Mayfly Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Morning all, I am very very new to autocad and trying to solve an issue I have at work regarding line types not showing up correctly. I have several .dwg files which I attach using XREF so that I can ensure I have the latest versions combined. The problem is that the line types do not show up correctly. After looking up on google I have found that this is a problem due to it being a 3d model rather than it being flat. I managed to half solve the issue by inserting each drawing into one, then exploding the whole image. Then changing the scale in the bottom right to around 1:200 to make the line types visible. My problem is this ends up being alot of work as the separate drawings can be updated daily. Is it possible to have all the drawings Xref'd in and to be able to have the scale changed to be able to read the line types? I tried to save the XREF setup as a template, then just bind all the drawings into one, explode and change the scale. But for some reason this doesnt work for me. I end up with just solid lines, rather than line types. I don't think it helps that the drawings are made up of several lines, all of different length. (This I have been told is why the scales do not appear correctly) I have been shown one method to work around this, which is to open the Xref drawings, explode them, then take each section of line and manually change each scale to the biggest that shows up. A very painful process when I might need to do it everyday!!! Any help would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 You are exploding 3D models? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadgad Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 ReMark? Excellent, you're in good hands. Sit up straight, take notes and pay attention. You'll be glad you did. And if that is what they said around the office, then when he gets through with you you'll be like the rockstar from autodesk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayfly Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 Yes. The drawings are 3d, but i need them for 2d purpose to be able to check and print areas from plan view. My trouble is the line types do not show up so the lines do not match the key they are meant to. I only did explode as I read this on google somewhere. It works the first time, but once I set up Xref drawings it failed. Even changing the origional drawings then Xref them in didnt work. I have asked around the office here and told it is a problem that cannot be solved. I was advised to hand draw on the labels to identify the line lines or manually change each scale =S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadgad Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 They are not 3D drawings, they are 3D models, there is a huge difference. I see that you are on autocad 2012, consider yourself lucky. You will want to use the VIEWBASE set of commands, and the program will do all of the drawing for you, but first you need to look it up in your help, or on youtube. one caveat: If you do it with viewbase your work will only be viewable by those who are also using Autocad 2012. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 It appears that you did not know that you could extract 2D views from 3D objects using a number of different methods. These methods would have given you more control over your selection of linetypes and scaling. Given that you are using AutoCAD 2012 I can think of five different ways to do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadgad Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 It appears that you did not know that you could extract 2D views from 3D objects using a number of different methods. These methods would have given you more control over your selection of linetypes and scaling.Given that you are using AutoCAD 2012 I can think of five different ways to do this. That's the good news. The bad news is that you will have to find some other way to stay busy for the rest of the day, as it will now take you about 5 minutes, and everything is going to look much better than you ever imagined possible. Once the rest of your ill-informed coworkers see your results, and are sitting there shaking their heads, you should march right into the boss's office and demand a serious raise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayfly Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 My knowledge of cad is extremely limited. I only got access to it last week after the CAD guy left. I was told it would be an easy job to do as I would just 'simply' need to download the drawings off the internet and XREF them into one and print the area on site I am working. It appears I need to do alot off help reading / googling / youtube watching to learn more about getting the line types viewable. I will look up viewbase and hopefully work out what to do. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 One week on-the-job-training. Good luck with that. You're gonna need a bigger bottle of aspirin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.