following....

 

e m m e t t j g AT w h a t e v e r DOT c o m

 

That way will ensure no bot will scoop it up and flood your in-box with junk email.

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Hi ReMark,

 

My address is: .. gone.

 

Thank you so much for the file! It saved me a ton of time.

 

Emmett

Edited by Emmettjg
remove address
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