How to check what the Current Zoom Level is

[stopandgo]

How can I find out exactly what Zoom scale (decimal value) is being displayed on my screen at any given moment?

[ReMark]

Why would you need to know this information?

[ScribbleJ]

I'm curious to know why you need to know myself. But to answer your question; There is no way to know this. At least I have not seen any command or feedback to quantify the zoom level and I've been at this for 18 years now.

[stevsmith]

Have I read this correctly, or am I missing something here?

[David Bethel]

Well there is always VIEWSIZE and SCREENSIZE. They are dynamic with the current values. -David

[ReMark]

Maybe the OP wants to be able to scale something that is shown on the screen?

[ScribbleJ]

Maybe the OP wants to be able to scale something that is shown on the screen?

 

LOL

 

I can see a blond joke in that statement.

[ReMark]

We've had a couple people ask about scaling things off their monitor as if that was going to give them some really worthwhile information. Makes you wonder doesn't it?

[ScribbleJ]

Yes it does but it is not surprising. When I was in tech school there was one student we all knew was not gonna make it. He sat adjacent to me and one night I looked over at him holding a scale up to his monitor. I asked him what he was doing. He had the deer in the headlights stare when he looked back at me.

 

LMAO

 

Nice guy but.....sheeeewwwwie!

 

Oh yeah this was back loooong before flat screens came around.

[BIGAL]

the answer is zoom C it gives current scale

 

Yeah but at what screensize scale ! Don't touch that dial

[eldon]

If you type STATUS, part of the information given are the coordinates of the Display.

[stopandgo]

The purpose was for at some point in my drawing if I wanted to import an OLE object I could identify the zoom scale immediately after pasting it, trace the object, then zoom back to the original scale to paste another OLE at the same dimensions.

 

I later realized that setting the zoom at a defined scale before importing the object would probably be a smarter move. Guess that's why they call this is the Beginner's Forum.

 

Thanks anyway BIGAL, your answer seemed to work the best with my ACAD2000LT.

[ScribbleJ]

If you draw everything 1:1 you don't need to know the zoom scale. It would be pointless because you would know what size it would need to be in relation to a 1:1 drawing ratio. If your drawing everything to scale then your not using AutoCad to its fullest potential.

[ReMark]

stopandgo:

 

Assuming both OLE objects were the same size as each other I suppose it would work. But how would you see to it they were?

[CALCAD]

It is interesting (at least in a geeky sort of way) that the zoom scale is absolute and equals 1/1 when the vertical extent of the image just fills the screen (for a 2D drawing in the plan view.) This means that you could reliably return to the same image display if you knew the scale that you started with.

Regardless of the practicality of this approach, here is a lisp that does that.

 

; a simple lisp to display the current zoom scale

(defun c:cz (/ vmx vmn imv vs vsc)
(setq vmx (getvar "vsmax"))
(setq vmn (getvar "vsmin"))
(setq imv (- (cadr vmx) (cadr vmn)))
(setq vs (getvar "viewsize"))
(setq vsc (/ imv vs))
(princ "\n current zoom scale = ")(princ vsc)
(princ)
)

 

Edit : changed 'current view scale' to 'current zoom scale' for consistency.

[SolarPop]

Hi stopandgo! As far as I can tell you never got your question answered. Fourteen years have pasted since you asked your question, so you may have retired by now.

 

Following is a way to determine the zoom level. Type the following commands in the command line.

"Zoom" "C" and then select a center position for your zoom

The zoom magnification will be then be displayed on the command line.

..."C" initiates a "Center" zoom, but typing "center" doesn't work!

 

NOTE: Some asked why someone needs to know the zoom level. I use AutoCAD to precisely sketch multiple 2D models in model space. The images are then screen captured and included in an MS Word document. All images must have the same scale. Using the method above let's me screen capture all images at the same zoom level. (Yes, not changing the zoom level can work if the task is simple and can be done over a short period, but if the work is done over a period of days or weeks that's not a viable option.)

[SLW210]

On 1/14/2010 at 8:51 PM, BIGAL said:

the answer is zoom C it gives current scale

 

Yeah but at what screensize scale ! Don't touch that dial

 

BIGAL already gave the answer.

 

I create equal sizes in Photoshop and/or GIMP, unless I misunderstand what you are doing, I also have scaled in MS Word and Excel.

 

You could also use a Viewport set to specific scale and plot to jpg or png.

 

But, if that method works for you, I see no need to change the process.

[CyberAngel]

It may seem like a waste of time to figure out what scale you're seeing on the screen, but when the only information you have comes from photographs, that may be the only way to get a halfway accurate result. There's a set of equations on finding the correct depth of field for a camera, for instance, which you can reverse engineer to guess the camera's location.

 

Yes, it seems sloppy, but in civil work, sloppy answers are better than no answers.