line thickness not scaling with zoom ratio

[Aardenon]

Hi,

 

I'm very new to AutoCAD. I have to make a floor plan. It's going well, except for the line thickness. When I'm zoomed in in model space, I set the thickness to say 1 mm, but when I zoom out the lines get unusually thick - it's still the same 1 mm on screen, but now the drawing is unproportionally small. I would like the line thickness to scale with the drawing, with the zoom. I hope I make myself clear. I'm using AutoCAD 2013 for Mac.

 

Can anyone help? Thanks.

[RobDraw]

Most people do not display lineweights while drawing. Are you sure your not working through a viewport? If you are, lock the viewport so that the scale does not change when you are zooming.

[Aardenon]

I'm sure I'm working in Model Space, not in the layout views for plotting. So how to fix the line thickness in Model Space?

 

Thanks.

[ReMark]

I'd recommend disabling it via the Show/Hide Lineweight toggle at the bottom of your screen.

[RobDraw]

I really don't know what you are talking about if you are in model space and not working through a viewport.

[eldon]

I would like the line thickness to scale with the drawing, with the zoom.

 

Cad does not work like that. A line is a vector between two points, and the line stays the same width on the screen, however much you zoom. If you going playing about with line-weights, that also is a width of so many pixels, which stays that width however much you zoom.

 

The only image that I know where the line thickness stays the same width relative to a drawing is a raster image, and that is not much use for Cad.

[RobDraw]

I thought display lineweights was, although not exact, to show you what it looks like on paper, so the width is determined by plot style and scale and number of pixels would change when zooming. (I don't really have time to play with it ATM to check.) Am I wrong?

[eldon]

The Help files explain it so eloquently, that I really cannot compete

[RobDraw]

I did not realize that lineweights displayed in model space were different. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Let's hope the OP gets it.

[Dana W]

1 mm? Are you talking about lineweight or the polyline thickness property?

 

If you are trying to draw an object that is 1mm wide with a 1 mm thick line, then you have the wrong impression of what line weight is for.

 

Draw a 1mm thick object with two lines, 1 mm apart.

 

Line weight should be thought of as "Line Importance", the more important a line is, for example a primary outllne edge, the more lineweight you should use.

[Aardenon]

Hello Guys,

 

First of all thank you very much for all help. Please excuse my newbieness in the AutoCAD territory. I'm a graphic designer used to Illustrator more than to CAD software. I'd been asked to do this drawing only because I can also visualize it later in 3D in Cinema 4D. I understand now that I should stick to thin hairlines in Model Space. So I set all lineweights back to defaults (I assigned Default to line weights in all layers). But now I need to export the drawing to PDF and also print a copy. So in Layout view I assigned line weights to each layer (in the Layer panel), such as 0.15 mm or 0.25 mm. But after export or print I get lines that are 2-3 cm wide. It results in horrible thick blobs of color, obscuring the drawing completely. I lack basic What You See Is What You Get functionality. What I get after export doesn't match what I see on screen. Can anyone help? How to control line weights properly for export and print?

 

Thanks a lot!

[JD Mather]

.....Can anyone help? How to control line weights properly for export and print?

 

Attach your file here (or a sample file set up in exactly the same way) and end all doubt.

[Aardenon]

Here you go.

plan-05b.dwg

[eldon]

The plot does seem to have rather thick lines.

 

I think that your problem starts with you using an imperial template for starting the drawing, which then appears to be in metre units.

 

Try starting with a metric template in the first instance

[Dana W]

The plot does seem to have rather thick lines.

 

I think that your problem starts with you using an imperial template for starting the drawing, which then appears to be in metre units.

 

Try starting with a metric template in the first instance

Meters? That would account for checking off the "Scale Lineweights" box making the lines 100 times too thick. Edited April 6, 2014 by Dana W

[JD Mather]

I didn't open the file, but you might be able to fix this up starting with -dwgunits (follow the command line).

[Aardenon]

Hi. I fixed the lineweights. It seems I indeed had the Scale Lineweights checkbox turned on. I ticked it off and I got normal correct lines.

 

But I have one more problem. With the scale. I set the units of the document to meters (ddunits). So for example one of the windows is 2.4 units wide. That seems good: 2.4 units – 2.4 meters. But when I switch to Layout view. I set the scale of the drawing to fit A3 paper size for print - and the scale that fits is 1:3 which is nonsense. It makes the whole room be less than a meter long! What am I doing wrong?

 

Thanks.

[JD Mather]

-dwgunits (see previous instruction post #16 - follow the command line)

[eldon]

But I have one more problem. With the scale. I set the units of the document to meters (ddunits).

 

AutoCAD either plots in inches or millimetres. To check what units you are using, it is simple to go to your Layout, and measure the sides of the drawing.

 

If you get (approximately) 15 x 10, then your plotting units are inches for an A3 sheet.

 

If you get (approximately) 390 x 260, then your plotting units are millimetres for an A3 sheet.

 

Until you get the size correct, you will be struggling with the logic of scales

 

AutoCAD does not plot in metres, and a more realistic scale would be 1 to 100.