Block size is driving me nuts

[King Stevo]

Hi all,

 

Ok, so I am a newbie here (and to AutoCAD). I did attend a beginners 4-day course a few months ago (before I got CAD in work) and I've forgotten half of it.

 

I started on a new template - changed 'units' to architectural as this project needs to be measured in feet & inches. I started a general floor plan (mainly by using straight lines to mark out rooms etc.) All fairly simply. Then I came to putting in doors and went straight to 'blocks' only to find that there obviously wasn't any there.

 

Through the help of online tutorials, I've drafted a new block called 'door' designed it (straight line & arc etc.) and edited the block to apply 'stretch' and 'flip' commands. All ok.

 

I set up a new layer called 'Doors' (just in case I want to hide them at some point) and set it as 'current'. When I inserted a block of the door - the scale of it is totally wrong?

 

I went back in to block editor and the door is set up properly. The properties say all measurements are correct, but the inserted door is tiny. (I can obviously adjust it on screen to look right, but when I use the measure tool to check - what should be a 3'6" door it only measures 1'10" - even though it looks right?)

 

I've tried block editor a million times - and tool palettes too, but I can't figure out why the door is not inserting into the drawing to scale?

 

Please help - I'm hitting my head off a brick wall here...

 

 

Thanks in advance.

[bill_borec]

Welcome to the forum, your highness! And welcome to AutoCAD!

 

My first stab at this is to have you check for metric vs. imperial on both drawings (the door block and the building) and on the inserting of the block.

 

Check the properties of the block for insertion scale and insertion metric/imperial.

 

That's the easy and first thing to check.

 

If those don't work, I would ask that you post the dwgs and let some of us take a look.

 

Good luck!

[nestly]

Could be several things: Insert Units ... Metric block being inserted into an Imperial Drawing or vice-versa, Tool Palette automatically assigning scale... etc

 

Posting a sample drawing, including the block will probably yield the most complete solution.

 

To upload a drawing, use the "Go Advanced" button under the Quick Reply window, then "Manage Attachments"

[King Stevo]

Hi all,

 

Sorry for the late reply - having issues with IT rights assigned to my work PC. Hopefully the drawing attached ok to this message. It's obviously the best option as both of your replies sounded German to me

 

I checked the properties of the block for insertion scale and insertion metric/imperial, but couldn't even find those properties?

 

Thanks.

Block scale driving me nuts.dwg

[Stefan BMR]

Type INSUNITS on command line and set it to 1.

[nestly]

+1

 

Long answer:

Your block is drawn in inches, but it was scaled down because it was inserted into a drawing with Insertion Units set to feet.

 

[King Stevo]

Hi Stefan BMR,

 

Thanks so much for that - I supposed it's so easy when you know how...

 

The scale is spot on now and I'll remember that if the same issue ever pops up again.

 

The only thing now appears to be the accuracy? i.e. In block editor (when I was setting up the door block to stretch & flip) when I go to 'Value Set' and changed the 'Dist Type' to 'List', and the 'Dist Value List' to 2'6", 3', 3'6" & 4' lengths (to allow me to stretch the door size). When I insert the door block into a drawing now - although the scale is perfect, when I use the measure tool afterwards to check a door width of say 3'6" - the actual measurement comes to 3'-6 3/8"? Or if I use a 4' door width, the measurement is reading 4' -1 7/16"?

 

Any idea why the measurements are off a small amount if the scale is right now?

 

Thanks again.

[King Stevo]

Thanks Nestly - that makes sense. (I was actually working on an exercise to draw this door block from scratch and how to stretch it, flip it etc., but when I got to the rotate command - the instructions were way too vague and I couldn't figure out how to do it - so I ended up copying and pasting the finished article from the instruction page. Hence why one was in inches and the other was in feet.) I did notice that the door was in inches in the block editor, but it wouldn't let me change the measurement from inches to feet - nothing would happen.

 

The more I use AutoCAD, the more respect I have for the guys who can breeze through it effortlessly. It's mind-numbing to me at the moment.

[Stefan BMR]

I guess your block is scaled uniform, something like 1.009.

The scale showed in properties palette is just truncated to 1.0.

Try to insert a fresh new block.

[King Stevo]

No worries, I got it sorted (it appears). Just typed *UNITS* into command line, and brought precision down to 0,0. Happy days............for now!

[nestly]

Ouch.

 

When Precision is 0'.0" everything you measure will be rounded to the nearest inch. That doesn't make the door 2'-6" it only means your measuring tool is only accurate to the nearest inch. When you measure your 1/2" drywall, AutoCAD is going to tell you it's 1 inch thick, because you told AutoCAD that's "close enough"

 

If you're doing architecture, your precision should be no less than 1/16" IMO. Personally, I always use the highest precision available for both linear and angular measurements.

 

 

63/64 is not equal to 1

[King Stevo]

Thanks Nestly - showing my vast experience in AutoCAD a you can see. I've amended that to 1/16" now - will see how I get on....

[nestly]

The good news is your door block looks excellent. The measurements are all dead on, and all the stretches, moves, scales and flips seem to work well, however there are small errors in pretty much all of the house dimensions and some of the corners don't meet.

 

The higher you keep your precision, the easier it is to detect errors. Once you know the errors exist, it's easy to learn avoid those errors from the beginning, which will ultimately make you more efficient.

 

Don't "eyeball" anything, always use the tools AutoCAD offers to draw precisely, such as Snaps, Osnaps, Ortho, Polar Tracking, and Osnap Tracking etc. If you don't know about those tools, or you're not sure how to use them, just ask .... there's always someone here that will be happy to assist.

[King Stevo]

Hi folks,

 

OK, so from a fw minutes here and there - I have my drawing finished - I've gone to layout, Page Setup Manager, Modify, etc. and made the required changes (A3 paper, 1:1 Units.)

 

I've clicked on the Viewport Scale and selected 'scale to fit' (which gave me 0.396444), I've panned the layout to centre it. My question is.....

 

How the hell do I (a) work out the actual scale (i.e. 1:2 or whatever it is) from the 0.396444 in the viewpoint and (b) how do I insert a scale bar or some form of scale representatio on the layout before I print it?

 

Thanks in advance.

[nestly]

1st Don't use "scale to fit" unless you don't need the drawing to be printed at any particular scale, as it does exactly what the name implies, it stretches the layout to fit to the maximum size that will fit on the paper.

 

Create a layout, and use the layout manager to use A3 paper. Exit the layout manager then use MVIEW or one of the other options to create a viewport. Switch the layout to modelspace, and use the scale list in the lower right to make the viewport 1:2 (or whatever scale you want to print at) Now when you plot, the "plot area" should be "Layout" and the "Plot scale" should be 1:1 and your printed copy should look identical to what you see on your layout tab.

 

Re: Scale Bar. Open the Tool Palette (type TP). On the "Annotation" tab, there are Imperial and Metric "Graphic Scale" blocks.

[bill_borec]

King,

 

0.39644 is not a 'standard scale'. 1:2 = 1/2 = 0.5, 1:3 = 1/3 = 0.33333333, 1:4 = 1/4 = 0.25...I think you get the point. Using the properties bar of the viewport, you can set the scale to 0.5 or 0.3333333... then print at 1:1 from a layout with boundaries set for your printing paper size.

[King Stevo]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for your replies. I just booted up autoAD to give your suggestions a go, but something has happened to my display layout (even though everything was fine the last time I used it?)

 

All of my toolbars (or whatever they might be called in AutoCAD) have disappeared? now I just have the menu bar (File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, etc.) across the top of the screen, but all of my ribbons (that's what they're called) are gone? Any idea how to get them back (and why did they disappear all on their own?)

 

Thanks,

[nestly]

Sounds like your customization file failed to load. Did you try restarting AutoCAD?

[King Stevo]

Hi Nestly,

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

I did - but to no avail. I figured it out though. The 'workspace switching' was somehow turned off? I clicked on that little cog in the lower right and changed the settings - so back to normal now thanks.

 

About your other (earlier) reply re. the scale/viewport thingy - I'm a bit lost (sorry). I created a layout, used the page setup manager / modify to change paper setting to A3 and left the scale etc. alone at 1:1. I applied and exited as you suggested. I then used the MVIEW command and selected one corner of the layout and then the other opposite corner (to ensure the full drawing is in my viewport). I switched to Modelspace as you suggested, but that's where I get lost?

 

i.e. You said to insert watever scale I want, but I don't know what scale I want (need)? All I'm looking to do is print my drawing on A3 paper (and to use as much of the paper surface as I can) and then insert a scale bar at the bottom of the A3 paper to show whatever scale AutoCAD has calculated the drawing to be. I assume this is possible, but it's where I'm getting lost? (I think at the end of my 4-day AutoCAD course, my brain was fried and I didn't take in much of the layout & plotting exercises we did.) If I could just figure this out, I'm done.

 

Thanks in advance.

[King Stevo]

Can anyone help - re. my last post?

 

Whether I've gone about it the right way or not, I now have my scale set to 1:2.5 as on the layout - this fits my drawing inside the paper boundary. If this is right happy days. Now I'm just looking to place a scale bar (relative) to my scale somewhere on the layout page.

 

When I go to Tool Palette and click on the "Annotation" tab and insert an Imperial Graphic Scale - the resulting scale bar is microscopic? How can I insert this at a visible scale and how do I input the scale reference below it? i.e 1:2.5?

 

Thanks.