Convert DWG's done in Modelspace only to DWG's using both Paperspace and Modelspace

[Jonnydubya]

Hello,

Just started at a new company as the sole CAD resource and I need some help. The previous draughter seems to have created his drawings including titleblocks in model space. I am used producing drawings at 1:1 in model space and then scaling as necessary in paper space.

I now need to amend some drawings, but cannot work out how to do this except by scaling each part of the drawing to 1:1, making the changes and then scaling back to fit on the titleblock. The additional problem is when I try this, the dims change as he has applied some dim scale factor.

Is there a global scale factor I can apply to work on each scaled part of the drawing?

This seems like a strange way to produce a drawing, although he was an experienced draughter.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[Mike.Perry]

Hi "jonathanwilliams7"

Please note I have *moved* this thread from the CAD Standards forum to this one, as I feel this particular forum is a more appropriate place for such a topic.

Thanks, Mike

Forum Manager

[jaberwok]

Hi Jonathan. Welcome to AUGI.

The "usual" way to work all in mspace is to draw the geometry for the main views at full size. Obviously, enlarged views have to be redrawn. The title block/drawing border is then scaled up by the same factor as the final plot is to be scaled down - i.e. if the final plotted scale is 1:10 then the border is inserted at size x 10. Text is also scaled up by the same amount. Dimscale and LTScale generally take the same value.

Your predecessor probalby learnt acad before pspace was introduced - R10 or earlier.


HTH

[Richard McDonald]

Hi Johnathan,

If this is a one off change then I would go with John B. and draught like its 1990. But If its going to be a regular thing then it might be worth setting the drawings up with Paper Space and model space so your comfortable with the drawing style plus other companies etc wont think your in the dark ages (if you share your drawings that is).

A big help with this will be the "chspace" command in the express tools

I know of one major company over in the UK that is only just going across to PS, MS and doing anything on their drawings can be a nightmare.

[Jonnydubya]

Thanks for the reply.

One more question - he has dims which do not reflect the actual measured distance, ie. the overall scale of the drawing is 1:100, but there are also details at 1:50. Where a dimension shows say 1200mm on the 1:50 detail, the actual measured distance is 2400mm.

My question is how did he do this, ie make a 2400mm distance dimension as 1200mm?

And another question - how do I go about checking the drawing? Do I have to scale up each detail to 1:1 to get accurate measurements? Or do I have to mentally convert each dimension from the scaled drawing? This seems completely time-consuming and illogical.

Thanks,
Jon.

[jaberwok]

Hi Jon.


For enlarged details create a new dim style (one for each scale required). The variable Dimlfac needs to be changed (from 1) to the reciprocal of the detail enlargement scale. in your example, 1:100 overall scale and 1:50 detail, Dimlfac should be set to 0.5. This modifies the displayed dimension value without changing the size of the text and arrows.

You can check by dimensioning once this is set up.

[Jonnydubya]

Richard/John B,

thanks for the advice.

Richard - I don't think this is going to be a one-off unfortunately. Could you tell me more about the chspace command?

John B - I think you've hit the nail on the head, both in terms of how the draughter set up the drawings and also the amendment procedure I can follow for the dims (dimlfac).

As an example, and if you have a chance, see attached file if possible. Units are mm. This is a typical example of what I am dealing with.

So he has set-up the sheet scale at 1:100 overall, although each detail is scaled as necessary. Taking section F-F for example.

Do I need to section F-F to one side and scale down by 0.5, so that the detail is now at 1:1 scale in order to check other dims.

Is there a similar command to dimlfac which I could use on the scaled details to check other dims when using the 'inquiry - distance' command? In other words, to save copying details and just take measurements from details he has drawn.

For example, if we measure between grids 1 & 2 on F-F, we get 3600 (well, actually 3601, but that's another issue). Is there a command I could use which would give me a measurement of 1800 as per the dim?

I have a suspicion I may need to use that old tool called my brain(+ a calculator) instead!

Any ideas are gratefully accepted.

Thanks,
Jon.

[jaberwok]

Hi Jon.

No easy solution - Distance always gives actual measured distance and Dimension gives a value modified by Dimlfac.

Before deciding to change all the drawings that you inherit consider that you employer probably doesn't care how the file is arranged as long as the plotted hardcopy is good and probably expects you to be able to work with whatever styles are put in front of you. Spending time converting from an older to a newer way of working may not be what is wanted. On the other hand, your employer might be happy to have his files "brought up to up". Best to check.

This (work) connection has loaded only 6% of your file in over 5 minutes so I won't be looking at the file this morning. Sorry.

[jaberwok]

Okay, the file finally opened.
Overall scale is 1:100 (list the titleblock is the quickest way to check).
Enlarged details at 1:50 and 1:20.
You need a basic Dimstyle (please do not call it STANDARD) and one with Dimlfac=0.5 and one with Dimlfac=0.2 (all of which you have).
However, your dimstyle has linear precision set to nil decimal places and Round-off set to 1 so, using dimensioning, you will never know how accurately your details are drawn. If you set Round-off to zero and linear precision to (say) 4 decimal places, you can use dimensioning to check for accuracy, delete the dimensions that are not required and reset Round-off (if you must). If supress trailing zeros is on you can keep a higher precision setting and still only see whole numbers in the dimensions if the accuracy is good.

HTH

[Jonnydubya]

John,

thanks for having a look and for the advice. I think you're correct about my employer not caring about the way drawings are produced, but he might care that it takes longer to make necessary amendments from the inherited dwgs, but I'll explain it to him.

I'll have a look at what you've mentioned, starting to get a grip on this now.

Many thanks,
Jon.