Link Dynamic Scalebar to Viewport Upon Insert

[bretwieseler]

Hello,

 

I don't even know where to begin...

 

I'm trying to construct a scale bar that can be linked with a chosen viewport, upon insertion into paperspace. Civil3d 2015 already has several of these "preloaded" in the Layout Element panel, but these scalebars are not "smart", requiring input from the user (I'm trying to create these for newbies in our office).

 

Any thoughts or help is appreciated.

[RobDraw]

A smart scalebar? I thought that they were static. Maybe some more information is needed.

 

Anyway, an annotative block may do the trick.

[bretwieseler]

I really don't know if what I'm asking is possible in AutoCAD. There are similar capabilities in Revit, which is one of the only good things I have to say about it. In Revit, whenever you draw a "viewport" there is a scalebar or drawing scale associated with it automatically. I'm just wondering if there is a way to recreate this in Autocad.

[BIGAL]

You could tackle it in a couple of ways we just have a menu option/slides and pick correct scale bar which is then inserted into the dwg. You can click on a viewport and get its scale and insert the correct block. Like last suggestion but a single block with attributes that are updated to reflect scale. Not sure if you can use fields that are linked to the viewport scale as another. As we are civil we have 1:100 1:50 for cross sections so need two rows of text.

[Dana W]

You may be able to use FIELD to associate the current scale to the text attribute in the scale block. Making it annotative will allow it to be always 'n' length in the viewport. Maybe that is enough.

 

We don't use a scale bar in architecture much. We just note the scale in the view title. Mine displays the current scale (field) so I don't have to mess with it.

[Andrew1979]

what about a dynamic block with all the scales you may need drawn inside it? Or were you think of smarter than that? If so, sounds like you might want a LISP program to do it by selecting the viewport and the bar being created on the fly

[BlackBox]

If using vanilla AutoCAD, populating an attributed block with a Field that references the Viewport Object's scale is your only real OOTB option.

 

If using Civil 3D as your OP suggests, then simply create a custom scale bar, just as you would a custom north arrow, and they'll be dynamically linked to the associated Viewport any time the scale changes, or view is rotated.

 

Cheers

[bretwieseler]

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I'm going to try the custom scale bar idea as BlackBox suggests.

[BlackBox]

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I'm going to try the custom scale bar idea as BlackBox suggests.

 

Regardless of if you elect to use Civil 3D's Plan Production Tools or not, using a dynamic, Viewport-linked North Arrow, and Scale bar in Civil 3D is invaluable.

 

Cheers