Topic: Scaling up

[CADaver]

Ok....I need to explain sumthin........first of all companies will dictate whether or not model space and paper space are used...not me. I am an employee. Individual employees are not allowed to set policy, teams are and if the cad team or the engineering team says no paper space then the law has been set.

Maybe It's time to seek intelligent employment.  If your "team" has set an unintelligent policy (and this is just that), as a conscientious employee it's up to you to challege such a time wasting policy.

[Crank]

Years ago, I worked at a firm were they used a XREF for every scale. Every XREF was inserted with a different scale. With some fuctions you could quickly switch between them.
It worked like a charm, but every drawing existed of several files.

[daron]

Eloquintet, I never thought this was the place for this question. You are correct that it could be moved or split to the cad standards forum, since the original question has mutated into cad standards, but the original question hasn't been resolved. At any rate, the question was asked in cad general. It could probably be overcome via lisp or vba, but as I stated in my first post, I would not post a lisp (if I even understood where to start, as I'm still not sure I understand all that is involved with the project) being that it wasn't asked in a lisp forum. If I'm asked to move the thread by the originator of the thread to the lisp forum, I would do so and might even venture to split the cad standard portion out of it into the cad standard forum.

How's that for long winded?

[TJAM51]

gentlemen.....the real world is this....just because a company sets policy such as this does not mean the end of the world. This is a very imperfect world which for some reason lots of people believe that Autocad should be operated by text book procedure...not..it does not work this way. 90% of the companies do not work this way. Cad operators or techs cannot keep changing jobs because of the way a company operates it's cad dept. Sorry...this is not real world. Most of the cad operators I have seen and worked with in the past five years could not even set up a drawing without help and these operators have at least two years experience and the companies they work for and I have worked for do not wnat people who think but those who do exactly what they are told. Even the engineers dictate cad standards which creates a great deal of inconsistancy in packages. Guys to switch jobs because a techique is not practiced is not real world....I would be unemployed. The purpose of this forum is to assist in seeking solutions that are real time not speculate why a comapny is being so stupid when we all realize that is the case and we cannot change city hall's mind......yes some minds will never change.

Thanks

[hendie]

yeah, we realise it's not a perfect world.
the problem as I see it here is that due to the methods you (company) use, any custom routine could end up causing more problems than it solves... and using the acad scale command seems to be the easiest, least problematic route to take., given your working methods.

[daron]

TJAM, did you read the last couple of posts. I believe Mr. Crack tried to give a solution, whether it is helpful or not. He was not telling you how to run your company or your life and I, in my post was only trying to hint at the placement of your thread. I doubt you have company policy on that. As far as this real world thing goes, my last job I improved a lot of standards and was able to make the push into paperspace on a limited format. Where PS is not needed in many places, it is needed in others. I've been at my present employment for four months. When I got here I asked some questions about the standards, which at this point are horrendous <sp>.  I was told that I couldn't add layers and they were not using xref's. They do use paperspace here, which I'm surprised at. At any rate, since I've been here, I've added about 10 new layers, gotten them using xref's and am collaborating with the senior cad person on improving the standards. You talk about real world, like you're the only one living in it. I'm sorry that your's is unideal. We all live in the real world and many of us have forced change in the company we work for. You just have to lead those above you to understand that there is a better way. What I try to do is feed them about five things and hope that one will stick. I apologize for the thread mutation. See my post above.

[sinc]

I suppose it would be possible to write some lisp that would scale an object while adding a text override to all dimensions.  This text override would contain the original dimension value.  To edit it the way you want, you'd have to rescale it back to 1:1 size, do your edits, then scale it back to your detail scale.

I'd try writing one, but I view this task as a waste of time...  Autocad has a built-in feature that does exactly this, and it's called "paperspace".

I think everyone has had experience with companies setting poor policies.  In no way are we suggesting this as a general reason for seeking a new job.  It's just that this goes beyond poor policy, or "deviation from the book".  This isn't like the "dimension in paper-space vs. model space" debate.  This is showing a rather basic misunderstanding of Autocad by whoever set that policy that is so blatant that it causes serious questions about any dealing with that company.  If the person/entity in charge is capabable of making THAT BAD a decision in this area, then what other decisions are being made at that company?  Most of us find that thought so unsettling that we'd be very uncomfortable working there...

[hendie]

what was that famous quote.. something along the lines of
progress depends upon unreasonable people.... if no-one asks questions or rebels, the world will not progress

[andyanderson]

Hello all:

After reading the posts on this thread, I have to chime in just a tad bit.

I used to use MS without even thinking about PS.  And yes, DETAIL.LSP is a great program in that environment.  I've used it zillions of times and it is good at what it does.

THEN I discovered PS.  With many, many thanks to T-bear and others, I graduated to PS and it's absolutely wonderful.  OK, you change the drawing in MS and it's - well - just done automatically in PS.

XREFs are a different issue.  I like to bind them when the project is done if at all possible.

Big files?  Yea, but nowadays it's not a big problem.  Use SuperPurge or something like it and with these 250GB drives and the servers available now, you'll be OK.

Now if they can just figure out how to email really big files...

And you ain't (sic) seen nuthin' yet  

Andy, in sunny Deland, still cleaning up the mess from Charley

[pringals]

I suppose it would be possible to write some lisp that would scale an object while adding a text override to all dimensions.  This text override would contain the original dimension value.  To edit it the way you want, you'd have to rescale it back to 1:1 size, do your edits, then scale it back to your detail scale.

I'd try writing one, but I view this task as a waste of time...  Autocad has a built-in feature that does exactly this, and it's called "paperspace".

I think everyone has had experience with companies setting poor policies.  In no way are we suggesting this as a general reason for seeking a new job.  It's just that this goes beyond poor policy, or "deviation from the book".  This isn't like the "dimension in paper-space vs. model space" debate.  This is showing a rather basic misunderstanding of Autocad by whoever set that policy that is so blatant that it causes serious questions about any dealing with that company.  If the person/entity in charge is capabable of making THAT BAD a decision in this area, then what other decisions are being made at that company?  Most of us find that thought so unsettling that we'd be very uncomfortable working there...

HERE HERE!!! excellent post Sinc. I was trying to figure out a nice way like that to word what I am feeling about this situation.

As I started reading this thread, I couldn't help but bang my head into my desk screaming "WHY??!!! Why must I get sooo screwed by doing the job right, yet those who half ass and "F" everything up get soo far ahead? ..."

I sympathize for you man... there is no way I could work in under those restrictions. If you know Autocad, and want to make a legitimate career with it, I suggest you start looking for another job and hit that door running.

[t-bear]

TJAM

When I came to my present employ, the drafting dept. (3 people) had no concept of MS/PS..they didn't even use associative dims!  It took me three years of slowly picking away at these archaic "standards" but today we are firmly in the 21st century, using assoc dims, MS/PS, xrefs and all our mechanical drafting is in 3D.
Over time I introduced the use of libraries for part storage and retrieval, initiated a data base for all our parts, and a number of other "innovations", including a number of time/money saving lisp routines which, when first proposed, were met with a "no way, Jose" attitude.
It wasn't easy but I liked the company and the job.  To me it was well worth "bucking the system", something that has also had its rewards ... I'm the sr. designer here and my pay is well above what I expected to be getting when I first arrived here.  Diligence and perseverance (especially when you're RIGHT and can show 'em) do have their rewards.
I'm sorry that there is no "magic fix" for your problem.  Sometimes it just happens that way.  We (unfortunately) can't solve all of them.....  Hope you understand and are not TOO disappointed.

T-

[PDJ]

TJAM

When I came to my present employ, the drafting dept. (3 people) had no concept of MS/PS..they didn't even use associative dims!  It took me three years of slowly picking away at these archaic "standards" but today we are firmly in the 21st century, using assoc dims, MS/PS, xrefs and all our mechanical drafting is in 3D.
Over time I introduced the use of libraries for part storage and retrieval, initiated a data base for all our parts, and a number of other "innovations", including a number of time/money saving lisp routines which, when first proposed, were met with a "no way, Jose" attitude.
It wasn't easy but I liked the company and the job.  To me it was well worth "bucking the system", something that has also had its rewards ... I'm the sr. designer here and my pay is well above what I expected to be getting when I first arrived here.  Diligence and perseverance (especially when you're RIGHT and can show 'em) do have their rewards.
I'm sorry that there is no "magic fix" for your problem.  Sometimes it just happens that way.  We (unfortunately) can't solve all of them.....  Hope you understand and are not TOO disappointed.

T-

What a great list of accomplishments, I'm gonna e-mail your boss and tell him to give you a pay raise to $6.00 an hour or I'm going to steal you away from there..

[t-bear]

$6.00 !!!!  WOW!!! That'd DOUBLE my present pay rate....oh goodie, goodie, goodie!  I can buy that Nash Rambler I been lookin' at in the junk yard.


Anybody know where I can get a Rambler motor?   Transmission?   Door? .......

[Dent Cermak]

AND MAYBE THEN THAR SHOOOOES WIT THEM LIGHTING BOLTS ON THE SIDE!!