A bit confused with viewports and scaling

[Adrien974]

Hi there,

 

I'm new here and sorry if the topic was already discussed but I couldn't find anything relevant to my problem.

 

Well, I got a site layout and I have to display different sections of it over different pages. I got a viewport with scale 1/1200, an other one 1/350 and my last one 1/900.

 

My question is, what scale am I gonna choose for my scale bar?

 

I mean, If I need to measure it on paper space. Which scale is it gonna be?

 

example:

 

Someone made a viewport of an other site plan and his scale bar is 1:250 and his viewport scale is 4:1. How did he find those scales?

 

I know it's a bit confusing here but I hope someone will be able to understand me

[Hearbirds]

I always draw up a frame to represent paper in real-size in layout, then set the viewport on the "paper". when you print the "paper" with scale 1:1, the scale for your viewport is the scale for your drawing.

[Adrien974]

I think what I meant to say was, Is it going to be a different scale bar for each different Viewport scale?

[Hearbirds]

...

his scale bar is 1:250

 

I thought you were talking about the numbers..

the scale bar if positioned in model, not in layout then technically it's the same for every viewport. it scales up or down with everything else in your drawing.

but if you count in how it looks on real paper, you may have to make different scale bars, usually one for master plan, e.g. 0-10m-20m-40m on 1:1000 drawing and 0-5m-10m for detailed plan, 1:200. because one scale bar fit for the former will be too big for the latter.

hope that'll help.

[Adrien974]

I thought you were talking about the numbers..

the scale bar if positioned in model, not in layout then technically it's the same for every viewport. it scales up or down with everything else in your drawing.

but if you count in how it looks on real paper, you may have to make different scale bars, usually one for master plan, e.g. 0-10m-20m-40m on 1:1000 drawing and 0-5m-10m for detailed plan, 1:200. because one scale bar fit for the former will be too big for the latter.

hope that'll help.

 

Yes I think I have to draw different ones.

Thanks for your time.

[ReMark]

Ever hear of dynamic scale bars?

[Adrien974]

Ever hear of dynamic scale bars?

 

Yes I have, I will spend some time making some when I'm free:D

[ReMark]

You don't necessarily have to. I know for a fact a couple are available at the AUGI website.

 

Keep in mind you could have three viewports, each with a different scale, yet use the one dynamic scale bar.

[Dana W]

Yes I have, I will spend some time making some when I'm free:D

There are dynamic scale bars available in the samples folder drawings shipped with AutoCad. I forgot which drawing they are in, but possibly the ISO and Imperial, architectural and/or engineering templates.

[ReMark]

Dana's suggestion prompted me to look on my Tool Palettes > Annotation tab where I found two scale bars, one being imperial scale and the other metric (cm). You might want to take a look yourself.

[Adrien974]

Thanks for you help guys

[rkent]

Hi there,

 

example:

 

Someone made a viewport of an other site plan and his scale bar is 1:250 and his viewport scale is 4:1. How did he find those scales?

 

I know it's a bit confusing here but I hope someone will be able to understand me

 

Sounds like you are plotting a metric drawing drawn with a unit = to a meter.

 

The scale factor for a drawing done in units of a meter will have to be
adjusted by X/1000 where X is the scale factor if it were done in mm.

So if you need a viewport to plot to a scale of 1:250 you must divide the 250
by 1000, 1:(250/1000) = 1:0.25, now divide both sides by 0.25, (1/0.25):(0.25/0.25) = 4:1.

So for a Meter drawing with a desired viewport plotted scale of 1:250 you would use a 
vp scale of 4:1.

I don't know if 1:250 is a normal metric scale, I used that as an example for
someone on a newsgroup.

Edited January 10, 2014 by rkent

[Adrien974]

Sounds like you are plotting a metric drawing drawn with a unit = to a meter.

 

The scale factor for a drawing done in units of a meter will have to be
adjusted by X/1000 where X is the scale factor if it were done in mm.

So if you need a viewport to plot to a scale of 1:250 you must divide the 250
by 1000, 1:(250/1000) = 1:0.25, now divide both sides by 0.25, (1/0.25):(0.25/0.25) = 4:1.

So for a Meter drawing with a desired viewport plotted scale of 1:250 you would use a 
vp scale of 4:1.

I don't know if 1:250 is a normal metric scale, I used that as an example for
someone on a newsgroup.

 

Thanks for your explanation, I understand now ^^