Auto CAD Scaling Question

chawalang

Well-Known Member
So, I am encountering an odd scaling challenge in Auto CAD.

I received a drawing from a person in central Europe and I'm not sure how, but they did a weird scaling thing with it due to drawing it in metric.

When I open the drawing everything is way bigger than it should actually be. I have determined that everything in the drawing needs to be scaled down 2.54 times, when I get the drawing from the other person everything is off and it appears to have been scaled up 2.54 times. 1inch= 2.54mm

Normally I would scale be referencing line in the drawing that is a certain length but I do not have that option due to it being larger from the get go.

Is there a way I can scale everything in this drawing by 2.54 times as oppose to referencing something?

Thanks!
 
I'm not sure I understand but why can't you just select all and use the scale command? Its been a few years since I had to draw and show both units for NAVFAC project but it wasn't hard.

I'm not understanding it "being larger from the get go". I've never not been able to zoom all.
 
Make sure the project units are set to inches by typing UNITS. If you have to change them, ACAD will prompt you whether you want it to scale your model elements accordingly or not.

If the units are correct but the scale is just off, as Bill said you should be able to CTRL-A select all, then SCALE, select base point, 0.3937. (0.3937 is the scale factor for 1in/2.54mm)
 
CTRL-A to select all. SCALE. Set base point to UCS. Reference, select a point on a known dimension line, select second point on dimension line, enter new distance. Be sure to set your Units to Fractional/Architectural first.
 
And I'd just enter 1/2.54 in the scale command rather than do the math. Or do as Van describes if I know the size of an entity.
 
I've had the same problem and used the above solutions. I genuinely don't understand why it does that. A line drawn at 2.54cm in metric autocad should measure 1" in my imperial cad . Not 2.54".
 
I don't know if it helps much, but the standard theatrical drawing scale in the UK (I'm not sure if it's the same for the rest of Europe) is 1:25 so every 1 cm is equal to 25 cm at full scale. So if you can measure it in centimetres and then multiply by 0.25 you will get the size in meters which you can convert to feet.

This all may be completely irrelevant, but I thought I'd share it in case it helps.
 
I don't know if it helps much, but the standard theatrical drawing scale in the UK (I'm not sure if it's the same for the rest of Europe) is 1:25 so every 1 cm is equal to 25 cm at full scale. So if you can measure it in centimetres and then multiply by 0.25 you will get the size in meters which you can convert to feet.

Why would one draw everything 'to scale' rather than just full size (real dimensions) then scale it in the paperspace viewport? Saves so much brainpower and time and significantly reduces errors . . .
 
I struggled with that also, Erich, but was not sure what he was actually saying. In CAD, most of use draw "full size" so whether just set your dimension units to measure what you want. I guess measure a hardcopy with a scale rule and so on, but that seems outdated. Like me, he started before there was model space and paper space, but I always scaled my title blocks and text, not the building drawing. (There is still at least one engineer I work with that draws in scale. I have never figured out why but know how to deal with his backgrounds.)
 

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