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scale bar won't scale!


mike-h

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I want to insert a scale bar into each of my (currently) 3 sheet layers, one at 1/1250 and 2 at 1/500. Inserting a scale bar seems to bring in a bar who's thickness I can edit in "printed height" but the "minor length" seems the only way to adjust the length, and I can't work out what the value of 0-10 means (doesn't make a big difference to length).

e.g. for my 1/1250 I want a bar 80mm long - 100metres, but I can't seem to be able to set this length. Also, with the 'adjust units' box checked in the object info all the values on the bar are 0. Without it checked it gives me the actual paper size in mm. The viewport scale is set at 1/2500, and my design layers are 1/100.

can anyone help me!

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The length of the scale bar is determined by the other settings, you can't set it manually.

The scale bar gives you a bar consisting of a number of sections equal to the Number of Major divisions plus 1. The plus 1 is the first one on the left which is the minor divisions.

So for your 1/1250 layer you would set it for 4 Major divisions and set the Major Length to be 20 meters.

For the Minor Divisions, you might want to set it to 5 and set the Minor Length to 4 meters.

This will give you an overall scale bar length of 100 meters.

It kind of works backwards. It would be better to have the Major informaiton set first then have the minor use that to calculate.

Ask back if you have more questions.

Pat

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thanks, I've got a nice scale bar set up along the lines you suggested, and that sorts the division of minor and major. But it still gives me a total of 100mm with 'adjust units' checked, and zeros without, rather than an at-scale length of 100m (the same for the 1/2500 sheet, where 100mm would be an 250m).

Is this because I'm trying to do it on the sheet layers (which dont seem to have a scale setting) rather than a design layer - even though the viewports are set to scale.

It would be better for me, layout-wise to have the scale bars on the sheet layers, and placing a scale bar on a design layer using the figures above gives a squashed,illegible bar.

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When you double click on the viewport you should get a box asking if you want to edit the Annotations, Crop or Design Layer. Select Annotation. In the Annotation mode, you are drawing to scale in the viewport.

You can do things like add dimensions (that will snap to objects on the design layers), add text and note, or add scale bars.

Check of Section 20 of the VectorWorks 12 manual or on-line help for more information on crops and annotations of viewports.

Pat

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ace - its starting to make sense. Its a lot to get me head around! book is due for delivery thurs-fri, have a slim guide to VW 10.5 at the moment thats a bit short on info!

any good online help to recommend? a lot of it seems either super-basic, or ultra complex...

cheers again for the help its really sorted a couple of problems for me

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The online help for VectorWorks is the exact same information that is in the manuals you can purchase from Nemetschek.

The other good online resource is the VectorWorks Mailing List. You can sign up from the Community page from the Nemetschek site. It is a community similar to this Tech Board, but comes through your email instead of having to go look.

Have you checked out Jonathan Pickups manuals at Archoncad.co.nz?

Pat

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