Understanding LTSCALE

Note: The following catalog of content covered in this webinar is time stamped to allow you to follow along or skip to sections of the video that are relevant to your questions. You can also search for content on this page using the FIND command in your browser (CTRL + F in Windows, Command + F in Mac OS.)

• Intro/TOC
• Understanding Linetypes
• Where and How They Might Be Used
• How They Are Stored, Accessed, and Set Up
• Units and Scale Considerations
• Drawing Setup Scenarios
• Working & Layouts in 1 DWG
• Working in 1 Drawing, Layouts in Another (Recommended)
• Demonstration in CAD

0:00 – 4:29: Intro/TOC

4:30 – 30:25: Understanding Linetypes

What is a linetype? (4:37)

A linetype is a visual property assigned to geometric objects. Linetypes can be a pattern of dashes, dots, text, and symbols, or unbroken and continuous. –Autodesk

Simple linetypes (5:30)

Complex linetypes (6:09)

Where and How They Might Be Used (7:00)

• Base Plans
• Irrigation Plans
• Lighting Plans
• Planting Plans
• Details
• Etc.

How are they used and managed? (7:51)

Combination of placing within:

• Model Space
• Paper Space
• Blocks
• Xrefs

**Should be set/assigned through layers.**

How They Are Stored, Accessed, and Set Up (9:32)

The LINETYPE command (9:32)

The LINETYPE command will allow you to manage your linetypes globally.

Units and Scale Considerations (11:00)

Linetype units (11:00)

**The MEASUREMENT System Variable is crucial for your template, and calls the proper .lin file when loading linetypes.**

• Imperial units: MEASUREMENT set to 0
• Metric units: MEASUREMENT set to 1

Linetype scale (12:08)

Linetype scale controls the size and spacing of the pattern, based on drawing units.

Variables that affect the linetype scale:

• LTSCALE: Global scale factor
• PSLTSCALE: Paper Space linetype scale
• ON (1): Linetype scales to Viewport scale (based on LTSCALE)
• OFF (0): Linetype scales to LTSCALE
• MSLTSCALE: Model space linetype scale
• ON (1): Linetype scales with the Annotation scale (multiplied by LTSCALE)
• OFF (0) :Linetype scales to LTSCALE
• CELTSCALE: Current object scale (default should be 1)
• If this variable is set to anything but 1, CAD will multiply CELTSCALE & LTSCALE to determine the scale of the linetype.

Caveat for Imperial units users: Be mindful of your workflow. (22:05)

Changes might happen to the default acad.lin & acadiso.lin files

Ways to cross check whether default linetypes are modified:

• Restoring CAD defaults
• Comparing with another workstation
• Creating a backup to your office standards folder

For loading layers and linetypes, try not to copy linework from one drawing to another. Instead, use our Save and Load Layers tools.

Other helpful tools/commands (26:19):

• PLINEGEN:
  • Value of 0 = Centered on each line segment
  • Value of 1 = Continued across vertices
• REAL: Reloads all linetypes
• XLAYER: Opens object info for quick adjustments
• FX_CUSTOMLINE: Quickly create and load/assign linetypes to a given layer.

30:26 – 36:16: Drawing Setup Scenarios

Working & Layouts in 1 DWG (31:22)

1. LTSCALE = VP Scale Factor

2. PSLTSCALE = 0 (Each layout has its own PSLTSCALE that needs to be set.)

3. MEASUREMENT **Note: As soon as you have multiple viewports with different scales, this setup does not work.

• 0 = Imperial (acad.lin)
• 1 = Metric (acadiso.lin)

4. CELTSCALE = 1

5. MSLTSCALE = 0 **Model Space Only** (If you use annotative text/scaling, this variable should be set to 1.)

Working in 1 Drawing, Layouts in Another (Recommended) (35:08)

We highly recommend using Xrefs and separate sheet files.

1. LTSCALE = 1

2. PSLTSCALE = 1 (Each layout has its own PSLTSCALE that needs to be set.)

3. MEASUREMENT

• 0 = Imperial (acad.lin)
• 1 = Metric (acadiso.lin)

4. CELTSCALE = 1

5. MSLTSCALE = 0 **Model Space Only** (If you use annotative text/scaling, this variable should be set to 1.)

36:17 – end: Demonstration in CAD

The importance of having everything ByLayer – particularly linetypes – and setting an overall linetype scale to avoid having different objects with different LT scales (36:24)

What to do if you've loaded a base file or other Xref and you didn't check the linetype scales (38:28)

Setting the LTSCALE to 1 in a drawing with no visible linetypes and attempting to troubleshoot (39:43)

Why you shouldn't attempt to fix a linetype scale issue by setting the LTSCALE to something other than 1 (such as .1) (41:11)

Our recommended troubleshooting method (41:34)

• Check the units using the MEASUREMENT system variable
• Using our REAL (Reload All Linetypes) tool
• Checking the LTSCALE again
• Reloading all linetypes again, then checking the LTSCALE again
• Reinserting the Xref
• Setting the LTSCALE to 1
• Checking the linetype scale in Paper Space (PSLTSCALE)
• Setting PSLTSCALE to 1 and regenerating (REGEN)
• Checking PSLTSCALE against the current LTSCALE set in Model Space
• Setting both LTSCALE and PSLTSCALE to 1 and regenerating
• Running a Print Preview

Checking linetype scale in detail drawings (51:47)

Setting both the LTSCALE and PSLTSCALE to 1 on a detail sheet to account for various details placed there with different sizes and scales (52:41)

What happens when you set LTSCALE to 1 and PSLTSCALE to 0 (Don't do this!) (53:17)

Why we always suggest doing complete layouts of details in a blank file in order to keep the LTSCALE consistent across them (53:48)