See Figure 2 to see what this looks like with the steps below. But what if a floor plan on an image background says that the distance between two columns is 3 ft., but it doesn’t appear to be true to dimension size once it’s inserted in your drawing? You can use the ALIGN command to confirm dimensions on what is inserted as an external reference. Through the XREF window, you may attach these items at whatever scale you choose. Many times, PDFs, images, and other drawing files are provided to CAD designers as something to draw on top of or use as a basis for design in AutoCAD. Here is how you can use just some of the various AutoCAD scale commands and tools to make sure your drawings are properly communicating the visual aspects of the design.

It’s crucial to accurately scale your drawings, especially since many of the components and systems need to go into an actual building. If your drawings aren’t scaled properly, miscommunication and other unfavorable results occur. Similarly, the idea of scaling external references, blocks, text, and the plotted drawing itself in AutoCAD is important because it impacts how things are installed and built to code in the field. Without considering scale in each of the components, the model is confusing and inaccurate. In the case of a model train and its surrounding terrain, scale is important because the model visually represents an accurate depiction of what a real-life train and its surroundings would look like. If you’ve ever seen a model of a small electronic train chugging along a little metal track lined with cotton-ball bushes and a painted foam mountain, you’ve seen how important scale is.

Zwcad 2014 tutorial