Line type issues when in metric

Hello all,

As a student of CAD my question revolves around a drawing I had to do in metric. I chose a standard template (Acadiso.dwt) and successfully created my sketch with one important problem. The line types for center line and hidden line would refuse to display properly. They displayed as solid lines even if I went to other variants (hidden2 and center2). I ended up not using those lines and put them in by hand on a printed page which was fine for that particular assignment and teacher. I'm just curious what it is I was experiencing. I don't seem to have that issue when drawing Acad.dwt and no, I unfortunately did not save the drawing in the computer for someone to look at. I printed it out and that was that. Common problem or freak of nature? Anyone else ever notice this kind of anomaly? Ideas? I can't help but think it was something I did incorrectly but for the life of me I can't figure out what. Thanks ahead of time for your time.

1. Use acadiso.dwt - an international standard, metric.

2. You copy the line of inches?

3. Draw in model space, and printed from the model or paper space?

4. Check the lines of the scale.

5. For our test necessarily need .dwg file. Otherwise it guessing.

If you use the acadiso.dwt (metric) for the template you need be sure to use the acadiso.lin (metric) for the linetypes.

I remember that there was a very odd setting 'glitch' that shouldn't affect dashed linetypes, but did.

I'm not sure if this still applies in newer Acad versions but it may be worth checking.

The setting was the display resolution setting for Arc and Circle smoothness, (VIEWRES) found in the Options > Display dialogue.

If, for some reason, the Viewres setting was 0 or 1 then all dashed lines would display as solid.

1. Use acadiso.dwt - an international standard, metric.

2. You copy the line of inches?

3. Draw in model space, and printed from the model or paper space?

4. Check the lines of the scale.

5. For our test necessarily need .dwg file. Otherwise it guessing.

OK, in order of asked:

1. Yes, in acadiso.dwt so OK there

2. No copy, all created from scratch. OK, it was a scratch creation of a set of given parameters from a text book

3. Drawn in model space, printed from paper space

4. Line scale should've been correct. The drawing was scaled 1:2 and the print made was to scale. That was a requirement for the exercise.

5. Sorry, I did not save the file after I made the drawing. What is weird is I saved everything prior to this exercise. I will keep those files until the hard drive and the thumb drive back-up dies.

That will probably be the downfall for this thread. That will teach me

I hope I am understanding your points correctly maratovich; if not, my apologies.

If you use the acadiso.dwt (metric) for the template you need be sure to use the acadiso.lin (metric) for the linetypes.

That I am not sure about. I will have to make sure that is in fact the case & I will have to make another drawing to test that. I assumed it was an automatic linkage when the start up template asked me what template I wanted to use. Regardless, that is good advice and thank you for that SLW210. I remember trying to use ACAD ISO02W100 as the line type without luck. Further investigation on my end is needed.

I remember that there was a very odd setting 'glitch' that shouldn't affect dashed linetypes, but did.

I'm not sure if this still applies in newer Acad versions but it may be worth checking.

 

The setting was the display resolution setting for Arc and Circle smoothness, (VIEWRES) found in the Options > Display dialogue.

 

If, for some reason, the Viewres setting was 0 or 1 then all dashed lines would display as solid.

OK nukecad, that is not something I have checked yet. It wouldn't surprise me if that setting is what got me; that has been an issue for me (settings). FYI, I am using AutoCAD 2016 educational version, so one would think any issues were taken care of by now, but......

Another thing to look into, I will report back to the thread what I find out. Thank you nukecad and all the rest for your hard earned wisdom. 73

If the drawing was created in modelspace at a scale of 1:2, then that was probably the cause of the problem.

I believe in such a case, you should have adjusted your LTSCALE to account for that, by increasing the ltscale setting.

Typically everything drawn in Modelspace is drawn life sized (1:1), and scaling is applied to the paperspace viewport.

Check the system variable setting for MEASUREMENT, it should be 1 for metric, and 0 for Imperial units.

That is probably going to be correct, as it sounds like you used an appropriate ISO template.

Sounds like nukecad may be onto something too.

OK, I found the drawing in question. I knew I saved everything! I will attach and wait for the results. Thanks!

BASE.dwg

It must be in command line to set new value (the default)

LTSCALE = 1

then perform regeneration

Maratovich,

I did what you have above, LTSCALE = 1.

I went to print from paper space and had to plot scale 1mm=0.64 to get the printout to scale correctly (from paper space) then it occurred to me - print from model space. Once I set plot scale to 1:2 and plotted to window, all the line types presented themselves as they should. I'm not sure why the differences between model and paper space (paper space still did not want to show all the hidden lines or any center lines properly) but with your help I just learned how to properly, easily and correctly print out in one step. As I suspected all along, I did something wrong.

Dadgad - I will look into some of my other work drawn @ 1:1 to check out my newfound knowledge about printing stuff out. I wondered why I was having trouble in a Metric drawing when I had no problems before in an Imperial measured one. Thanks for the heads up. It must be something about how we are being taught CAD that helps cause these sorts of errors to crop up in my work. I noticed with the assignment this drawing was for, when I made a note to the teacher that I was having issues with the line types and that was why certain ones were done by hand, he said not to worry about it because line types was something we will work on next semester. I thought that a weird statement at the time, I still kinda do...... sometimes I think I learn stuff faster than the average schmoe but I'm not going to push it because there is still a WOW factor to this whole CAD thing I am working through as well. I do forget my fair share of stuff it seems.

As an aside, all the layers/line types in this drawing were made the same color because for this assignment no differentiation was called for.

This forum and its members are a vital component to my education and I am most definitely grateful I found you all and for your help. Someday I hope to be a contributor of knowledge instead of a siphon. Again, thank you.

Nukecad,

I am having difficulty finding what you referenced concerning VIEWRES in the Options>Display dialog. When I type in VIEWRES on the command line, it asks me if I want fast zooms y/n, of which y is in brackets so I type yes, then it asks me circle zoom percent where 1-20000 is the option, 1000 is in brackets so I put in 1000. Apparently I am seeing something other that what you described and I would like to know how to improve my circle resolution since in AutoCAD 3D my circles seem kind of 'chunky' which I attribute to resolution rate. Perhaps it is the whole Options>Display dialog reference that is throwing me off. So, where am I (as usual) looking incorrectly? Thank you ahead of time for this new request.

af7xm: I believe Nukecad is actually reffering to the system variable WHIPARC. See.....

ReMark,

I think I understand what I see there and what it means. Probably in real life it says "dude, don't mess with it", so until it really becomes an issue I should leave well enough alone.

At least until I wake up a little more and that inquisitive part of me wreaks some havoc on my sensibility.

Thanks for the tidbit sir, I am going to look into this.

af7xm another variable is PSLTSCALE its 0 or 1 its sets wether your layouts are the same as your model with regard to linetype scaling. Do this when in a layout view. You may have to change the global value LTSCALE to get the right look and feel. We use 0.25.

af7xm: I believe Nukecad is actually reffering to the system variable WHIPARC.

No, I did actually mean the VIEWRES setting.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/AutoCAD-Core/files/GUID-77B1C617-E4BB-4D1E-823A-8E2B055B258E-htm.html

As af7xm noted this can be set up to a value of 20000.

The higher the setting used the smoother arcs and circles appear, with a trade off in longer times to refresh the display.

I was never sure just why anybody would want this set at 0 or 1, because that would mean that arcs and circles would display as a straight line from the centre to the radius, maybe someone who only ever drew straight lines?

(I first came across the issue with dashed lines when a lisp had changed it for some reason and then terminated before changing it back).

WHIPARC is an override of VIEWRES that turns it on or off.

PS. I tried it earlier using version 2000i and seting VIEWRES to 0 or 1 does like I said and displays all dashed lines and centrelines as solid in both Model and Paperspace.

I seem to recall that this behaviour was still there in Acad2006 (and possibly 2010), maybe the 'glitch' was fixed in later versions.

(I don't have 2016 but it would be interesting if someone could give it a try).

I don't ever remember VIEWRES as having only two values (i.e. - 0 or 1) while I do recall it having a range of 1-20000 for quite some time. I do know WHIPARC was available in AutoCAD 2002 as it says so in the book "The Illustrated AutoCAD 2002 Quick Reference" on page 513 by Ralph Grabowski. He defines VIEWRES as a system variable that "controls whether zooms and pans are performed at redraw speed".

I think we are having a slight missunderstanding here Remark.

Probably because it is only setting 0 or 1 as the value for VIEWRES that gave the dashed line display problem, (my post may have given the impression that these were the only two values).

Any higher VIEWRES setting (2 or higher) does not give the problem.

I never said that these were the only values or that higher settings for VIEWRES were not possible.

VIEWRES has always had a setting range, the higher the setting the smoother the arcs and circles. See the link I gave above.

WHIPARC is/was a binary setting and only had the on/off (1 or 0) value that turned the VIEWRES setting value on or off. https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/AutoCAD-Core/files/GUID-DFB5E247-3ADF-4F73-9DE3-E6EA4D2F4AAA-htm.html

WHIPARC is now an obsolete command (but still available for backward compatibility and memory/display testing).

It's function has been incorporated into the VIEWRES command which now asks if you want VIEWRES on or off rather than using the seperate command.