Paste / Unit Scaling Issue

[UpNorth]

Having a problem, select items and Copy to Clipboard. Paste them in the same drawing and the items are scaled up 12 times; Civil 3D 2009. Drawing specific issue, tested on two computers.

Try the same thing, on the same drawing, in AutoCAD 2009 and it works fine. No scaling.

In Civil 3D, when something is pasted, the command line reads:

Command: _pasteclip
Unit-scaling inserted database...Specify insertion point:


Not sure what "unit-scaling" is, but I bet it is a clue

Any ideas?

[sinc]

Check your settings for INSUNITS, INSUNITSDEFSOURCE, and INSUNITSDEFTARGET. Sounds like you have something set to inches. We keep all of these values set to "2" (feet), but some people prefer to keep them all set to "0" (unitless).

[UpNorth]

Those three variables were set to 2, I also tried 0 and neither fixed the problem.

Thanks.

[sinc]

Just out of curiosity, have you restarted Civil 3D? I've seen bizarre problems with pasting from the clipboard, especially when using "Copy with Base Point", and they clear up if I shut down and restart C3D.

EDIT: Oh, never mind. You said you tried it on two computers...

[sinc]

This sounds pretty strange. I'm not sure what might be happening. Have you run an AUDIT on the drawing?

You might also go the the Drawing Settings tab, and check to see if that option for "Scale objects inserted from other drawings" is turned off. Although I can't imagine that this would cause something to be scaled by 12 during a paste operation, if you have INSUNITS, INSUNITSDEFSOURCE, and INSUNITSDEFTARGET all set to 2.

Does it matter what objects you are copy-and-pasting? In other words, do lines and arcs and polylines scale by 12, or just blocks, etc.?

[UpNorth]

It does not matter what is selected, it all gets scaled up 12 times when pasted back in.

Check out the attached video (no audio). I select something, press Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V.

http://screencast.com/t/qLXQdbeDzxo

Thanks...

[UpNorth]

Problem solved! Turns out it was in the Drawing Settings dialog (as mentioned above). I am not a Civ3D guru and did not know about these parallel settings.

The units were set to inches and the scale on insert was checked.

Thanks for your help!

[sinc]

There's even more than that...

There are also US Survey Feet and International Feet. So you can run into even more issues if you don't have those settings right. And once again, it isn't a straightforward thing. You need to make sure that you have it set correctly in your Drawing, and in your Survey database (if you are using one), and in your data collector (if you are a Surveyor), and sometimes even in other places. For example, LandXML can contain data in either US Survey Feet or in International Feet.

Similar issues come up with Coordinate Zones.

So it can be lots of fun...

[dwilliams.218142]

Problem solved! Turns out it was in the Drawing Settings dialog (as mentioned above). I am not a Civ3D guru and did not know about these parallel settings.

The units were set to inches and the scale on insert was checked.

Thanks for your help!

I have this same issue in AutoCAD 2010, what settings do I need to change?

[sinc]

If you're having the same problem, then check the Drawing Settings (Prospector -> Settings tab -> right-click on the drawing name).