plotting scaled drawings with autocad 2011 - 2013

7/28/2019 Plotting Scaled Drawings With AutoCAD 2011 - 2013

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tting scaled drawings with AutoCAD 2011 - 2013

p://www.coursestuff.co.uk/tutorials/plotting-to-scale/index.php[2012-11-16 11:02:28 AM]

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Plotting scaled drawings with AutoCAD 2011 - 2013

Introduction

This tutorial assumes that you have downloaded some

vector data (probably a combination of Themes from the

MasterMap Topography Layer) from Digimap and that

you have converted the data to the AutoCAD DWG file

format using the InterpOSe translation application.

However, you can follow this tutorial with any other

AutoCAD drawing.

Once you have a drawing open in AutoCAD, it ought to

be quite simple to plot it to a known scale but actually,

it can be quite complicated for the AutoCAD beginner.

The aim of this tutorial is to give you a clear, step-by-

step sequence describing the preferred method of

creating a scaled paper plot/print from your drawing.

The following tutorial is designed for AutoCAD 2011, 2012 and 2013 but can also be used for all

previous versions back to 2009, it may not be compatible with AutoCAD versions before 2009.

How to plot a drawing to scale

1. Begin by opening the drawing file in AutoCAD. Initially, you will see the drawing displayed in

Model Space; this is the default environment for drafting but not for plotting. Before

proceeding, make sure that you are using the "2D Drafting & Annotation" workspace so that

the options available on the ribbon match those in this tutorial.

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2. In order to start configuring a scaled plot, we must switch to Paper

Space. Do this by clicking the "MODEL" button on the right-hand side

of the status bar. This button is a toggle and changes to show the

current status of the display. Once the button is clicked, the display will

change to show your drawing within a viewport on a virtual sheet of paper and the text on

the button changes to "PAPER" to indicate that you are now in paperspace.

3. The next step is to tell AutoCAD how big the sheet of paper

is. To do this, click the "Output" tab on the ribbon and then

click the "Page Setup Manager" button in the "Plot" panel.

The Page Setup Manager dialogue box will appear, showing a


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list of page setups. The default setup is called "*Layout1*"

and this is highlighted. We have the choice of either creating

a new layout or modifying the existing default layout. If you intend to create a number of

layouts for different paper sizes and different scales, it's a good idea to create a new layout

but it this case, we'll keep it simple and just modify *Layout1*. Click the "Modify" button

to display the Page Setup dialogue box.

4. The Page Setup dialogue box looks a bit complicated but in fact you need only make three

changes. First, select a printer name from the drop-down list. Only available printers are

listed. Next, select a paper size. Only sizes available on the chosen printer are displayed. So,

you won't see the option of an A1 paper size if you have selected an A3 printer. For the

purposes of this tutorial, I am using an A4 sheet. Finally, set the plot scale to 1 mm = 1

unit, this is important and this setting should always be used, irrespective of the plotted

scale of your drawing. Click the "OK" button to return to the Page Setup Manager and then

click the "Close" button to return to the paper space layout.


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5. Having changed the paper size, you will probably see that the viewport no longer fits neatly

on the sheet. Resize the viewport using grips so that it neatly fits on the sheet, leaving

space for a title block and legend if required. Grips (small blue squares) are activated by

clicking once on the viewport border. Click a grip to activate it and move it to a new

location. Click once more to complete the action. Make sure that the viewport border

remains within the plotter margin (the dashed line); any objects outside the plotter margin

will not be plotted. Once the viewport is correctly sized and positioned, hit the Escape key

(Esc) on the keyboard to deselect the viewport. You may discover that you can no longer

see your drawing, if so, double-click inside the viewport border to enter Floating ModelSpace and then use Zoom Extents (Z E ). Once you can see your drawing,

double-click on the paper sheet outside of the viewport border to return to Paper Space.

6. The next step involves setting the scale of the viewport so that when the drawing is plotted,

the map/plan will be at a known scale. For this tutorial, I am going to use a scale of

1:2,500.

AutoCAD comes with a number of

"Standard" scales by default but the

scale we require is not one of them.

We must, therefore, create our own

"Custom" scale. There are numerous

ways to do this and the following

method is just one.

AutoCAD scales are based on the principle that both drawing units and paper units are the

same and this makes things quite simple. For example, if both drawing units and paper units

are millimetres and we want to plot at 1:2,500 we should set the paper units to 1 and the

drawing units to 2,500 - simple. But we have a problem because although our paper units

are millimetres, our drawing units are metres. This is true of all Ordnance Survey data and

very common for drawings used in landscape architecture. So, we need to factor in the

change from millimetres to metres when we create out new scale.

Select the viewport by clicking once on the border. You will notice a Viewport Scale button

appear near the right-hand end of the status bar. Clicking this button displays a list of


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standard scales. At the bottom of the list of scales is the "Custom" option. Click that

option to display the Edit Scale List dialogue box. We need to add a new scale, so click the

"Add" button to display the Add Scale dialogue box.

In the Add Scale dialogue box, enter a Name for the new scale. I've called it "1:2,500 (m)"

to indicate that this scale is for drawings with drawing units in metres. Next, enter the Paper

units. I have entered "1000" because there are 1000 millimetres in a metre and that

effectively deals with the problem. Finally, enter the Drawing units; in this case "2,500"

because that's the scale we want. Click "OK" and then "OK" again to return to the drawing.

7. Now that we have created the scale, we can apply it to theviewport. Click on the viewport boundary to select it and then

click the Viewport Scale button on the Status Bar to display

the list of scales. You should see that the new scale we just

created is in the list. Select "1:2,500 (m)" from the list. The

image in the viewport will zoom to the chosen scale. The

viewport will plot at the required scale when the drawing is

plotted at a scale of 1:1, which is why we set the plot scale to 1:1 in the Page Setup

dialogue box.

8. Although the drawing in the viewportis now at the correct scale, you may

find that you want to reposition it

within the viewport. To do that,

double-click within the viewport to

enter Floating Model Space. In this

mode, the viewport contents act just

like real Model Space. So, to

reposition your drawing, just use the Pan command (right-click and select "Pan" from the

menu). When you are happy with the position of your drawing, end the Pan command

(right-click and "Exit") and then double-click on the paper sheet somewhere outside of theviewport to return to Paper Space. Obviously, it's important that you do not use any of the

zoom tools while you are in Floating Model Space as that would change the scale. Once you

are happy with the position of your drawing, double-click outside the viewport to return to

Paper Space.


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9. Before plotting, you will probably want to add a title and some other information. Use the

Multiline Text tool (found on the "Home" tab) to add a title to your drawing while in Paper

Space. Your finished drawing should look something like the one above.

10. We are now

ready to plot

the drawing.

This step is veryeasy because

we have already

done all the

hard work. Click

the Plot button

at the top-left of the screen. The Plot dialogue box is displayed and you will see that it looks

very similar to the Page Setup dialogue box we saw earlier. Not only that but the values for

plotter name, paper size and scale that we used earlier are already set. All that remains is

for us to click the "OK" button to send the plot to the printer. If you like, you can also

preview the plot before sending it, just to make sure it's what you expected.


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Translating MasterMap data to DWG with InterpOSe

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AutoCAD draws the default viewport of new layouts on the current layer but it is always a good

idea to keep your viewports on their own layer so that you can easily control their visibility

without affecting the visibility of other objects in your drawing.

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Copyright David Watson 20052012

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plotting scaled drawings with autocad 2011 - 2013

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