Expert: Bill DeShawn - 3/12/2009

Question
I want to scale a floor plan on 11x17 paper so that when I send it to the contractor they can print at 24x36 and have it to scale.  I know that the entire floor plan fits well on 11x17 but I really dont understand scaling.  I dont set the scale when Im setting up the Page set-up right?  I thought you double click on the viewport line-select its properties under MISC. and choose a scale.  1-1 looks good but its not correct. 1/4"=1' would be correct but when I select 1/4"=1' in the viewport it looks totally wrong.  can you help walk me through??

Answer
Your floor plans might fit, but your title block won't fit right on 11x17 and then on 24x36.  Architectural B size is 12x18.  So, if your paper supplier has 24x36 sheets, they can cut it into quarters and get 4 12x18 sheets for each 24x36 sheet.  Do you have a printer or plotter that can plot onto 12x18 sheets?  If not, and you need to have complete title blocks on 11x17, then design your title block for Engineering D-size sheet.  Then, just print it to 24x36 and have big margins, or use TWO title blocks in TWO different layouts.  One for 11x17 and another for 24x36.

You can set your page setup 1:1 with a title block that is 48 times normal size in paper space.  You should have two CTB files.  One for plotting at 1/8" = 1'-0" (1:96) and one for plotting at 1/4" = 1'-0" (1=48).  The line weights in the ctb file for 1:96 should be about half the size of the line weights in the CTB file for 1:48.  The shading would be at a reduced percentage as well in some cases.

But sending it off can make the reduced printing a whole lot easier.  Design the title block for 24x36 printing, and instead of plotting to a PLT file, plot to a PDF file.

Free PDF printers are available from places like SOFTWARE995:
http://www.PDF995.com  When you print to PDF, the PDF printer will have the paper sizes available for your selection, including ARCH B (12x18).  But if sending these to the printers for final printing, just let them scale it down half-size.

You can join multiple PDF sheets into one PDF file with PDFTOOLS
http://www.sheelapps.com/index.php?p=PDFTools.HomePage

AutoCAD 2009 has a built-in PDF printer.

Send the PDF file to the printer, and they can print it to 24x36 and to 12x18.  If 11x17 is required by the Jurisdiction (City or County), then you'll still need to create an 11x17 title block to plot at 1:96.  


There is another method for scaling that is used by many places.  You create an UNSCALED title block for 24x36.  The viewports will be zoomed at 1/48 (0.02083333).  But you will need to set PSLTSCALE to 0 to ensure that your linetypes display correctly.

Both methods work well.  Do whatever is comfortable for you.
Write again if you still have questions.

Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn

I hope this helps you.