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Odd problem with Line Type Scales in DWG translation

David Collins
Advocate
I have a project with many separate buildings on a single site. Each building was developed in a separate ArchiCAD file. For convenience in publishing the entire complex, I've created layouts for all the buildings on a separate master ArchiCAD file and then brought in the various drawings from the building files as external sources. The drawings all ultimately need to be published in DWG format and I have a dedicated translator for the project that works great in general.
With me so far?
When I publish to DWG from the master file with all the external source drawings the line type scale is HUGE. On the order of 100 times too big, When I publish the same drawings directly from their source file the line types come into DWG with the correct scale. In both cases I'm using the exact same translator. So the problem would appear to have something to do with something that happens when the drawings files are brought in to a separate ArchiCAD file from an external source.

Has anybody seen anything like this before? I can start fooling around with LT scale settings when I publish from the master file, but I don't understand why the line types are okay when I publish directly from the source files.

edit UPDATE: LT Scale has no effect whatsoever on the huge line type scale.
David Collins

Win10 64bit Intel i7 6700 3.40 Ghz, 32 Gb RAM, GeForce RTX 3070
AC 27.0 (4001 INT FULL)
2 REPLIES 2
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
You could try publishing the views to PMK from all different files, and link those PMK to one master layout book file, that way the result should (hopefully) be the same for all DWGs.

I have no idea what would cause the bug. Maybe some of your placed drawings are scaled beyond their original view settings, but by a factor of 100 seems unlikely.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
David Collins
Advocate
Thanks for the tip about reverting to Plotmaker methodology. I found the section in the manual that talks about PMKs and its clearly what I should have done in the first place. Maybe next time.

However, the PMK files don't solve the line type scale problem in DWG. The first drawing in the set is at 1:500 and most of the others are at 1:50. I think maybe the 1:500 line scale is being applied to the other drawings somehow.

Some progress: I can get the LT scale setting to work if I use the line type conversion table in the translator. This gives me control over the line type scale, but the same scale is applied to all the drawings. What works at 1:50 is way too small in 1:500. I may have to create separate line types for each scale in the set.

Then again, I'm checking these DWGs in AutoDesk's TrueView viewer. There could be something in there that's leading me astray.

Anyway, thanks for the moral support.
David Collins

Win10 64bit Intel i7 6700 3.40 Ghz, 32 Gb RAM, GeForce RTX 3070
AC 27.0 (4001 INT FULL)
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