Topic: Dimscale vs LTScale survey

[stsevedallas]

I've been told all kinds of things about ltscale settings. What do you set your LTscale at?
If other, post it.

[Dinosaur]

I must use a setting of "1" because I almost always have a variety of plot / viewport scales for different drawing tabs and often diferent ones on the same tabs.  On the occasional drawing that has only one scale used, I set my ltscale to the drawing scale and use the linetypes center2, hidden2, etc. because they look better with my decimal units.

[Chuck Gabriel]

I voted ltscale=dimscale, but that isn't what I would recommend if you are using AutoCAD's out-of-the-box linetypes (which we don't).

I was actually taught to use a factor of 0.35 to 0.50 times the dimscale, and that works quite well if you aren't using oddball linetypes (like we do.  Not my fault).

[CADaver]

We use 0.3333 time dimscale or:

Code: [Select]

(/ (getvar "dimscale") 3.0)I set it up that way many, many, many years ago and haven't had reason to change it as yet.

[Bob Garner]

I vary the ltscale within a drawing depending on what the line represents, and to distinguish between different objects.

[Sdoman]

We set our LTSCALE to 0.5 and never change it.  We set PSLTSCALE to 1 (on).  Thus the paperspace Viewports automatically scale the linetypes as required.

Note:  We could have setup our LTSCALE to be 1.0, or 0.75, or 2.0, it doesn't matter because we would have adjusted our layers to use an appropriately scaled linetype:  Hidden2 or Hidden2x or whatever.  The main thing is we set LTSCALE and forget it, and let the Viewports to the work.

[Kate M]

I voted for LTS=0.5xDIM, but that's for modelspace. Paperspace is LTS = 0.5, PSLTS = 1.

[David Hall]

I voted for LTS=0.5xDIM, but that's for modelspace. Paperspace is LTS = 0.5, PSLTS = 1.

ditto except 0.6

I have a function that switches ltscale back and forth from 0.6 to dimscale*0.6 as I change tabs

[Dent Cermak]

Now ya'll know better than disagree with Kate! She's right on the money. Again. One day ya'll will learn. 

[Dinosaur]

I'll bet you know now why you got told so many different theories about the "correct" way to set your LTScale.  Like most things in AutoCAD, there are several ways to approach it. The most efficient way in one application could be a royal pain in a different one and for some applications a third method is the only one that makes sense.
I take it all of you that voted anything other than "1" don't have to worry about multiple scales being used in the same drawing.  This rules out both dimscale and a drawing scale if available as a way to determine LTScale.  There are some reactor routines out there that will change the respective settings and scales as you change tabs, but they don't address the possibility of having viewports of different scales on the same tab which I need frequently.
The bottom line is if you find a setting that continually gives you the plotted lintypes the way you want to see them, that style is correct . . . for you.

[ronjonp]

We xref our plans into another drawing that has all our plot sheets. In our plan dwg, our dimscale\ltscale= the scale of the viewports. In the drawing our plan is xref'd in, ltscale=0 and dimscale doesn't really matter (because everything is xref'd).

Ron

[sinc]

I vary the ltscale within a drawing depending on what the line represents, and to distinguish between different objects.

Are you talking about LTSCALE, or the object linetype scale?

If you are saying you regularly use a different object linetype scale for each object, then I have to say that I absolutely abhor it when people do that.  It's almost as bad as when people use object properties to set color, linetype, and/or plot style, instead of doing things ByLayer.  I admit that I will change the object linetype scale occasionally, but not as a general practice.

It is far, far better to create linetypes that display correctly when the object linetype scale is 1, and LTSCALE is equal to DIMSCALE (which means they will also display correctly when LTSCALE=1 and PSLTSCALE=1).

[Serge J. Gianolla]

<BellRing> or <Buzzer>. Back to drawing board! As a survey re LTScale, a mention should have been made on what linetypes one is using! It is important 'coz it has a dramatic impact on LTS usage Otherwise you are gonna confuse new users [they'll scratch their head, wondering why it does not work for them].
Yeah, hard to believe for you guys in US of A, but outside people are using a quaint system called metric.

[Kate M]

I don't change my LTSCALE when I do metric projects -- I just change my LIN file.

[Bob Garner]

I vary the object ltscale.  For example, two concentric dashed circles, I make the ltscale of the inner circle slightly less than the outer circle so the dashes "line up".  I think it looks better.