30 replies to this topic

[John Atchley]

If I draw a  detail, intended to end up at 1"-1' scale, even a line drawnat  the default line weight trends to bleed into other lines. How do people do their details?

[Thomas Davis]

Are you using multi-drawing or plan sets?

 

Does checking the box "auto scale pen width" make any difference?

[Thomas Roman]

I have templates set up for details drawn at different scales... each of these template files have different settings for things like font sizes, arrow head sizes, line weights, etc... the font sizes and arrow head sizes are things that are just adjusted according to the particular scale...the line weights are more of a judgement thing that I just eye balled and tweaked over time... the goal is that all these details have a similar look and feel when combined with details of different scales or plans..
lately, when doing line work, I have layers set up as "pen one" and "pen two" and "pen three" and "pen four".. each of these layers is set to use a particular pen, as well as a particular color...
I still find that I use "colors" to distinguish pen weight, as I'm not too fond of the way the lines show up using the softplan "display pen settings" feature, so no WYSIWYG for me..

[Thomas Roman]

Rather than "blank" template files, I usually litter my template files with a lot of "bone yard" stuff that I've created for other drawings /details in the past.. my "detail" template has 2x4 abd 2x6 section cuts, common notes, ABs, cmu blocks, etc..
Not as organized as it should be, as it's all rather thrown together over time..eh, one of these days I'll get organized...

[John Atchley]

Thanks all. I thought I had posted a reply last night but dont see it. My main problem is just in drawing the detail at 1/4 scale. For instance drawing a box 1/4" x 3 1/2" even at line weight .1 it just looks mushy and it is hard to see what I am doing. I have just played around with it and I now see the problem is using "display print syle" If I turn that off I can see what I am doing much better.

[Yvon Gonthier]

At the beginning of Softplan 2014, I had set "display print style" as a standard because taught it would be useful to see the line thickness but have been setting it back not to show (takes a while when you have a lot of plans you go back into)because I find it to troublesome and hard to work with precision and make sure I snap to the proper spot.

[John Atchley]

I guess that is why many users use different colors to indicate line thickness. That's going to be a hard learn for me but I think I had better try

[Thomas Roman]

Yep... colors to indicate pens is rather old school, but for fine details, the broad line work display is tricky to work with...
That said, changing the pen settings will change the appearance on the monitor ..
I'd much rather work WYSIWYG, but it just seems hard to do so at times.. like the pen weights as printed don't match the display on screen well enough, or something... but the color coding method works great, and it's super easy to manage with layer settings..perhaps I'm just an "old dog"?

[Chris Stewart]

I think it is because a .1 mm line at 1/4 scale is about 1/2" thick

 

I think what would help is a convenient way to toggle "Display Pen Print Style" on and off

 

as it is -I normally do not use it because it is a bit of a chore to switch back and forth

[Brian Berzinskis]

Same as Thomas, I have blank drawings for each scale with character sizes etc. already set. That way all the text is the same size regardless of detail scale. I seem to remember that there is an autoscale for fonts, but last time I used it, it was a complete waste of time - although to be fair, it was a long time ago, and it may have been improved, but the program isn't smart enough to put the note neatly after rescaling.

 

I was always curious when you check Auto Scale fonts and type in something like 0.5 and why that does not change the text in the drawing that you are working on to 0.5 scale so when you are drawing pointers and such it is like a preview of the drawing at the scale you plan on printing at.

[John Atchley]

So I have a floor plan that will be printed at 1/4=1, and the notes and dimensions look like I want them to. I then have a page with a few details say of a master bathroom that I want to print at 1/2, but I also want to grab the bathroom from the floor plan. I can change the character setup on the detail page, but I cant change the setup on the floor plan. If that grab is also printed at 1/2 the charactre sizes all double. How do you deal with this?

[Thomas Roman]

I typically draw the details in a separate file than the floor plans.. so they each can be set up for different scales (different font sizes, arrow head sizes, pen settings, etc.)...and use multi drawing to combine them..

So if the file with the floor plan is to be 1/4 scale (and is set to a size of 1.0 on the multi drawing), then the file with a detail to be 1/2 scale would be set to a size of 2.0 on the multi drawing..

I'm still learning plan sets, but assume it's similar set up

[John Atchley]

Not sure we are talking the same thing. I am asking about how to deal with a floor plan that is 1/4 on one page and 1/2 on another page (a cropped portion of it). It just seems SP should adjust character size so they remain the same no matter the scale. If I want 9 point notes, I want 9 point notes regardless of the scale I bring a drawing in at.

[Thomas Roman]

oh, I see... under DRAWING OPTONS / CHARACTER SETUP there is a toggle for "Multi-Drawing Auto Scale"... that should do the trick if you're using Multi-Drawing...

 

in my experience I have not been totally thrilled with the results when the re-sized text looks out of place relative to leaders, and such.. but I'm fussy....also the arrow heads don't re-size and such... BUT, it does work, and it's fast...

[D M]

Example: If your 1/4" scale drawing has Detail Notes set at Medium, say 6", then the 1/2" detail should have' Medium' set at 3"

When the 1/2" detail is positioned as a multi-drawing child in the parent 1/4" drawing, .. the text will plot the same size.

 

Other scale details are likewise fractions of your parent 6" Medium (or whatever your medium text is)

Obviously, same principal applies to your Overview notes.

 

You can create templates, as mentioned, for each scale of detail, and set the character size accordingly.

 

If you wish to show an enlarged (or portion thereof) Floor Plan, .. you could save the floor as 'something', .. crop it as you wish

and reset the characters as mentioned above, .. dimension text also.

[John Atchley]

And of course if I have a detail drawing with segmented arrows, etc, bring it in at 1/2" scale, then change the character size to be uniform, nothing matches up with the arrows as they are still at the original size. I think templates may be the answer. Of course that means I actually have to plan ahead and know what scale I want to bring it in at.

[Keith Almond]

If you set a number of blank templates up, set up all the character sizes, arrows etc. etc. When you want to use a specific size, just open the relevant template drawing and merge the old drawing into it. That way, the old drawing will inherit the settings from the template.

[D M]

Arrow sizes work on the same principle, ..

 

at 1/4" scale , say you use a size 8, .. then 1/2" scale use a size 4, .. they will plot looking the same size.

[John Atchley]

I was thinking about this as I was hiking and it occurred to me that even if I use a template, and character sizes . etc are correct, I really wont know what it looks like at the destination scale. As the native scale is 1/4 it would be nice to be able to change that. I know it can be out put at any scale, but drawing at 1/4=1' and drawing at 1"=1' look very different to me.

[Keith Almond]

I was thinking about this as I was hiking and it occurred to me that even if I use a template, and character sizes . etc are correct, I really wont know what it looks like at the destination scale. As the native scale is 1/4 it would be nice to be able to change that. I know it can be out put at any scale, but drawing at 1/4=1' and drawing at 1"=1' look very different to me.

 

There isn't really a native scale John, only a default scale. If you set up templates at varying scales between 1' = 1'-0" and 1/16" = 1'-0"  - mine look like this:

 

 

So that all the character sizes, arrows etc are correct for the scale that you are drawing, then either drawing in the relevant drawing, or merging anything into the relevant drawing, will show exactly what it looks like at the scale you want. When you merge though you may have to clean up text placement, but it will be correctly sized.

 

This is drawn at 1" = 1'-0" when you bring it into a multi-drawing at scale 4 it looks exactly like this. The text is exactly the same size and exactly the same size as the text on the 1/4" = 1'-0" drawing.

 

 

EDIT: CORRECTED SENIOR MOMENT ON SCALE FACTORS ....