Printing to scale

[neilg81]

Oh my god thanks for all the replys my head has now exploaded. I think I'm now even more confused.

[ReMark]

So what's the problem? Pick the solution that will get you the results you are looking for, in the shortest amount of time and with the least effort, given what you have already drawn and move on from there. You can sit down and reassess how you want to approach similar drawings in the future after you're done.

[neilg81]

So cut a long story short I need to start over again?. I should of used acadiso.dwt template.

[neilg81]

EDIT: I am going to have to pull out of this. I start a brand new full time position in 10 hours. It's 10:21 PM here in Florida and I need some sleep. I have found some sort of anomaly in the drawing that I can't get a handle on, and probably won't have time for it tomorrow either. There will be help coming in short order. Be patient someone will pop in, hopefully on your time schedule.

 

I am not so sure the drawing is intentionally scaled in modelspace.

 

I think it was drawn in what neilg81 thought were meters, but are actually inches. The dwg units are inches, and the 15.25 dimension for the length of the plan on the long side (red) measure out to 15 1/4 inches. Also 15.25 meters seems to be a reasonable size for a residence of this type.

 

@neilg81

Since the drawing units (not the UNITS command) are inches, and the insertion scale units are set to millimeters, there seems to be some confusion over how to make sure the drawing units are what you want them to be. The UNITS you can manipulate with the UNITS command are only the insertion scale units, not the drawing units. The rest of the selections on the UNITS dialog only have to do with how the UNITS, whatever they are, are displayed when dimensioning.

 

I do think AutoDesk could do us all a favor and clear that confusion up a little by making this more clear. Apparently they think everyone in the USA knows to open the acad.dwt file (Imperial template defaulted to inches) to start their first ever drawing in AutoCad, and that the rest of the world knows to use the acadiso.dwt (Metric template defaulted to millimeters) for the same purpose. Nothing apparently, could be further from the truth.

 

(You know why we still use the Imperial system of measurement? So english bullets won't fit in our rifles, should you all choose to invade, capture our weapons and force us to use the metric system. Simple when you think about it.):rofl:

 

We would be able to give you step by step instructions and a command or two to fix it, which would take all of maybe 5 minutes, but there are objects on some layers that are turned OFF that are drawn at a completely different scale. This makes it impossible to have AutoCad automatically fix it, since it cannot rescale objects drawn at two different scales at once. It is still repairable, but it is more difficult.

 

Whats more, the object that appears to be a plan view stair on those OFF layers, is dimensioned in a way that makes it difficult to figure out what scale it was drawn to. The dimensions on that group of objects are manually drawn with independent text objects, that's right they are drawn in, not just exploded dimensions. The text dimensions do not match the measured number of units (inches) either.

 

I can guess that the stair was drawn in millimeters and manually dimensioned, then copied into this drawing that has inches for units, simply because it is more than 1000 times larger than the floor plans. I could be wrong on that.

 

We can get you to a resolution, but first we need to know a few things.

1. Can you turn the OFF layers ON and simply erase that stair plan?
   
2. Had you intended to be drawing in meters?
   
3. Do you know how to open a blank drawing using a template, a dwt file rather than a dwg file?
   
4. Do you really want to plot to 8 1/2 inch x 11 inch paper?
   

 

Hi thank you for your reply. I understand by what I've read that I've drawin it in inches dam it. Yes it should be in metric mm. Think I can just erase the stairs . I got the stairs off a joinery manufactures web site. Paper size I'm using is A3.

Thanks Neil.

[ReMark]

Staring from scratch is certainly an option. Always using a metric template from now on, well, that's a given.

 

Well I just got around to looking at your attached drawing and I want to thank you for being one of the very few people to come to this site as a newbie and post a drawing that utilizes layers in an intelligent manner. Too often users new to AutoCAD will place everything on layer "0" then start to override the layer settings without regard to any sense or standards.

[steven-g]

The drawings that Dana and myself posted should both print correctly, and have the units adjusted to work with meters, we just used different reasoning to get there, so you shouldn't need to start again, but it would be a good idea in the future to start a metric drawing using the acadiso.dwt template and setting the units to match how you are drawing. And ReMark is correct it is a pretty good drawing generally.

[neilg81]

The drawings that Dana and myself posted should both print correctly, and have the units adjusted to work with meters, we just used different reasoning to get there, so you shouldn't need to start again, but it would be a good idea in the future to start a metric drawing using the acadiso.dwt template and setting the units to match how you are drawing. And ReMark is correct it is a pretty good drawing generally.

 

Thanks for all the help.

Think ive gone and done the same with my elevations dam it. heath elevation.dwg

[steven-g]

Looks like it, just run through the sequence that Dana gave you in Post#9, that will sort out the units and leave your drawing with the correct sizes. Then all you need do is pick which method you use for the viewport scale in the layout

[Dana W]

Do you know why we don't care, when we run out of bullets, we can use yours, your just left with a big stick

Yeah, but our bullets will wobble in your barrels and couldn't hit the broad side of a Jeremy Clarkson.

[Dana W]

Dana

By the way congratulations on the new job, I hope your first day goes well,

 

 

Can I offer a counter argument to your description, it's well written and well thought out but totally wrong the results are good but the logic is flawed.

The OP's drawing needs to be scaled at 1:100 that's how metric scale rules are made.

I guess I didn't think the standard scale part out enough. You are right, of course. At least in your part of the globe anyway.

 

Neil may have to take the drawings down to the gnarly old permit guy, and that means a standard scale needs to be applied to the layouts, but that is the only thing really wrong with my approach to the end result. I cannot imagine plotting meters at 1:100 though. You'd need an electron microscope to read it. The whole house would be less than 0.2mm. long.

 

Yes thanks, about the job. Two days in and I have found out that there are no standards, nor conventional ways to produce shop drawings, and I am in charge of getting that in order. My new boss did not quite explain that part really at length during my interview.

 

Their current method is to draw the millwork in the Architect's provided floorplan CAD file, or in Drawing1.dwg and wing it, and figure out how to plot the stuff on a 11x17 inkjet.:shock: Can you imagine? A different set of layers, different EVERYTHING for every single project? The boss is a really honest and straight forward guy with a good sense of humor though, so it may work out. I am already working on my first project which was already a week late the morning I started, and I am forced to use the Architect's CAD file as a template on this one which will take about a week. At the end of the day Monday, the boss heads out and asked me and my one co-worker if the drawings would be ready by 9:00 AM with the most serious dead pan that I have ever seen. Then I saw the corner of his mouth curl up a bit. So, I said, "Have I been here long enough yet to tell you that your dreaming?". That was exactly the kind of response he was looking for.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Dana W

[Dana W]

I had this scaling issue last spring.

 

My late father-in-law was a Professional Land Surveyor. I have one of his 100 foot surveyor's reel tape measures in the garage. My wife used it to measure up some garden surround timbers we needed to get. She had them pre-cut from her list, written in feet and inches which was apparently not converted. Most are two inches too short, some are a little less than 2 inches too short, except for the one single piece that measured in even feet. :facepalm: "Is that tape measure metric or something?" And she worked for him for many years. Hmmmmmm, 10 inches to a foot, and 10 eighths to an inch.

[Dana W]

ReMark I'm not nit-picking, just want to understand how things are done in your end of the world. Site measurements are quite normally done here in one of three variations, millimeters, centimeters or meters, so what you would call a 3 foot door, is as standard 930mm, but different people here would measure that as 930 93 or 0.93 and would draw that as such, and say it was full size, I personally dont see 0.93 units as full size (but it is certainly in full units). When you are getting survey data is it normal to enter 3 feet as 3 units or does everyone use 3' which automatically draws 36 units, and is it even possible to enter a measurement of 3 yards into Autocad without first mentally converting to 9 feet or 108 inches?

The way I had always gotten my civil data was in decimal feet, my dwg units changed to feet, type for length changed to decimal, plotting units set to inches. I only had to enter numbers in decimal feet, like 1254.23'

 

See, US Surveyors think a foot only has ten parts, called surprisingly tenths, and tenths are divided into something referred to as hundredths.

[Dana W]

You, know that it was an English king (I think) that invented the Imperial measurement system. We will get even some day.

 

The best thing about the Imperial system is that the king used his foot, arm, and hand to set the basic units and not some other more fun parts of the body.

 

By the way, every measuring system is a Metric (noun). The word metric has nothing at all to do with the base 10 numbering system. Metric is Latin, Ten is Latin, and Ten is not in the word.

 

Metric (adjective) means having to do with the meter.

 

What unit does one draw in when doing a runway? I don't need to try and work with 3.048.000 mm. (10,000 feet)

Edited March 25, 2015 by Dana W

[ReMark]

Looks like Dana is on a roll. Better get another beer and a larger bowl of popcorn. We're going to be here a while.

 

Will this lecture also cover league, fathom, and furlong?

[steven-g]

Looks like Dana is on a roll. Better get another beer and a larger bowl of popcorn. We're going to be here a while.

 

Will this lecture also cover league, fathom, and furlong?

Which raises another interesting point, which is correct "sweet" or "salted" popcorn

[ReMark]

Salted all the way. I use Jolokia Ghost pepper infused salt.

[Dana W]

Hey, waddaya want from me? I paused between them this time.

[ReMark]

Was that the paws that refreshes Dana?

[neilg81]

hey people, I thought id redo my plans thought i was doing well till i noticed my own mess up again! Miss read the units when drawing it out this time! Well i now have a drawing that not even the correct size/measurements. Could some one have a look again please. Basicly it needs enlarging to meet the correct size i put the correct size of the the side of the building to the left. Is it possible to enlarge it accurately or have i gotta start again? Thanks neilhelp.dwg

[rkent]

hey people, I thought id redo my plans thought i was doing well till i noticed my own mess up again! Miss read the units when drawing it out this time! Well i now have a drawing that not even the correct size/measurements. Could some one have a look again please. Basicly it needs enlarging to meet the correct size i put the correct size of the the side of the building to the left. Is it possible to enlarge it accurately or have i gotta start again? Thanks neil[ATTACH]53474[/ATTACH]

 

You can scale anything with the SCALE command and use the Reference option to do the math for you.

The command sequence would be.

SCALE

pick the objects to scale

enter

pick a point (in this case the lower left of the house)

type R for reference

osnap to the endpoint of the lower left of the building

osnap to the enpoint of the upper left of the building

osnap to the upper horizontal line representing the length of your elevation, use perpendicular in this case.

 

Your file is attached.

help neilg.dwg