Expert: Bill DeShawn - 4/2/2009

Question
QUESTION: I am having issues in Civil 3D 2009 - whether I am in model or paper space, I will copy something (using ctrl+c keystroke) (anything - lines, text etc) and then paste (using the ctrl+v keystroke) and when the onject pastes, the scale is MUCH larger.  I am fairly certian there is an easy fix for this, but have exhausted every option I can think of.  Any ideas?

ANSWER: Christy:
This seems to be a common problem in Civil3D.  
Matt Kolberg wrote:
Open the file in Civil 3D, go into the drawing settings dialog, in the first tab and uncheck where it says "Scale objects..." or something like that.

This fixed the problem for the user he was helping.

Keep in touch
Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: sorry, but I am not sure what he is refering to...the "drawing settings dialog"...I went into "options" and didn't find anything close to what he is talking about...can you provide a little bit clearer directions?  Thank you in advance!

ANSWER: Well, I have AutoCAD Architecure, and there is a command in there called AECDWGSETUP.  It displays a mult-tab dialog that includes UNITS.  In the UNITS tab, there is a checkbox where alongside it says, "Scale objects Inserted from other drawings".  I think you would have that command in Civil, too, so give it a try.  When you find it, uncheck the box.

Let me know how it goes.  Use the follow-up option to respond.  This saves text so that I know where we were in our conversation.

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


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: It says "unknown command" :(

I went into "units" and made sure it was set to "inches" and "architectural"...

I was however able to change the scale when I pasted - by typing "scale" after paste, but I just chose arbitrary numbers...I would not have any idea what to change the scale to in order to have it be the same as the copied materail (does that make any sense?)

Answer
I'm going to check on the command name or the interface to see how you get to the right dialog.  I am assuming that you really are using Civil3D.  BTW, whenever you paste something into a drawing, the drawing it comes from has units settings for insertion (INSUNITS)and so does the drawing from which you copy the objects.  If the two are set differently, there will be a scaling issue like this.  The INSUNITS system variable is saved in the drawing.
Also check these two in both drawings:
INSUNITSDEFSOURCE
INSUNITSDEFTARGET
I set these both to 1 for inches.

Sometimes for some reason I still have had to scale something after pasting, but I was usually able to figure out what scale I needed.  Lately, I have been doing everything UNITLESS.  I haven't been running into any problems that way.  When this happens again, paste as a block so you can scale the whole thing before exploding it.  
I strongly suggest using Paste As Block (PASTEBLOCK) and then using PROPERTIES to change the scale (X, Y, & Z).  Then explode the block.
Let me know how it goes
Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn