Measure PaperSpace in PaperSpace

[Avatart]

This was raised to me as a question, I have no idea as to why anybody would want to do this, but I don't know the answer and I hate it when that happens.

How do you measure something drawn in ModelSpace, when you are in PaperSpace, in PaperSpace units. For example, I have two lines that are 8000mm apart, my viewport is scaled to 1:100, how can I measure that as 80mm? I would like to be able to answer in terms of change this variable to that and it will always measure that way.

If anyone can think of why someone would want that, do let me know....

[H-Angus]

For what its worth (using ACA 2008 ) when doing a dist in paperspace it returns the paperspace value (aka your 80mm) it only returns the models space value if you use the snaps to pick points on objects in model space.

I don't know if a variable effects this though.

Only reason I could think of is if someone had a scale rule and wanted to check a paper copy was the the right scale, even then I'm not sure

[H-Angus]

Use chspace, do a dist then undo?

[Avatart]

For what its worth (using ACA 2008 ) when doing a dist in paperspace it returns the paperspace value (aka your 80mm) it only returns the models space value if you use the snaps to pick points on objects in model space.

It has to snap onto the ModelSpace object to be measuring something real.

Use chspace, do a dist then undo?

Bit of a faf, the guy wants to do this on loads of things on loads of drawings.

Thanks for having a go though, Steve!

[H-Angus]

Well looking at some other discussion on the A'desk site, it doesn't seem like there is a variable.

What does the guy want it for? Other thoughts are to give him a calculator tell him the scale of the drawing and measure the model space distance Or maybe use a dimstyle setup to scale the units accordingly.

Or open in 2006 or an earlier release and just use dist.

[tedg]

This was raised to me as a question, I have no idea as to why anybody would want to do this, but I don't know the answer and I hate it when that happens.

How do you measure something drawn in ModelSpace, when you are in PaperSpace, in PaperSpace units. For example, I have two lines that are 8000mm apart, my viewport is scaled to 1:100, how can I measure that as 80mm? I would like to be able to answer in terms of change this variable to that and it will always measure that way.

If anyone can think of why someone would want that, do let me know....

Well a quick, (cheating) way would be to simply dimension it in PS.
Create a dimension style for PS: dimscale = 1, units= (as you see fit: decimal units with mm suffix), etc.
I believe AutoCAD factors in the viewport scale and does the math for you.

Just a thought

[irneb]

Otherwise, if one of the points are on PS then it measures the PS distance instead of the MS. If both points selected are in MS then it gives the MS distance.

According to Vanilla 2008's help you could use the SPACETRANS command. However it gives me very weird results indeed!

[Andy.88917]

I typically just draw a line (in paper space) by snapping to the objects in model space, move the line out and do a distance on that line.

[cadtag]

Try it in 2009, using osnaps on MS entities, and you'll get the model space distance.

which to my mind is completely borked -- if I wanted the model space distance, i'd just double clik and do a DI to get it. If I want the PS distance between MS objects, I can't use osnaps.

Call it a BDD decision -- broken by design

[lpseifert]

This should work for you... not it's original intent, but effective nonetheless.
It reports in feet, but it's actually drawing units.

;; returns horizontal distance regardless of z values - LPS 2008
(defun c:di (/ pt1 pt2 pt1-flat pt2-flat hd hdtxt)
(setq pt1 (getpoint "HorDistance  Pick first point: ")
      pt2 (getpoint "Pick end point: " pt1)
      pt1-flat (list (car pt1) (cadr pt1))
      pt2-flat (list (car pt2) (cadr pt2))
      hd (distance pt1-flat pt2-flat)
      hdtxt (strcat  "\nHorizontal distance = " (rtos hd 2 2) "'");(getvar "luprec")
);setq
(PRINC)
(PROMPT hdtxt)
(princ)
);defun