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Linetype Scale

11 Comments Feb-08-2008 | Posted by Erhan Toker | Printable Version | Level |

AutoCAD R8 and higher versions

In AutoCAD, sometimes even though you change the line type, linetype still looks to be still continuous. The reason is that, scale unit (not scale) that you are currently using ( by default ) is not small or large enough to be able to show the line that you are about to use. In this article, HIDDEN line type is going to be used as an example. Definition that is shown in line type definition file is as follows:

Table 1

Let me explain the details. Have a look at the line at the bottom; A, 6.35, -3.175. According to this, our line type is created so that 6.35 units is full and 3.175 is empty. If you are using ‘cm’ as drawing unit, than you will see a hidden line with 3.175 mm – 1.5875 mm spaces for a 1/20 scale print-out. Probably, you will be able to see the line type without any problems in the screen (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

However, if you are using ‘mt’ as drawing unit, then linetype will be shown with 31.75 cm – 15.875 cm spaces in 1/20 scale, and probably will look like a continuous line on the screen. In such cases, we are going to use LTSCALE ( short : LTS ) command to adjust line type scale. Since AutoCAD 2000, dimension stype scale has become a fundamental property of entities ( like layer, color etc. ). From now on in in this article, I will explain about LTSCALE and Properties / Linetype Scale terms and also how they are used together with each other. First of all, let’s start with LTSCALE command, which is relatively easier among them.

Command : LTSCALE
LTSCALE Enter new linetype scale factor <1.0000>: 1/5
Regenerating model.

If you enter a value between 0 and 1, then the line type will become smaller, and if you enter a value larger than 1, then the line type will become larger. You can find a table, which recommends the relationships between drawing unit that is used and layout scale and layer type scale, in ‘Scaling in Autocad drawings and layouts.’ article written by Günay ÖZMEN. Now, let me start explaining about the lie type scale in entity properties.

Fig. 2

As you can see in Fig. 2, there is a line type scale also in entity properties. According to the value that we write here, it will get smaller for values between 0-1 and get bigger for values larger than 1. LTSCALE value that you set inside the drawing will be used as it is multiplied with this value.

ENTITY FINAL LINETYPE SCALE = ENTITY LINETYPE SCALE X DRAWING LINETYPE SCALE

As you can see, we can not deal with line type scale of all of the entities one by one. One of the rare entities where we have to use this property is circle center mark. In Fig. 3, LTSCALE=1 and OBJLTS=1 is given for the circle and center mark on the left side; LTSCALE=1 and OBJLTS=0.5 is given on the right side.

Fig. 3

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Related Articles: Scaling in Autocad drawings and layouts, Understanding scale concept and units in Autocad

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