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Controlling Available Scales

Controlling Available Scales
Learn how to control available scales in AutoCAD 2018. Get quick and easy video tutorials on annotation and controlling scales by AutoCAD experts.

When you create objects in a drawing, you typically work at full size. But when you create annotation objects, you need to consider the scale at which the drawing will eventually be printed.

When working in model space, you can select an annotation scale at which annotative objects will be displayed. That way, when you later print from model space, annotative objects will be at the proper size.

When working in a layout, you can set the scale of each individual viewport, so that annotative objects in those viewports will always appear at the proper size. Later, when you print paper space layouts at a scale of 1:1, the annotative objects in each viewport will be at the proper size.

The program comes with a large number of predefined scales that are used throughout the program for both annotation scaling and when printing or plotting a drawing. This list can be easily modified to display only the scales you need, and you can control how those scales are displayed.

For example, on the Status bar, expand the annotation scale list. Here, you can see all of the available scales. The list is organized so that you first see metric scales in which 1 paper space unit equals a specific number of drawing units, then those metric scales in which a specified number of paper space units equal one drawing unit, and finally imperial or architectural scales in which a specified fractional number of paper space units equals 12 drawing units.

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When you scroll down to the bottom of the list and select Percentages, each of the available scales includes its percentage as well. Expand the annotation scale list again and toggle off the display of percentages.

If the list includes scales that you never use, you can easily remove them from the list. For example, suppose you never use any of the scales such as 2:1, in which a specified number of paper space units equals one drawing unit. On the Status bar, expand the annotation scale list, scroll to the bottom, and click Custom…. The program displays the Edit Drawing Scale dialog. In the Scale List, press CTRL, select 2:1, 4:1, and 8:1, and then click Delete. Those scales are immediately removed from the list. Click OK to close the dialog.

You can also access this dialog from the ribbon. On the Annotate ribbon, in the Annotation Scaling panel, click the Scale List tool. You again see the Edit Drawing Scales dialog. In the Scale List, press CTRL, select 10:1 and 100:1, and then click Delete. Those scales are also removed from the list. Click OK to close the dialog.

On the Status bar, when you expand the annotation scale list, you can see that the scales you deleted no longer appear in the list.

You can also use this tool to add new scales to the scale list. You can even add custom scales. For example, suppose you need a 75-to-1 scale. Open the Edit Drawing Scales dialog again and click Add…. The program displays the Add Scale dialog. In the Scale name group box, in the Name appearing in scale list field, type “75:1”. This is the scale name as it will appear in the list. Then, in the Scale properties group box, in the Paper units field, type “75”. Leave the Drawing units field set to 1 and click OK to close the dialog.

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In the Edit Drawing Scales dialog, you can see that the 75:1 scale has been added to the Scale list, but it now appears near the top, just below the 1:1 scale. With the 75:1 scale selected in the list, click the Move Down button repeatedly until the 75:1 scale is located below the 1:100 scale.

You should feel free to delete any scales that you do not often use. The changes you make only affect the current drawing. When you start a new drawing, it will always initially include all of the scales that are predefined in the template file used to start the new drawing.

You can also easily restore any predefined scales that may have been deleted. To do so, open the Edit Drawing Scales dialog again, and then click Reset. The program displays a Scale List – Reset dialog. Here, you can see that resetting will restore the default list of scales and asks which default scales you want to restore. You can restore just metric scales, just imperial scales, or both metric and imperial scales. Note that any unused custom scales you may have created will also be removed from the list. Click Metric and imperial scales. As soon as you do, in the Edit Drawing Scales dialog, in the Scale List, you can see that all of the metric scales you had previously deleted have been restored, and that the 75:1 custom scale you created has been removed, because it had not actually been used in the drawing. Click OK to close the Edit Drawing Scales dialog.

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Source: Autodesk

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