Scaling Pen Weights for Layouts

[Steve Jepson]

What is the current method for getting a View made and saved in say 1/4" scale, to show pen weights at a different scale like 1/16"=1'0" ?
Or the other way around - perhaps a 1/4" scale drawing/view that we want to display in Layout as 1"=1'-0" with line widths correct at that scale.

Do we still have to make a special pen sets for that?

[Laszlo Nagy]

I would probably use a separate Pen Set as you mentioned.

[Steve Jepson]

I have been do thing that for decades but I was just hoping that there was a better way now. I guess not.

[Barry Kelly]

You should be saving different views of your detail for each different scale (rather than trying to scale the drawing in the layout).
So each view will have a different scale setting, maybe different layer combination (if you want annotation to suit each scale), maybe different MVO and GO combinations, and it is here you can set a different pen set that adjusts the pen thicknesses suitable for each scale.

Each view will have exactly the settings you want for that particular view.

So yes different pen sets are the way to go still.

Barry.

[Steve Jepson]

Yes. I do that. But some times I am trying to squeeze elevations, site plan, floor plans, a couple of sections and some schedules all on to one 11x17 sheet for a meeting or something. It's not a problem very often but it does seem to me like everything in the drawings should be scaled with what ever size we need the drawing to be in Layout. It isn't always possible to know what scale the drawings will be when they are going to used for so many purposes, on so many different sheet sizes.

In a pinch, I do some things with the .pdfs to take care of this. It seems to me like it would not be that difficult to add some code for that to the program. It would scale the all the pen sizes in a drawing relative to the originally used pen sizes it was made with.

[Richard Morrison]

Steve wrote:
It would scale the all the pen sizes in a drawing relative to the originally used pen sizes it was made with.

I'm not totally clear on how you want pen weights to scale. If you shrink a 1/4" plan down to 1/8", are you wanting the line weights to be 1/2 size, too? (As if you reduced a PDF.) Or are you wanting the weights to essentially stay the same visually, regardless of scale? There is the issue of text sizes, too. Not sure what your intent is there.

[Steve Jepson]

I needed to prepare some drawings for use in a pre-application conference meeting. What goes in the drawing are some simple drawings to explain things and mostly for conversational purposes. The problem is that I have everything looking the way I want it for the real drawings, but when they are shrunk down to tiny the line weights for things like fills are too thick. The fills are used in a pseudo site plan with building info for the sake of scheduling Areas. Attached is a screen shot. I had to play around with the scale the drawings are saved in, and then the scale that will work so they all fit on one small sheet. It was not too big a problem but is would be great if everything in the original drawing would just be scaled to what evert the new scale of the layout is going to be.

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/2ac67a12-c572-4adc-bf87-0bc1e50ba40c

I hate making these little drawings because it take so much work to show only what is wanted for the meetings. It will work for what its for I guess.

[Eduardo Rolon]

Posible workflow:
1. Publish the particular drawings to PDF.
2. Place the PDF in Layout Book
3. Edit Placed PDF to be 50%
----
Since the line weights are already "baked in" when you change the scale they will automatically change.

[Steve Jepson]

Yes. That works for this sort of occasional thing. But would it really be so difficult to have an auto-scale option for Drawings in a Layout?

[Richard Morrison]

You might try publishing views to DWF or PMK or another format, and see if these work any better for you. Auto-scaling is not something that I can help you with.