AutoCAD 2006 - Setting up house design plans correctly, Units, Scales, etc

[indulgeinhumor]

If I was mainly interested in house planning at a basic level how should I set up (format) for model space? Units and drawing limits? My goal is to be able to print using the 1/4" or 1/8" scale in paperspace on an 11 x 17 or 18 x 24? I think I should be drawing unitless, decimal and then custom scale in paper space when I am ready to print the size I want? Help?

[Brian Myers]

Since you are mentioning imperial size sheets I believe you likely use feet and inches in your drawings (many non-USA members use metric, I didn't know where you are located). That being said you want your units to be Feet and Inches and draw to full scale.

If the home is relatively small then an 18 x 24 sheet is normally appropriate. If you go up to 70' in either direction then go up to a 24 x 36 sheet just to allow things to fit (this may vary, its just a rule of thumb I use). Use 1/4" scale for your plan when you place it within your border (this is made easy if you have a newer version of AutoCAD and use your Layout tabs).

I used to work for a home plans reseller and have seen some 15,000 different home plans... this is about as standard as it gets even if some places will do it a bit differently.

[indulgeinhumor]

Brian thank you, but I think I need to be very specific. Yes, this is a (USA) drawing, but for other drafting I do use metric as well.

I want to draw in model space, then open and adjust the scale in paperspace and print. I do not want to worry about adjusting the scale in the print set up if possible. A couple years ago I worked for an Arch. firm and I just can't exactly remember what I used. It seems that it was unitless and in decimal form. Then we used a pulldown from our set up to adjust the scale in paperspace before we locked the viewport. Yet, I still need confirmation does this sound normal? What will unitless hurt, it is still a 1:1 ratio? I want to be able to add furniture from the designcenter without scale problems as well. Again, what would I set the drawing limits for in model space? (is it like 300 x 400?) I want to adjust the scale to only print to the smaller paper, I am triing to avoid using the 24 x 36 shts. for now.

[Opie]

Does this thread, "Blocks, Images or Xrefs not inserting correctly?," in the AutoCAD FAQ (Read only) (http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=189) help?