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AutoCAD Productivity

Shorten the Plot Scales List in a Viewport

by Michael Beall

From: AutoCAD Productivity Articles #140
Originally published: June 2015

Scale menuIf you plot from a viewport on a Layout tab, and you have a specific collection of plot scales you typically use, you may be interested in editing that list to display only the ones you need to see.

There are other approaches to accessing the same plot scale regularly, but this is one of the most straightforward.

How to Modify the List of Plot Scales

  1. When you're in a viewport, click the location on the Status bar where you see the scale/factor for the current viewport.

  2. Scroll to the bottom, then click Custom… to open the Edit Drawing Scales dialog box.

  3. I would recommend keeping 1:1, but then select those plot scales you really don't need, then click Delete.

  4. Organize the ones you use all the time by using Move Up or Move Down.

    Edit scales dialog

Note: If you totally gom it up, you can always hit Reset, then choose your desired collection of either Imperial, Metric, or both.

See all the articles published in June 2015

Michael's Corner

Between 2003 and 2016, Michael Beall (and one or two guests) wrote almost 600 articles for CADTutor. The focus of these articles is AutoCAD productivity, and although some of them are now more than a few years old, most remain relevant to current versions of AutoCAD. The article above is just one example. Check out Michael's Corner for a full listing.

Tip of the Day

2D Drawings from your 3D Models

Flatshot

Over the years, there have been various methods of creating 2D drawings from 3D models in AutoCAD. In the early days, we used export to DXB, a file format that is no longer supported. Then came the FLATTEN command. Now, there's a new command that's better than previous methods.

The FLATSHOT command creates a 2D block object of any view that includes 3D solid objects. There are a number of options including show/hide obscured lines and independent control over the colour and linetype of foreground and obscured lines. Flatshot works by projecting the lines of your current view, not UCS, onto a plane. This is a little more versatile than Flatten and doesn't seem to skew the dimension of the object, which Flatten is notorious for. It also has the advantage of leaving the original object as is. The only downside is that it seems to have problems with perspective views. Parallel projection views work perfectly.

Today's tip is by CromCruithne

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