Viewports - layer scales

[Pamela dHKa]

I've been searching for an hour regarding my questions and I haven't found them answered so please forgive me if this question has been asked before:

Our office wants to use Viewports and I've got three issues I can't seem to get worked out in my trial run:

Drawing:

1. Our floor plans are drawn at 1:50 and most of the layers used to make up the floor plan drawing are in the same scale, however, there are a few symbol elements that are on a layer that is 1:100. It all works fine in the drawing, but as soon as I create a viewport of the drawing that naughty 1:100 layer gets bumped up to 1:50 screwing the whole drawing up. Do all of the layers/elements in a viewport have to be the same scale for it to translate propertly to a viewport? If not, then what is the workaround? ***

Exporting as dwg

2. Even though I have set up the viewports to have no outline they still show up in the dwg version of the drawing even though they are not showing up in my Sheet Layout. How can I make sure these outlines don't show up in the dwg file?

3. When exporting as dwg I am not able to specify "Layers" at the "Export As DXF Layers:" conversion setting. Both Layers and Classes are greyed out. This is troublesome because when the file is opened as a dwg the classes are all gone autmatically and get mixed together with the layers. How do I retain my classes and layers when exporting from a sheet?

That's all for now. But I know I'll be back!

***What I have tried doing is just duplicating the same viewport, pasting it in place to sit right on top of the other viewport with only that naughty layer visible and changing the scale of THAT viewport back to it's 1:100. The problem I have found with this is that I get a shifting of the information...it doesn't stay where it should...and it's the structural grid so it HAS to be in the exact same position. This led me to the realization that a copy of the viewport polygon should be kept to keep track of where you take your viewports from exactly. Is this normal practice or is there another way to show where the viewports have been taken from exactly?

[Guest]

1 - Yes. The viewport itself determines the scale of how the objects will be displayed on the screen.

An alternative is to make another viewport of the oddscale layer and stack it over top the other layer.

2. We are aware of this issue and are working on a resolution.

3. This is unusual. Can you send a file to tech@nemetschek.net outlining the problem?

[Pamela dHKa]

Thanks for the quick response. I should have been more clear as far as the note I wrote for question #1. I did try the method you suggested however when you change the scale for the odd layer after you paste it, it doesn't paste in the exact same spot. (read the astericks note)

Any way to make sure it does stack back in the same spot after the scale change?

[Guest]

You shouldn't paste it. You should use the create viewport command on the one layer and then align the layers. It would help if you had a locus point on each layer so you knew how to align them in the viewport if they are not perfectly aligned about the center (if that is the case, simply use the align command)

Because you are creating a second viewport, it's always going to place it in the center of the drawing. It is up to you to align them. The design layer scales being as different as they are, are challenging to line up without a reference point.

[Pamela dHKa]

excellent.

Thank YOU!

[Mickey]

So using the method listed in answer to question 1 vieports are sensitive to which order you create them.

Being that I now have the wrong layer on top.

Is there a way to change which one is on top like I can a layer?

[NickB]

Use Tool>Send>Send Forward (or Backward) to reorder the stack of viewports.

Viewports are like objects on a (Sheet) Layer rather than layers in themselves.

[islandmon]

One other little thing regarding scales. Acad defaults to 1:50 & 1:100 engineering scale which is very close to 1:48 architectural scale , ditto with 1:100 being close to 1:96. But they are not the same scales ! The former is base 10 and the later is base 12.

[jan15]

quote:

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Originally posted by Pamela dHKa:

I've been searching for an hour...

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Do you know about using Google to search the NNA forum? As discovered by Andy Kovach, thread at http://techboard.nemetschek.net/cgi/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=19;t=000186

It's easy and instantly searches the entire forum for a text string anywhere in the thread.

As for question 2: can you give the viewport the layer or class name "Defpoints", so that it will automatically be on a non-printing layer in Autocad?