Shane Cawthorn Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 HI, I AM NEW AT AUTOCAD. I AM CURRENTLY DOING A HOME COURSE ON AUTOCAD WITH MINIMAL INFORMATION. I AM NOT DRAWING TOO BAD ON AUTOCAD 2012. MY PROBLEM IS: I BELIEVE I AM DRAWING IM METRES IN MODEL SPACE, WHEN GOING TO PAPER SPACE, IT IS IN MILLIMETRES. WHEN IN PAPERSPACE, I CREATE A VIEW PORT AND SCALE THE IMAGE DRAWN TO A SCALE OF 1:100. THE IMAGE GETS SO SMALL I CANNOT EVEN SEE IT ON PAPERSPACE. IF I SCALE IT AT 10:1 IT CAN BE SEEN ON THE PAGE, WHICH CANNOT BE CORRECT. SOME WHERE MY SETTINGS ARE INCORRECT. WHERE CAN I LOOK AND WHAT CAN I DO TO RECTIFY THIS PROBLEM. I AM SO FRUSTRATED, AS I HAVE BEEN STRUGGELING FOR DAYS WITH THIS AND CANNOT FIND THE FAULT. PLEASE HELP THANKS:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Just what is it that you are drawing? Is it a machine part, a floor plan of a house or a site plan. That is going to determine what 1 unit is equal to in model space. 1 unit could equal 1 millimeter, 1 centimeter, 1 meter or 1 kilometer as far as AutoCAD is concerned. Whatever it is that you are drawing, draw it FULL size. Yes, in paper space 1 unit = 1 millimeter. Why? Because your paper sizes are in millimeters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Cawthorn Posted December 17, 2011 Author Share Posted December 17, 2011 I am drawing a floor plan. Why is it that when i scale it to 1:100 it get so small in paper space that i cannot see the floor plan. Where are the settings that i must check. I am still a dummie with autocad thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Did you draw the floor plan FULL size in model space? What sheet size will you be plotting/printing to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Cawthorn Posted December 17, 2011 Author Share Posted December 17, 2011 I believe so, how do i check Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Tillman Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Welcome to the forum. You will find lots of good information here. But I think we can already tell by your question that you need to first grasp the main thing about drawing in model and paper space. It's not uncommon for new users to ask this kind of question. You create a drawing of a part, a floor plan, your girlfriends body....whatever you like in model space and draw it 1:1, that is you draw it full scale. You can set the units you want to work with in model space using the UNITS command. Once you have this set, you can then draw a line 10mm long by just drawing it to 10 units. Don't worry about scale of anything because AutoCAD will take care of all of that for you. Once you have your drawing ready for presentation then you will go into paperspace and create Viewports with the proper size for the paper you're printing on and this is where you can set the scale. Remember, you don't change the size of the objects you've drawn. AutoCAD will do all of that for you. Now there are many among us who do not use paperspace. This is a choice each user makes and it's up to you. But all good AutoCAD operators will encourage you to use paperspace and viewports. Keep reading your tutorials and you'll understand this. As a self-taught AutoCAD operator I can tell you that self-tutoring will get you where you want to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 What is the width and length of your floor plan? What size paper will you be plotting to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Cawthorn Posted December 17, 2011 Author Share Posted December 17, 2011 The floor plan is 16 x 14 metres and will be plotted to an a3 size paper. I have checked the units command and have changed it to metres, will it change the dimensions of the current floor plan or what will happen my only problem so far is when changing to scale 1:100 on paperspace it is too small to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 I would try a scale of 1:50 which is what many metric floor plans are usually drawn to. Metric plot plans (a drawing showing the building and it relates to the property it sits on) is usually drawn at a scale of 1:100. Maybe that's why you floor plan looks so small. Details are usually drawn to scales of 1:20, 1:10 or even 1:5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Cawthorn Posted December 17, 2011 Author Share Posted December 17, 2011 I am sorry for the questions, but when i say small, i really mean small, at a scale of 1:50 on paper space, the floor plan looks like a tiny little dot on the paper in the view port. I do not understand why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickh Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Sometimes, depending on how you started the drawing, or modified units, you will need to Reset the scalelist (and note that a scale currently in use will not get reset to anything). If you type SCALELISTEDIT, you should get a dialog box showing the ratio of modelspace units to paperspace units (press F1 also to find detailed information). Your modelspace units are Meters, and Paperspace units are MM, so the 1:100 scale should read as '1 paper unit = 0.1 drawing units". Check my math here, but this is (1M/1000MM)*100. Note also that the ratio is all that matters, so it could also be "10 paper units = 1 drawing units" (same ratio). I would Reset the scales first, and then just scroll through them to check that they are all correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 Post your drawing so we can take a look at it. Save it in AutoCAD 2000 or 2004 file format so people who have an older release of AutoCAD can have an opportunity to open the drawing. Not everyone is using the latest edition of AutoCAD like you and I are. BTW...AutoCAD 2012 saves to the 2010 file format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 17, 2011 Share Posted December 17, 2011 I tried to duplicate what you did and my results are similar. At 1:50 a 16x14 meter box looks too small. If I bump this up to 1:2 however it fits nicely on my A3 (420x297) sheet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane Cawthorn Posted December 17, 2011 Author Share Posted December 17, 2011 Hi rickh thanks, your advise does seem to work. I think now my biggest problem is solved. You are great. Once again thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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