"View at .... scale" dropdown (instead of design layers having scales)

[line-weight]

Design layers should really be scale-less, especially when they are being used for 3D modelling. Scale should only become relevant once a design layer is being viewed in a sheet layer viewport.

 

However, in top/plan view (and maybe just general 2D drawing) it's useful to be able to preview things like line thicknesses and hatches whilst editing. I sort-of set design layers to have scales for this reason.

 

The wish is that we have a drop down menu, perhaps next to the ones that lets us choose perspective/projection type where we can set the scale at which we want to view the geometry we are editing. This could be saved as a property of saved views.

 

Could have benefits for those of us that use 3D mice too, as the fly-around speed seems to be set relative to the design layer scale. So whilst in a 3d perspective view, we could set it to 1:200 when we want to move quickly around a site or massing model, but set it at 1:5 if we are working on a small detail of an individual piece of furniture, say.

[Matt Overton]

Yes the more I model projects the more the scale of the working space become less permanent and more situational.

So really see how converting model view scale to "view as" would work well. Same time I see no reason not to leave Layer scale setting so switching to that layer could quick change the "view as" scale.

 

The flip side to this is - Should sheet layers have a scale?

It would help with title blocks and scales bars embedded in the template to get the main scale used on the drawing.

 

[Kevin McAllister]

3 hours ago, Matt Overton said:

The flip side to this is - Should sheet layers have a scale?

 

I don't think this is a very good idea myself.

 

3 hours ago, Matt Overton said:

It would help with title blocks and scales bars embedded in the template to get the main scale used on the drawing.

 

This definitely can be an issue but its something that should be solved by improving the functionality of the drawing co-ordination / title block system. A page related scale bar should link to a scale you define/choose in a title block.

 

Personally I put all scale bars into the annotations of sheet layer viewports for this very reason.

 

Kevin

 

[Pat Stanford]

I agree with Kevin. The scale bars need to go into annotations in the viewport.  

 

What happens when you set the sheet layer and the viewport to different scale but ones that are pretty close. Say 1/4" for the viewport and 3/16 for the layer. You put the scale bar on the layer, take a quick glance and it looks pretty good. 

 

You have now issued a drawing with the scale bar completely different than the actual data.

 

The way it works now with the layer always at 1:1 you will probably be able to notice the the scale bar is wrong if you put it on the layer instead of in the viewport.

[line-weight]

I agree, scale should be associated with viewport, not sheet. Sometimes a sheet might only have one viewport, in which case you can argue that the scale could go in the titleblock, but then as soon as you have more than one viewport, with various scales, you have to type "varies" in the scale section of the titleblock, as well as putting a scale in the title associated with each viewport.

 

A while ago I realised having a "scale" entry in my titleblocks was a waste of time and paper space and got rid of it!

[Matt Overton]

We use scale bars in Annotation space as well and it's something that sometimes (mostly in some staff cases) is missed, leading the old crusty to make comments like "Sackable Offence".  It just strikes me as one of those things the smart draftsman inside the CAD box should just get right with at most a checkbox.

 

How it works - I don't overly care about as long it's easier to get right than wrong.

 

To me if viewports could display a scale bar with a checkbox then that goes a long way. Yes also if things on the same sheet know about each other knew about each other like drawing co-ordination then also good.

 

Given the sheet layer is the common container to connect them.

To me maybe the easiest way might by to give sheets a base or predominate scale.

- Title block on the sheet shows a scale bar for that scale and field.

- Viewports when created default to that scale.

- Viewports changed away from sheet scale or created at a different scale also pop up a separate scale bar with control point to move around.

- Ideally, these viewports would tell the titleblock to add that scale to the right field. 

 

 

 

 

[Kevin McAllister]

Maybe the scale bar should become part of the Drawing Label object, activated by a checkbox....

 

KM

[line-weight]

8 hours ago, Kevin McAllister said:

Maybe the scale bar should become part of the Drawing Label object, activated by a checkbox....

 

KM

Yes, and a checkbox northpoint would be handy too.