Topic: why to draw in acad in scale

[DEVITG]

Hi all it is a POLL .

Would you please give the razon you draw in scale in ACAD.?

One of the most valuable feature of acad is the ability to draw in real unit just from intermolecular distance to stars distance .
One example is a old cad drawing named SOLAR
It come with the 1.2 versión , I got it by the year 91, in version 2.6 .
On this drawing you can see all the solar system with all it's planet , the earth , it's moon , the moon lander  and a small plaquet where the name the 3 austronaut that reach the moon by the firt time.
It can be downloadaed from this site
www.intelcad.com/pages/autocad/solar.dwg -

[Keith™]

Because it is easier to draw in scale than try to figure out what the heck dimension something should be if it is drawn to a scaled amount

[DEVITG]

Plaese would you broad your opinion?.
I can't figure to have a sketch from a house and to draw it all in 1=25 or whatever.

[hyposmurf]

Yeh you would have to scale each line as you translated it from your hand sketch.Rather than drawing it to scale and then scale the entire drawing once in paper space. :crazy: Still find those scale rules crap,making your own to scale in imperial is even more eye boggling

[Keith™]

Ok, in AutoCAD, if I draw anything, I draw it in real world units, for example if an object is supposed to be 12 meters I draw it 12 meters, then when I draw other things that are supposed to interact with that object, I can effectively draw it inreal world units and not worry about calculations being wrong.

[JohnK]

I second that ^ !

[t-bear]

We do a lot of piping and it can be a real pain, not to mention time consuming, to create a pipe run that is 36 feet 9 1/4 inches long in a 45 degree Z angle and a 30 degree Y. That's the beauty of drafting full scale. It's difficult enough trying to figure out the proper distance between the two end points, let alone trying to SCALE that distance by 1=48 or such....
Me, I do it in 3D and be done with it.  Scale is for paperspace vports!

[Dent Cermak]

All AcAD drawings come in at basically 1=1. The scale is figured only when you need to fit the idea on a standard sheet size. Then you take your overall dimensions and set a scale to let you fit it  on a 24x36, 30x42 or whatever. This scale then governs the final size of text and block insertion scales.
The "hard copy" days will soon be at an end. Everbody has a computer today.Soon we will ship out only e-files and all will be done from the originals.

[hyposmurf]

The "hard copy" days will soon be at an end. Everbody has a computer today.Soon we will ship out only e-files and all will be done from the originals.

We still need our hard copies on site when surveying,to mark up and to clutur engineers desks,so they have something to hide behind.Would be nice to do everything via a file but I feel those days are really far off,almost unthinkable at this stage.Every engineer have their own company laptop or with scaled down version of CAD on a plamtop.

[CADaver]

We still need our hard copies on site when surveying,to mark up and to clutur engineers desks,so they have something to hide behind.

 We currently have the surveyors setup with a tablet pc.  They still use a PDA for data collection cuz it's easier to lug around a refinery.  But when it's time for stake-out, they use the tablet pc to retrieve the data directly from the drawings.  Mark-ups are done on top of XREFS.

Would be nice to do everything via a file but I feel those days are really far off,almost unthinkable at this stage.Every engineer have their own company laptop or with scaled down version of CAD on a plamtop.

 eewww, tried cad on a PDA, stinks, it's too small, my eyes are too old.  Tablet PC provides much clearer option, IMMHO.

[Dent Cermak]

We have these new small "laptop" computers that are the size of a book. They have more storage space than my desktop ! We load the drawings into them. The guys hit the field and use GPS, RTK or these scary robotic units to gather the data. The software adds the linework and symbol blocks in realtime as they go. A lot of our contractors have them bring up details on these "data collectors".No paper. No problem.
We also use them for field checks along with regular laptops. Corrections are made on site. Still no paper. If one of my sites is near the house it gives me a good excuse to leave early and swing by the site with a laptop to make any field check corrections on the way home.The only paper that our field crews carry is Charmin. (We do still require trhat the data be backed up in a field book though. Detail Sketches are maintained there also.)

[hudster]

Would be nice to do everything via a file but I feel those days are really far off,almost unthinkable at this stage

We are now at the stage where about 90% of our projets are electronic only.

It's easier on all the design team.  We use a service called buildonline, which is basically an online project magement service.  All the documents are issued via it, letters faxes, drawings etc.  That way every issue can be tracked back to the originator.

Most of the major construction companies in the UK are now running their projects via this system.

Also it uses a custom version of voloview to allow drawings to be marked up online, printed, downloaded and be issued to the entire design team.

link to it is herehttp://www.buildonline.com

[Hangman]

Well, ...  we got off the subject didn't we !!!... ?  

Alrighty then, ...

In an architectural office, there'd be a nightmare an a half if we scaled our drawings.  (Although a lot of people still do that.   It's like they just can't seem to let go of the board drafting days)   And it's a nightmare an a half.

If the project is a 320,000 sq ft bldg., draw the sucker at 320,000 sq ft.   There's enough room in the vastness of space to fit it in model space !!!

So I ditto the comments above.

As for electronic copies, the contractors, framers, grunts and omebas (me) still have to have the hardcopies.   Contractors, framers and grunts simply because they aren't going to carry a framing hammer and a laptop or tablet pc on the same belt.  
As for the omeba, well, I'm still dealing with the board drafters who think that the computer is sooo cool and they can do sooo much.  NOT !!!   Once again, they just can't seem to let go of those board drafting days.  

[t-bear]

I'll ditto Hangman's comments....I just can't see our welding/fabrication guys with a torch in one hand and a laptop in the other.  Somehow, I just don't think they will co-exist for long......they burn big holes in the prints we DO give them....makes for lots of fun come as-built time...LOL

[hyposmurf]

We can end up in dirty plantrooms with leaking steam and sewer mains,rats & cockraoches crawling about,so a laptop wouldnt last long.However it would be handy when working in banks and the like,where theyd take less of a hammering.