Autocad 2014 viewport scales 2

[ohiocad]

On one of the workstations here, the user has encountered a "curious" issue, for lack of a better term, since most of those are improper at the least. Object created in model space, then flip to paper space, and create a viewport of a portion, to dimension it. Click into viewport, and on the viewports toolbar, click the scale to zoom the viewport, in this case, 2:1, then lock the viewport.

If you go back later, and highlight the viewport, and bring up the properties box, under the "Misc" properties:
On - Yes
Clipped - No
Annotation Scale - 2:1
Standard Scale - 2:1
Custom scale 1.99999995
etc.

Ummm............... Scale of 1.99999995?? What happened to 2:1?

Anyone run across that before, any ideas to stop it from recurring?

To fix it, we have to go into the viewport, then click another scale on the toolbar, and then go BACK to 2:1, and then it shows 2.00000, or zoom by XP. Seems like if the button from the "Viewports" toolbar is used, it should be correct at 2.00000000

 

[ohiocad]

Ok... added info, as troubleshooting continues....

Created another viewport, scaled to 1:1, and confirmed in viewport properties, 1.00000000

Click into viewport, and pan slightly. Back into paperspace, and check viewport properties.... scale .99999999

Have tried pan with both middle mouse button, and P command + left click points. Both give same result.

Created entirely new drawing, draw, pspace, viewport, etc.... unable to duplicate in new drawing, or in drawings on unrelated project.

Tried different mouse, on the off chance that it was something goofy with zoom wheel. Happens with new mouse as well, on that specific project. Unable to duplicate on another machine, regardless of project.

 

[CarlB]

Are the model space coordinates very large, as in over 1,000,000?
This is a guess, since large coordinates throws a wrench in various Autocad internal calculations.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Go into modelspace, 3Drotate the model a little, then Zoom Extents, and see if it disappears.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[JNieman]

I'm just going to throw this out there but that's always going to happen. I've never been able to isolate it in over a decade of 3d modeling in Autocad. There are a handful of things Autocad doesn't "like" such as the aforementioned "far from the origin" situation, but it is /sometimes/ inevitable (though not unavoidable) in certain lines of work.

This is one of the many "sucks, but won't be fixed" aka "deal with it" issues that Autodesk has in their software. This should only be a /real/ problem if you use annotative objects, right? If not, then having it be off by a factor of ~.0000005 shouldn't kill anything, right?

I'm not trying to belittle the existence of the problem, the mere existence of one is frustrating; it's just that it is one of those issues that has been around a very long time, can't/won't be fixed, and one must simply band-aid it as it pops up, imo.

 

[MikeHalloran]

A long time ago, I found a block inside a block inside a block ... well, you get the idea, it was deeply nested. Way down inside, there was a short line segment at a Z elevation of a little over 14,000 ... miles.

I don't know where it came from, but I found it in more than one drawing file. I don't know if it was intended as a joke, or there was some malice intended, but AutoCAD had considerable difficulty dealing with it.

The symptoms you report sounded vaguely familiar.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[ohiocad]

Ok, running through the responses....


Carl:
Limits are set to 0,0 17.00,11.00
Components that are doing this are in the viewport are approximately 2.15,3.6

Mike,
No apparent change when 3drotate

JNieman,
That's kind of where we're at with it, kind of like it crashing when trying to hatch. Has gotten a lot better, but still happens. We've given up on solving it, just trying to minimize impact. We don't TYPICALLY use annotative objects, but have on a couple projects. This one isn't one of mine, so not sure what they have going. And that that small of a variance, you are correct it shouldn't really be an issue, but if noone caught it, and started working off of it, and adjacent viewports, then compounded error starts to show it's ugly head.

Mike,
This doesn't appear to be anything like that, but we DID have a project where something was offset on Z by .0000002 or something like that, then copied point to point, so it compounded. Try snapping to an intersection when you have 5000 lines at 800 different Z planes.... Wasn't a nervous breakdown, but wasn't a fun time either.... Flatten to the rescue.... oh, except for where they were nested in blocks.

As I said, we've given up on solving, and now scale the viewports by XP notation, and lock, just a pain when it's multiple viewports, dimensioned in SP, on 50 different sheets that we need to go back in and correct to prevent headaches downstream. (Could probably get away with leaving it.... but.... easier to fix now, than when there's a few hundred more files built on these)

Thanks for the input guys

 

[JNieman]

@ohiocad

Regarding hatching, I agree it is a bulky and error-prone beast. I do think I isolated the troublesome issues, however. I have a perceived 100% success rate with two adjustments to my process:

When hatching I switched to NEVER using "pick a point" for hatching. Ever. Never ever. Using "select objects" I have a successful and easy hatching. I prefer using closed polylines, but obviously that's not /always/ practical.

When /editing/ a hatch I NEVER double-click a hatch object. Ever. Never ever. Instead, I mapped a keyboard shortcut for "hatchedit" to "HH", so I hit HH,enter,pick-hatch-object, instead of double clicking them. Perceivable difference in input time and a flawless result.

This method has served me quite well - I believe I implemented that strategy about 4 years ago and it's gone well since.

Hope that helps.

_________________________________________
Engineer, Precision Manufacturing Job Shop
Tool & Die, Aerospace, Defense, Medical, Agricultural, Firearms

NX8.0, Solidworks 2014, AutoCAD LT, Autocad Plant 3D 2013, Enovia DMUv5

 

[chicopee]

If you know the scale of the viewport in paper and you find out that the real scale is off by some very small decimal number, readjust the scale of that view port. I never had that kind of problem with my drawings. By the way which version of ACAD are you using?

 

[ohiocad]

Chicopee, that's what we've been doing, it's just that it was trickled through multiple files, with multiple viewports per file, with dimensions in paperspace then thrown in on top, and all that isn't what the boss wants to hear when he starts talking budget. It's just exceedingly frustrating that selecting PAN, and left clicking points to do so, adjusts the zoom scale... If I wanted that, I would have picked ZOOM, etc....

The "viewport" toolbar still lists the scale as 1:2, but when you list the actual viewport frame properties, it is off ever so slightly, as listed above. Not really a major issue, but once the viewport is rescaled to be correct, you can check the text window, and see where it lists dimension associativity as getting lost, but only on SOME of the dimensions, the rest keep the nodes hook as they should, then it is a matter of searching to find those detached.

Autocad vanilla, full release 2014, SP1 but we have been able to recreate it on 2013LT as well, along with a couple other older versions, just to check.