Annotative scales and dimension style

[jkipfer]

I'm revamping our dwt files to include updates found in AutoCAD 2008.
Maybe I'm not understanding the annotative scales properly as they relate to dimensions.
Is it possible to add specific annotative scales to a dim style? Or, as it looks to me, do you need to draw the dimensions first and then select them and apply the annotative scales that you want?

It seems like you could just have one dimension style with all the annotative scales applied to it and then your dimensions show up correctly in whatever scale viewport you have. Is this thinking not correct?

Thanks,

Jason

[mockdeep]

Jason,

When you make a dimstyle, mleaderstyle, textstyle, hatch, block, etc., annotative it will insert appropriately scaled based on your current drawing annotation scale. On the bar at the bottom of your screen you should see "Annotation Scale" (if not, click on the tiny arrow at the far bottom right of your screen and select it). If you set that to whatever scale you intend your drawing to be plotted at you can then draw a dimension and it will be automatically sized appropriately. This way you need only one style for all of your dimensions and you never need to be concerned with scale factors and text sizes. Very useful. If you want it to appear at multiple scales then you can add additional scales to an object on the properties palette, or, I wouldn't doubt, by a variety of other means which I am unfamiliar with.

For more information check out ATP 188 under April 2007 courses (http://www.augi.com/education/archive.asp?page=293).

[Jack Cheong]

Or, as it looks to me, do you need to draw the dimensions first and then select them and apply the annotative scales that you want?

There are 2 different situations:
1. You can assign the annotative to the dim style first, then start to draw the dimensions
2. If you already dimensioning all, then want to change them to annotative, you can use Properties Palettes to change them all to annotative
Hope this can help you

Jack Cheong

[jkipfer]

Right next to the Annotation Visibility icon on the btm right of my screen, there is an icon to Automatically add scales to annotative objecs when the annotation scale changes. So you can actually more easily change the scales as an afterthought in paper space.

Jason

[Jack Cheong]

It seems like you could just have one dimension style with all the annotative scales applied to it and then your dimensions show up correctly in whatever scale viewport you have. Is this thinking not correct?

Thanks,

Jason

You are not wrong!
If you apply the annotative scale 1:20, 1:30, 1:50 to the dim style, and it will show up in the individual viewport with the same scale in paper space
But if you have a viewpport scale at 1:100, it will not show any dimension, because you never assign any annotative scale of 1:100

Jack Cheong