The Border
I have seen so many troubles because people got the border wrong. It should be a very common sense kind of thing, but many complicate it beyond what is needed.
First, draw the border full size in Model Space. If it is to be 24″ x 36″, then draw the trim lines exactly that size. Use ORTHO lock to make them exact. Use the Rectangle command to get them right.
When you are done, plot the file from model space at 1:1. Check the file with your scale on the hardcopy to verify that it is exact.
Save the file.
Now Xref the border file onto your sheet.
The Border is Xrefed into Paper Space of your Sheet files.
In the olden days it use to go in Model Space. Back in the “stone age”. You know, before Paper Space was invented. Do not place the border in Model Space. It now goes in Paper Space.
Attach the file at 0,0,0. Use a layer that you create – Not layer “0” or “defpoints”. You did not create or own these layers. They belong to Autodesk, not you.
Do not scale the border when you attach it, larger or smaller. Keep it at 1 to 1. That is full size. One inch on the border will be one inch on hard copy and when measured in CAD.
LTSCALE should be set to “1” for plotting on all Sheet files.
Some simple guidelines, but often not followed.
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August 10th, 2007 at 1:04 PM
Also – be sure to start creating your Title Block at 0,0,0 in Model Space of the border file.
Many thanks to Joe R. for catching that one.
August 17th, 2007 at 3:37 AM
Great post as usual, Mark.
Just one comment: leave LTSCALE at the plot scale (for example 40 for 1″=40′). This way, when working in full model space (as we all know we should) linetypes will appear correctly. If it’s set to 1, linetypes will usually appear too dense. Also, PSLTSCALE should be set to 0, unless there are paper space viewports with differing scales. In that case, yes, set LTSCALE and PSLTSCALE to 1, so all viewports’ linetypes appear normally.
Thanks, and have a great weekend!
August 17th, 2007 at 11:14 AM
sorry, i gotta dissagree with the giy above me. LTscale should always be set to 1 and psltscale should always be set to 1. If you want to to see the proper linetypes in model space, use VPMAX and VPMIN.
December 16th, 2008 at 8:15 AM
A couple of things that I have done related to what has been discussed here. I have started to develop my title blocks or borders as mentioned above in layout space with the layout setup to my default production machine and desired paper size. This allows me to account for the proper margins of the plotter I intend to plot from. Once I have created all the line work, text, attributes and so forth I create the actual file using the Wblock command and the 0,0 origin of the layout. What this does for me is allow me to then externally reference this file into my sheet using the same 0,0 origin.
The only down side to this is that this file is specific to a specific machine. If that is a problem you can still place a rectangle in the file to represent the edge of the sheet. When the title block is place this line will fall outside the printable area and should not be a problem.
As far as LTscale goes I disagree with your setting of 1. As a rule of thumb I have always set the ltscale to 1/2 that of the scale factor. I have seen many references that agree with this point of view, and I do know that this produces linetypes that are half the size of the measurement in the definition file, but this is the look we have always worked with. With this in mind, my sheet files always have the ltscale set to .5, which is 1/2 of the 1 scale factor of the sheet.
PSLTSCALE allows the scale of the viewport to set the linetype scale and setting this to 1 is the only way to have viewports with different scale to still show the correct ltscale no matter what it is set to.