Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
AutoCAD draws the viewport, and the model space geometry appears inside it.
Next, specify a drawing scale for your viewport(s).
Specifying the correct viewport scale sooner rather than later bestows a couple of
important benefits:
• Correctly scaling viewports allows you to use annotative documentation ob-
jects such as text, dimensions, hatch patterns, blocks, and non-continuous
(dash-dot) linetypes. I introduce you to annotative objects in Chapter 13.
• Correctly scaling all your viewports allows you to easily plot the completed
layout at a scale of 1:1 while retaining individual, true-to-scale viewports.
7. Double-click inside the viewport you want to apply a scale to.
Model space becomes active, as it must, because that's the space you have to scale.
The Viewport Scale button appears toward the right side of the status bar when
model space is activated in a layout.
8. Click the Viewport Scale button on the status bar.
Clicking the Viewport Scale button opens a pop-up list of every drawing scale re-
gistered in the scales list — including metric scales even if you're working in an
English-units drawing, and vice versa.
Most of the time, for most people, there are way too many scales in the
lists you see in the Viewport Scale button and the Plot dialog box. AutoCAD has a
handy-dandy Edit Drawing Scales dialog box that lets you remove those imperial
scales if you never work in feet and inches and vice versa, if you work only in met-
ric. To run through your scales, choose Scale List from the Annotation Scaling panel
on the Annotate tab, or type
SCALELISTEDIT
and press Enter to open the Edit
Drawing Scales dialog box. If you make a mistake, the Reset button in the Edit Draw-
ing Scales dialog box will restore all the default scales.
9. Find the scale you want to apply to the active viewport and select it from the list.
The display zooms in or out to adjust to the chosen viewport scale.
Reread that last sentence and then think about how often you have to
pan and zoom in your drawing. If you zoom inside a viewport whose scale you've
set —
kaboom!
— you just blew the scale off the map. Luckily, you can prevent
yourself or anyone else from inadvertently destroying your beautifully arranged
and scaled viewport by completing the final steps of viewport setup:
10. Make sure you're in paper space (check the UCS icon or move the crosshairs).
