Is there is anyway to read the original coordinates from attached models into a layout sheet? That option will enable us to do complete drawing annotations in LAYOUT instead of having a hybrid of annotations in the model+layout. This will improve the drawing quality and be more productive. Hopefully someone has a method now to do it.. I'll greatly appreciate it if you can share. Otherwise, it may be a good thing to improve for the future. thanks in advance.
We always bring the sheet to the model in our layouts, scaling the border up to the drawing. As long as we have no Plan over Plan sheets, the sheets are in true coordinates and can be labeled directly.
Another alternative is to set an auxiliary coordinate system from the reference file. I have not tried this, but I believe it should work.
Charles (Chuck) Rheault CADD Manager
MDOT State Highway Administration
You need to place, scale and rotate your "sheet" over your model. This is one thing that is easily done in MicroStation that can not be done in AutoCAD. AutoCAD limits rotation to landscape or portrait.
Historically from what I've seen MS users typically use the method of scale and fit the sheet over model while AutoCAD users typically move and scale the model to fit the sheet.
The advantage of moving and scaling the sheet is everything will measure correctly and coordinates space is coincident.
Thanks caddcop/DavidG. What you guys described as 1st alternative is what we do at the moment (it has good things as described in your response). We want to use a single size sheet (D size for instance) locked at the same location and annotate the drawings here. The text size will be the same regardless of the scale. It eliminates the need to scale the annotation texts/dimensions, etc. That is how drawings are annotated using PDS. PDS can obviously read the model coordinate from its database. How would you set the ACS from the ref file? I would like to try that if it works. thanks guys.
Yes, as mentioned by CadCop this is done by definining an ACS from the reference. To to that, open your sheet and ensure your references are attached correctly. Navigate to the Auxiliary Coordinates dialog and choose Define ACS (Aligned by Reference). Refer to the prompts and select the reference. Also, change the name from Unnamed to something of value.
To use this for labeling, open the Drawing Scale dialog, turn on the Lock Auxilary Coordinate System button and choose / set the active ACS. Finally, choose the Label Point tool and it will automatically use the ACS coordinates.
Also refer to the following: communities.bentley.com/.../measuring-a-scaled-reference.aspx
And: communities.bentley.com/.../label-coordinates-and-auxiliary-coordinate-systems.aspx
Answer Verified By: Gabriel Leal
Another option might be to associate the coordinate label to the object in the reference and use fields. I haven't tried this across reference files but is should work.
http://vimeo.com/39204607
I'm not familiar with PDS so I can't speak to why PDS would require a fixed size drawing in a fixed location. There are probably several solutions. Tough to say which may work best without more details.