Do you often need to output your drawings at multiple scales or do your drawings contain viewports with multiple scales?
Designing with efficiency can require a bit of time and planning. As the drawings you work on become larger and more complex, you will likely need to draw more section and elevation views along with connection and foundation details. These design elements often utilize reusable content and may require them to be displayed at different scales based on the drawing.
There are three different approaches that can be used to show annotation objects at different scales:
Layers have been a common approach to managing the visibility of annotation objects that are displayed at multiple scales. For example, the A-DETL-DIMS layer might normally be used for all dimensions. If you need dimensions at multiple scales, you would add the scale factor value to the end of the layer name, such as A-DETL-DIMS-24 and A-DETL-DIMS-48 for 1/2"=1'-0" and 1/4"=1'-0" respectively.
With multiple layers defined, you would then control the visibility of the layers to display the dimensions that correspond to the scale of the viewport. For example, if the viewport has a scale of 1/2”=1'-0” (1/24), you would thaw the layer A-DETL-DIMS-24 and freeze the layer A-DETL-DIMS-48.
In the previous image, the A-DETL-DIMS-48 layer is thawed on the left while the A-DETL-DIMS-24 layer is thawed on the right; both layers are thawed in the middle.
Annotative objects are annotation with one or more representations at different scales, and not separate annotation objects of which you change their height/scale or freeze/thaw their assigned layer to control final size and visibility within a viewport. Annotative styles are similar to non-annotative styles except they manage the creation of annotative objects which controls how the final height/scale of an annotation object is calculated.
The following annotation objects can be annotative:
Here is an example of a model using annotative objects with two different scales; 1/4"=1'-0" and 1/2"=1'-0".
When the model is displayed in a viewport, the scale of the viewport controls which representation of the annotative object is displayed. If the scale of a viewport doesn’t match that of the annotative objects in the viewport, then those annotative objects are not displayed. In the previous image, text, dimension and multileader objects are assigned the scales 1/4”=1'-0” and 1/2”=1'-0”. This is why not all annotation is displayed at the same time or in a viewport altogether; the first two viewports are assigned scales that match those of the annotative objects while the third viewport has a different scale.
Getting the most from the exercises in this topic requires the downloading of a dataset. The dataset contains curated drawing files that assist in learning the workflows or features being demonstrated.
Download: Sample files used for the exercises in the following sections.
Before you learn how to create and modify annotative objects, let’s get a sense for how annotative objects work in viewports. In this exercise, you enter an existing viewport in the sample drawing and change the scale of the viewport which also changes the annotation scale. Once the scales are changed, the objects in the drawing appear at scale and the representations of each annotative object that matches the scale are only made visible. Representations of each annotative object that don’t match the new scale are made invisible.
See the Preparing for the Exercises section earlier in this topic for where to download the dataset from.
The viewport's border should now be thicker to reflect Model space is now active.
This badge cursor indicates the annotation is annotative.
The viewport must be unlocked before we can change its scale.
Notice after the viewport scale is changed, the view is zoomed out and the annotation that was visible has changed. The annotative objects with an annotation scale of 1/4"=1'-0" are now visible, while those with an annotation scale of 1/2"=1'-0" are invisible.
The previous scale of the viewport is restored along with the visibility of the annotative objects with an annotation scale of 1/2"=1'-0".
In this exercise, you saw how annotative objects can be used to control the visibility and height/scale of annotation in a viewport. In the next sections, you will learn how to create annotative text and control its visibility in the STAIR DETAIL 1 and STAIR SECTION 1 viewport.
While the workflow of creating annotative text, dimensions, hatch and so forth is all similar, this article only focuses on creating annotative multiline text. Creating annotative and non-annotative (regular) text is similar; except for the use of an annotative text style and the final height of the text to be created. The height of text is calculated is based on the scale at which the text will be displayed.
The following explains how text height is calculated for placement in Model space based choosing to use non-annotative or annotative text:
You manually calculate the text height. For example, if you want to display text with a paper text height of 1/16" (0.0625) in a viewport scaled at 1/2"=1'-0" (factor of 24) you would create the text with a height of 1 1/2".
0.0625 x 24 = 1.5
AutoCAD automatically calculates and displays the text at the necessary height based on the provided paper text height and assigned annotation scale.
The following steps explain how to create annotative multiline text (MText):
See the Preparing for the Exercises section earlier in this topic for where to download the dataset from.
You should see the new MText object in the viewport labeled STAIR DETAIL 1 since its assigned the scale of 1/2"=1'-0". The text won’t be displayed in the STAIR SECTION 1 viewport since it is assigned the scale of 1/4"=1'-0".
In the next section, you learn to add an annotation scale to an annotative object which will also allow for the text to be displayed in the STAIR SECTION 1 viewport at a scale of 1/4"=1'-0".
Once an annotative object has been created, you can add additional annotation scales to the object or remove scales that are no longer needed. New annotation scales impact how the object appears in Model space and in viewports on a layout.
The following steps explain how to add annotation scales to the annotative MText object created in the previous exercise:
You should notice the MText object now appears in the STAIR SECTION 1 viewport and is displayed at 1/16" paper text height based on the viewport's scale of 1/4"=1'-0".
While annotative objects are placed on layers like any other object, it is best to place them on their own layers and control their visibility using the current annotation scale in Model space or viewport on a layout. The Annotation Visibility button ( Find) on the status bar controls whether all annotative objects are displayed regardless of the scales assigned to them, or only those that match the current annotation scale.
The following steps demonstrate the use of the Annotation Visibility button:
You should notice all annotation objects have disappeared.
Notice now only the annotative objects with a matching annotation scale are displayed in the drawing.
All annotative objects should be visible again no matter the current annotation scale.
When you add an annotation scale to an annotative object, a new representation of that object is created and maintained. You can see each of these representations by selecting an annotative object. For example, the following image shows a multileader assigned the annotation scales of 1/4"-1'-0" and 1/2"=1'-0", with the current annotation scale of the drawing being set to 1/4"=1'-0".
While you can see all representations of an annotative object when it is selected, you can only modify the representation that matches the current annotation scale with grip editing. Standard editing commands, such as MOVE and SCALE, cannot be used to modify representations of an annotative object.
To reset all representations of an annotative object:
Annotative text styles are not required to create annotative text, but they do help to simplify the process much like their non-annotative text style counterparts. The main difference between annotative and non-annotative text styles is the Annotative property. When the Annotative property is enabled and the style is current, any text created is annotative. The Paper Text Height property specifies the final text height of the text, while the Match Text Orientation to Layout property defines if the text is oriented to the layout and viewport in which it is displayed.
Existing annotation and hatch objects in a drawing can be made annotative with in several steps. This can be beneficial to making the annotation in an existing model or details annotative without recreating the annotation or hatch objects.
The following steps provide an overview on how to make a non-annotative object annotative:
The sample drawing used earlier already had annotation scales set for each of the viewports on the SECTIONS AND DETAILS layout which match the scale of each viewport. When you create a new viewport and set its scale, the annotation scale is automatically set to match the scale of the viewport. If the two scales don’t match, you can click the Viewport Scale Sync button () to match the annotation scale to the viewport’s scale. The Viewport Scale Sync button is blue when the two scales match. For more information on creating and scaling viewports, see Have You Tried: Pre-scale Layout Viewports.
If you work with section or elevation views, and details at multiple scales, annotative objects and annotation scaling can simplify annotating your designs. This is demonstrated by how easy it can be to ensure annotation is displayed at the correct size no matter the scale assigned to a viewport.
Here are the commands and system variables related to annotative objects and annotation scaling in a drawing.
Command | Description |
---|---|
ANNORESET | Resets the locations of all alternate scale representations of the selected annotative objects. |
ANNOUPDATE | Updates existing annotative objects to match the current properties of their styles. |
OBJECTSCALE | Adds or deletes supported scales for annotative objects. |
SCALELISTEDIT | Controls the list of scales available for layout viewports, page layouts, and plotting. |
System Variable | Description | Default Value | Saved in |
---|---|---|---|
ANNOALLVISIBLE | Hides or displays annotative objects that do not support the current annotation scale. | 1 | Drawing |
ANNOAUTOSCALE | Updates annotative objects to support the annotation scale when the annotation scale is changed. | -4 | Registry |
ANNOSCALEZOOM | Determines whether the mouse wheel zoom in paperspace viewports is controlled by specific zoom scales or independent of viewport scales (legacy behavior). | 0 | Registry |
ANNOTATIVEDWG | Specifies whether or not the drawing will behave as an annotative block when inserted into another drawing. | 0 | Drawing |
CANNOSCALE | Sets the name of the current annotation scale for the current space. | 1:1 | Drawing |
CANNOSCALEVALUE | Displays the value of the current annotation scale. | 1.0000 | Drawing |
DIMANNO | Indicates whether or not the current dimension style is annotative. | 0 | Drawing |
HPANNOTATIVE | Controls whether new hatch patterns are annotative in this session. | 0 | Not-saved |
SAVEFIDELITY | Controls the visual fidelity for annotative objects in AutoCAD 2007 and earlier. | 1 | Registry |
SELECTIONANNODISPLAY | Controls whether alternate scale representations are temporarily displayed in a dimmed state when an annotative object is selected. | 1 | Registry |