Working with Scales

[Anonymous]

I am working on a site plan for a future apartment complex. An engineer has sent me a copy of the property of a topo they did. I have put the dwg into ArchiCad but the engineer's work at a scale of 1"=20'. I am trying to put a handicap ramp into the file with the property. So, I scaled the ramp to 1"=20'. But when I place the ramp into the file the ramp is still huge. What am I doing wrong?, what do I need to fix so the two will be in the same scale?

[Aussie John]

Hi you need to draw every thing at scale 1:1, in other words if the Engineers drawing is not full size then you need to resize it. This can be done when importing the file in the first place via the DWG translator or by using the resize command. Even though you are drawing at real size you can view it at a different scale. Also when you publish the drawing make sure the scale is what you want.

[Anonymous]

Hi John,
That is an interesting way to work at 1:1. I have always set up my drawings at whatever scale I want to print. So details are at 1:5 or 1:20, plans at 1:100, elevations at 1:100, etc. So are you saying that you scale your drawings in Plotmaker? This would mean setting text, line weights etc very large so when they scale they stay the right size? What do you see as the advantages working at 1:1?
Thanks in advance.

[Aussie John]

I dont mean I work at the screen scale of 1:1, - that is at the scale i want to use otherwise the text would be ll over the place. I was just trying to explain that the plan is drawn in real size and not to a scale. It seems as if the posters engineers drawing came into the plan at a scale

[Anonymous]

Ok...I am glad there is debate on this subject cause I still havent been able to scale the drawings like I need to. Ok...the engineer sent me a copy of the topo drawing he did. The drawing is 1:20 and it is a DWG file. I merged the drawing into ArchiCad. ArchiCad is the program that I drew the handicap ramp in. So...I have a dwg and a pln. But the pln was drawn at like 1/4"=1'. So...now I have two different scales being put into one drawing. How do I scale them to the same size?

[Anonymous]

DGBeck wrote:
...How do I scale them to the same size?

is you know the scale differece between 2 drawgins than:
select drawing for that you need to change scale use CTRL+K shortcut from keyboard and in dialog type necessary value to scale. You can also change scale graphicaly.

[Anonymous]

I find it easiest to scale the drawing when it comes into ArchiCAD. When the file Translator dialogue box comes up you will have to create a new translator as the default translator isnt at the right scale for you. I am not used to working in imperial units however 1/4"=1' means that the drawing scale in Translator has to be set at 1/2.4 (?) the size the engineer set up the drawing (his drawing is at 1:20). I think this is the right conversion but you may have to play around with it.

Once imported the eng drawing I like to save it as a pln version and then enter into my projects as a Hotlinked Module or Merge. Saving as a pln allows fine tuning of pen numbers and layers before importing into the project. If you dont adjust the lines, text, and layers these can upset your project. Particularly the layers. Once they are imported into your project you will have all the engineers layers as well as your own. This can be a problem. I place all survey info on a "survey" layer and then all the details dont add any new layers to my project apart from "survey". If I then want to see what a line on the survey is I refer to the original plan from the survey to see if it is boundary, water, sewer, etc.

HTH

[Anonymous]

Hey..thanks for all the help. I found one other way to put the two files together. A past co-worker informed me of this way:
"Open a new drawing in archicad. Set the scale at 1" = 20'. Then, drag the
file into the window with a right click. This will open the xref placement
dialog box. Click on the settings button and look at the scale factor in the
"default translator copy" and see if it's set to feet or inches (should be
feet). That should get you back into scale. Then you can copy and paste
site, ramp, or both as needed."