AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Drawing Scale Settings

AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Scale Settings
AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Scale Settings

This is the fifth AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks expanding upon a previous article I wrote outlining the 5 AutoCAD Civil 3D Settings Professional Land Surveyors Need To Know.

The fifth of the five AutoCAD Civil 3D settings Professional Land Surveyors need to know was, “Drawing Scale Settings“, which is explained in today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks.

To be specific, this AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks shows you how to set the Model Space Drawing Scale. While easy to do, more than a few AutoCAD Civil 3D users, particularly if they’re new to AutoCAD or the newer interfaces, have asked me in frustration where one does this – I’ll show you two simple ways to set the Model Space Drawing Scale. Of course, you need to set the scale in Paper Space, too, but we’ll leave that for another day.

Please note that the images in this AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks represent the Units appropriate for my work area and project requirements. You will, of course, select the appropriate Units for your circumstances.

Now on to the AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks for Drawing Scale Settings:

  1. Switch to the Settings Tab of the Toolspace and right click on your AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing name. This will bring up a drop-down list of menu items. Select the first option, “Edit Drawing Settings …“.

    Select Edit Drawing Settings
  2. With the Drawing Settings screen now open, switch to the “Units and Zone” tab.
  3. Select Drawing Settings Units and Zone Tab
    Select Drawing Settings Units and Zone Tab
  4. Now, select the Model Space Drawing Scale you want your drawing model space to be. This does not make your Model Space larger or smaller, but rather, this setting tells AutoCAD Civil 3D how to scale inserted objects, like the blocks representing your Points and Point Labels, for example.

    AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Scale Settings
    AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Scale Settings

Here’s an easier way to set your AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Scale:

At the bottom of your AutoCAD Civil 3D Interface is the Drawing Status Bar where, along with many other drawing specific settings, you can easily set the Drawing Scale. As shown in the image below, click on the “Annotation Scale‘ button and you should be presented with a list of common scales to select from.

AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Annotation Scale Settings
AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Annotation Scale Settings

This AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks is brought to you by the Professional Land Surveyor Source, showing you how to use the Drawing Scale Settings in your AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 (and 2011) drawings.

Comments

4 responses to “AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Drawing Scale Settings”

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  2. Janice Avatar
    Janice

    Thanks for your article on AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks. It’s always appreciated to get these quick tips and tricks. I work for McGraw Hill Construction and you can download autocad drawings right from their site through their Sweets Network. autocad drawings

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