Drafting at 1"=20'

[CerpherJoe]

Hello,

Newbie here. Great software, documentation, web page, and support.

I am trying to do something that I imagine a lot of surveyor's and engineer's do (perhaps in the U.S. only), namely create a drawing at 1"=20' scale.

The difficulty is creating a Paper-Space where I can, for example, create a 'horizontal line' of 22.5' quite easily (i.e., put it in the length field unconverted) and then such that I can quickly get it to fit into a typical print layout of 8 1/2" x 11". In other words, I would like to be drafting at 1"=20' scale as if I was using an engineering ruler with that scale. So a 22.5' line appears as a line a little longer than 1". Then - I can quickly use 1:20 expansion (or 20:1 shrinkage) on the Print Preview to get it properly into the print preview field and ready to print.

I've been struggling without quick success so I thought I would try the forum.

Thanks!

Joe

[Husky]

Hello Joe,

I am trying to do something that I imagine a lot of surveyor's and engineer's do (perhaps in the U.S. only), namely create a drawing at 1"=20' scale.

Seriously? Ok, that is new to me. I thought they are always creating a 1"=1" drawings. Maybe I'm wrong ...

In other words, I would like to be drafting at 1"=20' scale as if I was using an engineering ruler with that scale. So a 22.5' line appears as a line a little longer than 1". Then - I can quickly use 1:20 expansion (or 20:1 shrinkage) on the Print Preview to get it properly into the print preview field and ready to print.

That would be very unusual and I can't see any benefit in it. What is wrong with a 1"=1" drawing which is scaled for printing purpose during the print process?

[CerpherJoe]

Thanks for your help. I'm getting closer, but still have some serious misunderstandings (I am totally new to CAD).

According to your recommendations, I proceeded thusly:

1. Open file, set Drawing Units: Drawing: Foot, Paper: Foot
2. Highlight layer 0, set line to 0.25mm, ISO dash
3. Using 'horizontal line' add an 88' line to drawing (bottom property line)
4. Zoom out until I can see the entire line in the window
5. Add 3 127' vertical lines (22' apart) and a horizontal at the top and I have 3 property lots
6. The drawing then covers 88' x 127' and will have to be reduced 20:1 to fit an 8.5x11 inch paper
7. Go to print preview
8. 'Auto-fit drawing to page', scale winds up = 0.00656 (1/152). The drawing fits the page but is crowded to the edges. The page is 107' x 139' (not 8.5"x11" anymore)
9. Set scale to 1/240 (20:1). Drawing fits better but is off center. Page is now 169' x 218'
10. 'Auto-fit page to drawing'. Things look good! Page is still 169' x 218' but it sure looks like what I would like to see when I print.
11. I convert to PDF, open it in Adobe and ... blank. PDF page is listed at 102" x 132".
12. I zoom out to 6.29% and there it is
13. Prints out nicely

However, I need the PDF to open with the drawing in view and not requiring the viewer to zoom out (they might think it is empty and quit). Any ideas?

I hope this gives you a better idea of what I'm trying to do. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Husky]

That sounds already not to bad ....

to 1.
make also sure that the correct Page size is chosen,

to 2.
it would make sense to create a new layer for that which could be named "Property". If you start to draw the building use layers for walls, windows, electric, plumbing blablabla ...

Tutorial: Working with Layer:
https://qcad.org/en/tutorial-working-with-layers

to 8.
the page size depends on the used scale. If you e.g. need to print something with a 1:10 scale then the page has to be 10 times bigger to fit (after scaling) again on your physical paper. Don't worry about that - QCAD will do the calculation for you.

crowded to the edge? - What is that? That can't be regarding to your description

to 9.
if 1:240 works best for you then use it. The "off center problem" can be fixed by using the "Auto Center" tool in the Print Preview dialog or you can move the page manually with "Move Paper Position". I think the "blank page result" is based of a wrong Paper position.

Tutorial: Printing:
https://qcad.org/en/tutorial-printing

[CerpherJoe]

Thanks Husky.

After I switch from Foot-Foot to Inch-Inch for drawing units everything is looking great.

However - I now have a problem with getting dashed lines to show dashed in the PDF. They looked fine in Print preview, but are showing up solid in PDF.

I will post that question separately.

Thanks again for your (and Andrew's) help.

Joe