Not Scaling Accurately!!

[LABEN]

Okay I Am Hoping Someone Is Able To Help Me With This Issue I Am Having. I Have Read Tons Of Forums But Non Of Them Seem To Solve My Problem. I Am Doing Residential Drawings In Architectural Scale And When I Plot My Drawings On 11 By 17 The Only Way I Can Get My Drawings To Fit The Paper Is By Doing "extents" Then "fit To Paper" But Then My Drawing In The Viewports Isnt Scaled Correctly??

 

How Can I Create A Title Block That Applies To Each Page On My Layout Tabs Aong With Getting My Drawings Scaled Within The Viewport Amd Also Scaled On The Actual 11 By 17 Paper Size?? Lots Of Questions That I Can't Seem To Figure Out, I Hope Someone Can Help Me. Thank You For Your Time!

[MaxwellEdison]

Step 1 is to make sure your paperspace layout is accurately reflecting your desired paper size. In your plot dialog box set everything as if you were going to actually print the drawing. Set your Plot Area (What to Plot) to Layout. Make sure your paper size is correct (in your case 11x17). Leave your plot scale to Custom 1:1, then click the [Apply to Layout] button. This should give you an accurate 11x17 layout with print area.

 

Step 2 is to set up your viewport scale. Select your viewport and look at its Properties. Under Misc select the dropdown next to Standard Scale and select your desired scale. If your desired scale is not shown, input the decimal equivalent of your scale factor in the Custom Scale field. (i.e. 1/4" = 1'-0" is a scale factor of 48. 1/48 = .02083333) That should be a last resort however.

 

Lemme know if anything is unclear

[rkent]

You don't say what you are plotting to for the 11x17. So as an example, for me to be able to plot to my 8.5x11 printer my title block border can be no larger than 7-7/8 x 10-5/16. This is due to printers having a margin that they can't print on. Once I knew the limits of my border then I can place a viewport, set its plot scale and then it doesn't matter if I use Layout or Extents, it works the same at that point. Extents works because I never place anything beyond the border. The layout option is simply limits with a new name, so as long as there is nothing beyond the border Layout or Extents works the same exact way.

 

How to determine the largest size your border can be? You have already done it. Take one of your print outs done with Layout and measure across the border from where ink starts to where it stops. Do this in the X and Y direction. Now you have the dims you need to modify your border.

[LABEN]

Thank you both for responding to my thread. I tryed doing both of your suggestions. MaxwellEdison when I try yours and select "layout" for the plot area all I get it one line of my title block which makes me think my title block is too large, so then I tryed Rkents suggestion and when I try to plot out a sample page to do the measurements it just does the same thing as above so the only way I am able to get my title block on the 11 by 17 page is by doing "extents" and "fit to paper". Maybe I am doing the title block wrong? When I originally created the title block I just drew it in model space and then scaled it in paper space. I apologize for my mass confusion!!

[MaxwellEdison]

No need to apologize. You wouldn't be here if you weren't confused...and we wouldn't be here if we minded.

 

Use the distance command to make sure the layout is the proper size (measure the "white space", the dashed line is your print area). Next, check the size of your title block after you get the layout to the proper size. Chances are you scaled it arbitrarily to fit your previous layout. Try scaling it again but this time hit R for Reference instead of entering a scale factor. Pick the endpoints for one of the sides for the first length. Then enter or select the desired length.

 

There are dozens of ways to approach any problem in AutoCAD, lemme know if this one fixes yours

[rkent]

throw two dimensions on the title block, one vertical and one horizontal. Are the dims 17x11? If not that or smaller then you can't plot 1:1 in PS and expect it to fit to that size sheet of paper. See Maswell's post on getting it scaled to the correct size, or at least get it close.