Hello everyone.  New member here and a new user of Autocad2013.  I have a background in drafting, but haven't used Autocad in five years. The last version I used was 2002, and a lot has changed. Now I am trying to come up to speed so to speak, but am having difficulty understanding a few concepts, although the one at hand SHOULD be the same as 2002, but I just don't remember. I have searched intently for an answer, but have found absolutely nothing.  Here is my question.Can anyone explain the difference between the scale of Paperspace vs Modelspace?Here is my problem.  I am trying to understand the relationship of Modelspace vs Paperspace relating to the scale of Paperspace VS Modelspace.  It appears there is some "ratio" that I do not understand.  I am NOT talking about "viewports" here either. That's an entirely different subject.  However, I did a search in Help on Paperspace and found this statement.". One unit in paper space represents the actual distance on a sheet of paper, either in millimeters or inches, depending on how you configure your page setup." Well, this is confusing.  Does that mean the "sheet of paper" IMAGE in Paperspace, or a REAL sheet of Paper when plotting? Which is arbitrary, as one unit in Model Space can be represented by any number of scales when Plotted, and one unit in Paperspace may be represented by different scales of Paper sizes, per Printer/Plotter settings... no?Here is why.  I began my introduction to Acad2013, by setting up a Border/Titleblock, which I actually drew in Modelspace, which I made a Wblock of, and then inserted into Paperspace.   During a period of setting Dimension settings, I discovered a little conundrum, that has me scratching my head.  After looking for an answer, I decided to do the following to verify my findings, before coming here. This is what I did.I select "new" default .dwg drawing in Autocad.I set units to Inches, FractionalI draw three Rectangles. (1)@ 12"x 12", (1)@ 3"x 3", (1)@ 1"x 1", I go to Paperspace via a Layout Tab, which has a default "paper" image, with one viewport of unknown scale.  To verify I have a default Autocad drawing Layout paper, I create a  New layout. New layout appears, with one viewport, unknown scale.To verify the units used in Paperspace, in Paperspace, I draw a 24"x36" rectangle to compare to the default "paper" image size in Paperspace.It does not relate to the papersize shown in the Layout.  I use help to understand "Paperspace", where I find this statement ...". One unit in paper space represents the actual distance on a sheet of paper, either in millimeters or inches, depending on how you configure your page setup." This confuses me as I don't know if by "sheet of paper", they  mean the sheet shown in Paperspace, or a REAL sheet of Paper the size of A4, when plotted.To verify the Paper size, I select the Layout Tab in the ribbon, and select "Page Setup, whereby my new Layout is in the list of Layouts.  I highlight it, and select modify to check the parameters of the "paper".  In the "Papersize" field, it says A4, which should be 24"x36"To verify if the Inches Unit is indeed the Paperspace units, I select the "Home" tab, then "Utilities", then "Measure".  I measure my 24"x36" rectangle in Paperspace". It  verifies it is indeed 24x36 "units", which should be Inches, per my Units setting, no?  Since the image of the "paper" in Paperspace is NOT an entity whereby you can select a "endpoint" I arbitrarily approximate a select point at the corner of the "paper" image, and "measure" along the top edge, to the opposite "corner".  It measures...296 "units".   Furthermore, as another avenue of verifying  this conundrum, I decided to try and create a viewport, which I assumed the size of which, would be created using the same Inches unit when entering the size in the Create viewport dialog. Ha!  I entered a size of 12"x12".  The resulting viewport created measured "1 1/8"x 2 3/16".  ???????Can someone explain this to me.  I am simply trying to understand the scale relationship of Model Space to Paperspace. I have searched and searched the net, the Help, and have found absolutely nothing that explains this, or the reasoning behind it.  This may be so easy a Caveman would know it..but I sure don't.   Thanks for any insight. 


osage2012-09-06 19:03:41

In the model (space) everything is drawn to full scale.  If you have a line that's 100 ft in real life you draw a 100 ft line in the model.  Paper space is set up to use Viewports that can be scaled so that your 100 ft line will fit on a piece of paper that may only be 10 inches wide.  So the scale setting of the viewport (in paper space) determines how your 100 ft line looks there.
 
What may be confusing you is the scale setting at the bottom of the Model space view.  This is for Annotative scaling of text/dimension/other objects.  It will *not* change how your model scales in any way.  It may, and often will, change how objects appear in the model however. 
 
There's much more to this subject, but this is the jist of it.
 
I should add also that we don't print/plot from the Model anymore... it's all done from Paper (Layout) space.  Annotative object scaling was developed to make that easier by eliminating the need to compute scale factors.
 
Dave.heinsite2012-09-13 03:50:02

Hello, I will answer to your question regarding the A4 format.
A4 format is not 24"x36" ( 24x25.4 = 609.6 mm x 36x25.4 = 914.4 mm ) but 297 mm x 210 mm.
The euro A0 format system is based on the A0 being 1 m² with a ratio of 1.4142...
The A1 is half of a A0, tha A2 is half of a A1, the A3 is half of a A2 and tha A4 is a half of a A3.
If you work in inches then draw a rectangle in inches to be printed.
On a little US printer and with US standard paper formats it will be :
8.5"x11" ( ~A4 297 mm x 210 mm ) and
11"x17" ( ~A3 420 mm x 297 mm ).
The 24" x 36" is to be printed on a big plotter with a 36" or 24" width roll.
Remember that when you print on a little printer there will be margins that will spoil the scale of your print.
then you'd better draw an other rectangle inside the first with a ratio that you can find when you launch a print in : Scale of plotting / 1 mm = 0.XXX units ( or Scale of plotting / 1 inch = 0.XXX units ).
Ask for more ( I will take a look a the rest of your questions ).
Have a good day.

If you chose to not discuss viewports when talking about paper space then you will never figure out the "relationship" you speak of.BTW...the dashed lines in a paper space layout represent the limits to which AutoCAD will print based upon the paper size selected.  Anything within the dashed lines will print.  Anything on or outside of the dashed lines will not print.

Hello N° 2, you said that the view port that you draw 12"x12" measured 1"1/8 x 2"3/16.
When creating your new viewport in a blank paper space you should specify the first corner of your viewport ( for example type 0,0 ) and on the second clic you should specify the second corner of your viewport ( for example type 12,12 ).
there is no reason for that not to work properly except if you clic anywhere in the screen for the first clic and enter 12,12 for the second clic.
In that case you should have specified @12,12 to have a second clic at X:12",Y:12" of your first clic.
I personnaly put the left bottom angles of my formats in the paper space at X:0,Y:0 so that I can easyly pick up plot configurations from design to design.
To be continued.
 
By the way, are you really confident with the object/paper space settings ?philippe JOSEPH2012-09-13 15:08:13