A sheet scale is a standard scale value for drawing views placed on the working sheet. Typically, the sheet scale is indicated in the drawing border title block. When you place a drawing view on the same sheet using a different scale, you can note the exception scale value in a drawing view caption.
Only working sheets can have a sheet scale other than 1.0. Background sheets, the 2D Model sheet, and draw-in-view windows have their sheet scale fixed at 1:1.
You can set the sheet scale when:
When placing the first drawing view on the sheet using the View Wizard command, you can specify the sheet scale from the View Wizard command bar using the Set Sheet Scale option. When this button is selected, the sheet scale is set automatically to the scale of the first drawing view—the principal or primary view—placed on the drawing sheet. The same scale is applied automatically to all subsequent views placed on the sheet. This ensures that the scale of all drawing views on the sheet is consistent.
When you place the first drawing view using a command other than the View Wizard command, or when you have multiple views on a sheet with different view scales, you can use the Set Sheet Scale command to set the sheet scale to match any drawing view you select. This command is available from the shortcut menu when a drawing sheet tab is selected.
You can see what sheet scale is currently assigned to the drawing sheet using the Sheet Setup command. You can override a derived sheet scale by selecting the Change the sheet scale manually check box and selecting or typing a new scale value. This also removes the associativity between the first drawing view and the sheet scale.
This command is available from the shortcut menu when a drawing sheet tab is selected.
You can use callouts and other types of annotations to extract and display property text that identifies the sheet name, number, and scale of the active drawing sheet.
For example, you can place a callout on a shared background sheet, in the drawing border title block, so that it displays the sheet scale on each working sheet. When you place a drawing view on the same sheet using a different scale, you can note the exception scale value in a drawing view caption. You can define the caption content and control caption display using the Caption page (Drawing View Properties dialog box).
To create a callout that extracts property text, such as the Sheet Name, Sheet Number, and Sheet Scale properties, see the Help topic, Create property text. Many other properties, such as file name, title, and author, can be extracted as well.
When you model a part or assembly, you can construct the model to the full scale of the real-world object you are creating. The size of the working sheet determines the scale you should use to display the 3D part or assembly. For example, the drawing view scale for a front loader bucket part would be smaller if an A size sheet were used, because the A size border is smaller than the D size.
By default, the View Wizard calculates the best fit for the drawing views based on the model size and the sheet size. Part views, with the exception of detail views, have the same scale as the model they are created from. Before you click to place the view, you can use the View Wizard command bar to change drawing view scale:
The default option—the Best Fit button—uses the size of the working sheet to compute the best-fit scale value needed to display of the selected part. This scale appears in the Scale box on the command bar.
You can choose a different scale to apply to the drawing view using the Scale list on the command bar.
The Set View Scale button changes the scale of the drawing view you are placing to match the current sheet scale.
Note:
Aligned part views also share the same scale. To change the scale of an individual part view, remove the alignment with the Unalign command on the shortcut menu, and then use the Properties command on the shortcut menu to set the scale you want.
The dimensional values of the parts or assemblies in your part views measure the actual size of the model. For example, if a hole feature in a part is 25 millimeters and the drawing view scale is 2:1, when you dimension the hole feature, it will be 25 millimeters, not 50 millimeters. This means that you never have to worry about the part view scale affecting the dimensional values when you are creating a drawing.
The dimension and annotation sizes in your working sheets are independent of the drawing view scale. For example, if you define the height and size of dimension text as 0.125 inch or 3.5 millimeters, these are the actual values of the dimension text on the printed drawing.
The scale of the 2D Model sheet is 1:1. However, you can set the size and scale of a special work area where you can annotate and dimension at a different scale than the scale of the printed drawing, without having to change the text height before printing. The Drawing Area Setup command on the Application menu automatically calculates the size and scale of your work area on the 2D Model sheet based on the printed sheet size and the width and height of your intended design.