AutoCAD Pocket Reference. Cheryl R. Shrock

display of Model Space in each viewport. To manipulate the display you must be inside the viewport.

       Note: The dashed line indicates the maximum printing area for the printer and paper selected. Any object outside of this area will not print.

Creating Scaled Drawings

       A very important rule in CAD you must understand is:

       “All objects are drawn full size”

      In other words, if you want to draw a line 20 feet long, you actually draw it 20 feet long. If the line is 1/8" long, you actually draw it 1/8" long.

       Drawing and Plotting objects that are very large or very small

      What if you wanted to draw a house? Could you print it to scale on an 8-1/2" × 11" piece of paper? How about a small paper clip. Could you make it big enough to dimension? Let’s start with the house.

      How to print an entire house on an 8-1/2" × 11" sheet of paper

      Remember the photo and picture frame example I suggested on page 2-4. This time try to picture yourself standing at the front door of your house with an empty picture frame in your hands. Look at your house through the picture frame. Of course the house is way too big to fit in the frame. Or is it because you are standing too close to the house?

      Now walk across the street and look through the picture frame in your hands again. Does the house appear smaller? Can you see all of it in the frame? If you could walk far enough away from the house it would eventually appear small enough to fit in the picture frame in your hands. But….the house did not actu-ally change size, did it? It only appears smaller because you and the picture frame are farther away from it.

       Adjusting the Viewport scale

      When using AutoCAD, walking across the street with the frame in your hands is called Adjusting the Viewport scale. You are increasing the distance between Model Space (your drawing) and Paper Space (Layout) and that makes the drawing appear smaller.

      Example: A viewport scale of 1/4" = 1' would make Model Space appear 48 times smaller. But, when you dimension the house, the dimension values will be the actual measurement of the house. In other words, a 30 ft. line will have a dimension of 30'-0".

      When plotting something smaller, like a paperclip, you have to move the picture frame closer to Model Space to make it appear larger. For example, 8 = 1.

Adjusting the Viewport Scale

      The following will take you through the process of adjusting the scale within a viewport.

      1. Open a drawing.

      2. Select a Layout Tab. (Paper Space.)

      3. Cut a new Viewport or unlock an existing Viewport. (See “How to…”)

      4. Zoom / All to display all of the drawing limits.

      5. Adjust the Scale.

      A. You must be in Paper Space. (See below.)

      B. Select the Viewport Frame.

      C. Unlock Viewport, if locked.

      D. Select the Viewport Scale down arrow.

      E. Select the scale from the list of scales.

      6. Lock the Viewport.

       Note: If you would like to add a scale that is not on the list:

      1. Type: Scalelistedit <Enter>

      2. Select Add… button.

      3. Enter Scale name to display in scale list.

      4. Enter Paper and Drawing units.

      5. Select the OK button.

       Notes:

Section 3 Dimensioning

Dimensioning

      Dimensions can be Associative, Non-Associative or Exploded. You need to understand what these are so you may decide which setting you want to use. Most of the time you will use Associative but you may have reasons to also use Non-Associative and Exploded.

       Associative

      Associative Dimensioning means that the dimension is actually associated to the objects that they dimension. If you move the object, the dimension will move with it. If you change the size of the object, the dimension text value will change also.

      (Note: This is not parametric. In other words, you cannot change the dimension text value and expect the object to change. That would be parametric dimensioning.)

       Non-Associative

      Non-Associative means the dimension is not associated to the objects and will not change if the size of the object changes.

       Exploded

      Exploded means the dimension will be exploded into lines, text and arrowheads and Non-Associative.

      How to set dimensioning to Associative, Non-Associative or Exploded.

      1. On the Command Line type: dimassoc <Enter>

      2. Enter the number 2, 1 or 0 <Enter>

      2 = Associative

      1 = Non-Associative

      0 = Exploded

      Note: The default factory setting is ‘2’ Associative.

       How to Reassociate a dimension

      If a dimension is Non-Associative, and you would like to make it Associative, you may use the dimreassociate command to change.

      1. Select Reassociate using one of the following:

       Ribbon = Annotate Tab / Dimensions Panel / or Keyboard = dimreassociate <Enter>

      2. Select objects: select the dimension to be reassociated.