Annotation Scale per Viewport from The CAD Geek

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The other day I posted about how changing annotation scale in model space changes drawing scale, well Donnie was experiementing and discovered that annotation scale can be different from viewport scale and explains how this effects Civil 3D labels.  A MUST read that will save you time in style creation and frustration if you accidentally change the setting.

http://thecadgeek.com/blog/2007/05/08/separate-annotation-scales-per-viewport/

8 comments

  1. jtstevens5 says:

    That is great for mtext but it doesn’t work with Civil 3D Labels. They seem to obey the viewport scale instead of the annotation scale. Is there a setting in the label style that I am missing?

  2. Jonathan Stewart says:

    Maybe I’m missing something…

    The problem with Civil 3D and the annotation scaling is that the annotation scale is also effecting the drawing scale which effects the linetype scales.

    So they won’t work the same way that mtext or other entities work with the annotative scale.

    Its a big bummer, cause I really think that this is a great feature and that it works really well with regular Mtext.

  3. it seems based on donnie’s example that changing the annotative scale for the VIEWPORT does not affect drawing scale, which might only affect the civil 3d labels and annotative objects in the dwg. i’d have to do some experiements.

  4. You’re right Dana! Assigning an annotative scale to a viewport does not seem to change the drawing scale. Just as a layer frozen in a said viewport is not frozen in model space. My little discovery is simply a way to override the Civil 3D scale per viewport.

    Jonathan – I know Dana is really good about helping people figure things like this out. Likewise, feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions. 🙂

  5. Jonathan Stewart says:

    I guess I really might be missing something then. Dana, maybe this can be a little discussion in Philly, (hint, hint).

    I start with both the viewport scale and the annotation scale to 100. I change the annotation scale to 50, which changes the viewport scale to 50 at the same time. I then change the viewport scale back to 100. At first glance, it intitially looks like what I want.

    But… Regening the viewport, even if I lock it first, puts the Civil 3D labels back to the original size. However, my annotative M-TEXT is displaying how I want.

    Please let me know, if I’m missing something simple.

  6. Jonathan Stewart says:

    My comment about “changing the annotative scale, also effects the drawing scale” comes from changing it in the Model Space viewport.
    Which, I guess, in Model Space the status bar should say “Drawing scale”, instead of Annotation scale.

  7. OK, so I can get the scales to be different by using the viewport properties box, but i can’t see a reaction in the labels. i’m going to try a different drawing

    but the key here is

    “By going to the properties task pane for a viewport I can set the viewport scale as I have for years now. Be sure to set your Annotation Scale first if you want it to be different from your Viewport (Standard) Scale.”

  8. Jonathan Stewart says:

    Yes, I’m using the properties task pane. And I am able to have the viewport scale set to 100 and the annotation scale set to 50. But the Civil 3D labels continue to be the same proportional size to the other objects as is in Model Space.

    I think we need to just hope that in the future releases of Civil 3D, they we will be able to add different annotation scale values to the Civil 3D lables, so that the annotation scales within viewports will show the labels in multiple scales.

    But as many times as I tried, I’m seeing that only the viewport scale is effecting the Civil 3D labels.