Questioni with Autocad?

Question

First off, let me declare that I am a brand new to autocad.
Ok, I have Autocad2005.  The first thing that I am trying to set up is setting up a scale for the project.

When I look at some sample blueprints that have been generated in autocad, in the bottom right, there is a scale that indicates something like 1 inch equals ...........something like 10 feet, etc.

GOALS

All of my autocad drawings for now will be printed on 8.5 x 11 paper.
How do I set it up so when I print my drawing, 1 inch on the piece of paper represents 10 feet.

So to clarify, assume I am designing a single 2d rectangle that has a Width (50feet) by Height (30feet).  When I print my drawing out, there will be a physical 5 inch *width by 3 inch * height 2d rectangle on the piece of paper and have it so it shows the scale in the bottom right.

Also, in the bottom right i see three coordinates.  Anyway to make those coordintaes show the size ( in feet/inches) as I draw?

Thank you soo much

smurra60 · Accepted Answer

Basically everything you draw in AutoCAD is the actual size that the thing is in the real world. The trick is getting labels and borders and drawing elements to look the way you want with the scale that you want your drawing to be in.

Plotting to the scale you want is pretty simple. When you type 'plot' a menu will appear that has an area called 'plot scale'. In that area you choose the scale you want to use from the drop down list.

There are lots of methods to get the text and dimensions the size you want but that is rather complicated and takes practice. You should have an engineers scale that you can look at to determine an appropriate size text or find a chart that converts the industry standard LEROY into sizes you can understand. For example, Leroy 60 would be 6 feet at 1"=100' scale and will be .06" on your printed drawing. I have a chart that someone gave me that is very useful for converting these simply. Email me if you would like me to fax or email you a copy of this chart.

The questions you are asking are the sorts of things that are very difficult to answer in this forum. I suggest you get a book to walk you through the process. This is a very complicated program that can cost enormous amounts of your time learning. The small investment for a book will be well worth it.

1st · Answer

There are so many scaling techniques for Autocad. The simplest way is just set the scale in the page setup option. There you can scale and fit your drawing with the paper size and choose the scale number preferences, i.e 1:100, 1:50, etc..

jamey · Answer

not legally. if you are going in business, get a loan to get it. if you are any good with it, it will pay for itself in short order. Basic Autocad isn't as expensive as the ADT and it draws houses just fine, but the extra bells and whistles are nice with ADT. if you are a student you should be able to get a cheap student version. IMHO the other free software may export to the autocad format, but no companys use that stuff so you coluldnt use the knowledge in that software to get a job anywhere.

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Questioni with Autocad?

3 Answers