[solved] Make it fit

[Cactuslock]

Havent been on Acad LT for 10 years and trying to transition. Problem: scales are showing inhes tp 15 inches. Im drawing a item 20 inches wide and 30 inches tall. I need to be able to show dimensions correctly. I need to scale down drawing to fit on a2 piece of paper. I can just draw smaller however dimensions wont come out correctly. Old and stupid needs help

[CVH]

Hi, and welcome to the QCAD forum.

General advice: Draw everything in scale 1:1 in whatever the required or chosen drawing unit is.
How this is represented on paper depends on the paper scale.

This way it spares you the trouble of scaling forth and back for every real world measurements when designing.

One could use the dimension linear scale but it is not common to draw at scale.

Regards,
CVH

[Cactuslock]

paper scale?

[Cactuslock]

perhaps I did not explain that well. I set up a2 paper tall end up. I draw a block 30" tall and 20" wide. I want it to fit in the paper drawing area but drawing extends past the area to be printed.. I can do complex acad drawings but having problems with set up to start the drawing. I bought the QCAD book but still having problems. You can slap me now

[RMK-Designs]

Sounds like you are looking to scale the viewport. After you draw your object in model space use the viewport tool (VT) to draw a viewport that will be added to paper space, same as Autocad. The difference is the tool setting tool bar at the top of the screen has a selection for scale (typically on the left) that allows you to enter a scale such as 1/4”=1’0”. You will need to play with the scale to get the correct scale. One thing I do when I am not totally sure what the scale is, is to use the fit drawing to paper button, it is one of the first buttons on the paper space print preview tool bar after scale and has a red square on white background. This will give you a close scale that will fit. The current viewport scale (once the viewport is selected) is displayed in the property editor, but will be displayed in decimals. You can find the conversion on line to fractional. If you know the scale you can change it in the property editor with a drop down menu. Hope this helps.

[CVH]

Cactuslock,

Basically a drawing has no unit, everything is drawn in unnamed units.
The unit starts to play a role when for example importing blocks in other units or when printing on paper with a fixed size.

A2 in portrait is 594 mm high by 420 mm wide.
Your drawing is 30 inch high by 20 inch wide or 762 by 508 in mm.
With a paper scale of 0.7795 the 30 inch would just fit on the A2 .... Without borders.

Instead of the oddball paper scale you could use a listed imperial scale like 9" = 1'-0" (0.75)

30 inch high would be 571.5 mm on paper with about 10 mm border.
Everything in your model remains 1:1 real world or 30 by 20 units (=inch)

And indeed, at some point QCAD can not retain the textual form and reverts to a scale factor in decimal notation.

Regards,
CVH

[Husky]

perhaps I did not explain that well. I set up a2 paper tall end up. I draw a block 30" tall and 20" wide. I want it to fit in the paper drawing area but drawing extends past the area to be printed.. I can do complex acad drawings but having problems with set up to start the drawing. I bought the QCAD book but still having problems. You can slap me now

Please have a look at this QCAD print tutorial. I assume it will answer all your print question.

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

[Cactuslock]

Thanks all. I notice when people get their questions answered on this site it's just silence. Thank You. You helped me immensely