Size Does Matter: Annotative Scale Feature

Isaac Harper Cadsoft Consulting

AU314-1

Do you hate dealing with different plot scales in the same drawing and having to remember the value
of something? For example, "text height" x "scale factor" for each scale? Even worse, how about having to change
the entire drawing to another scale halfway into the project, only to discover that none of the annotation is at the
correct scale? Well folks, I'm here to tell you that your problems are solved with the new Annotative Scale Feature in
AutoCAD! It will allow you to adjust all of your annotative objects including Text, Mtext, Dimensions, Hatches,
Tolerances, Multileaders, Leaders, Blocks, and Attributes with just a mere click of a button. You can even have
multiple scales in the same drawing without having to duplicate the content at different scales on separate layers. This
technique enables you to choose what you would like to see and at what scale.

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About the Speaker:

Isaac is an application engineer at CADsoft Consulting, Inc., supporting AutoCAD and architectural products from
Autodesk. He has worked for CADsoft Consulting, Inc. for over three years. Isaac has been an Autodesk Certified
Instructor and a Certified Technical Trainer for over 17 years at several colleges. He has received numerous awards
for his instruction abilities. Isaac has been using Autodesk products for over 20 years. He is also a certified drafter by
ADDA (American Design Drafting Association) in Architectural and Mechanical Drafting, and has worked for large
corporations such as Warner Brothers, and Columbia Pictures in the movie industry, along with Battaglia and
Associates in the theme park industry. Isaac has also worked as an independent contract designer/drafter in space
planning, T.I.s, new residential and light commercial.
Email: isaac.harper@cadsoft-consult.com

OVERVIEW: IN THE BEGINNING

Size Does Matter: Annotative Scale Feature

It has been my experience over the many years of instructing that the hardest thing to explain
to a new CAD user in the past was the term Scale Factor. Especially, since it is a procedure; and not
the name of an actual command. In fact, its was even easier to explain when the person you were
teaching had some manual drafting experience. At least then when you talked about using their
architectural or engineering triangular scale; you could see that if I was drawing a large object, like a
house; that while I may use the 1/4 = 1-0 to measure out all of the walls, doors and windows, when I
went to label the room I would have to flip the triangular scale over to actual size (1:1) to measure the
text height properly to a size like 3/16. And it was natural because it was virtually impossible to write
that small at the 1/4 scale. But today the manual drawing board is almost extinct and we have to refer
to those types of objects as the items that ALWAYS get plotted at the same size on the paper
regardless of the plot scale. And once we understood what those types of Annotative Objects were;
that was just the beginning. The next thing we had to do was determine the plot scale of the drawing,
which was determined by the size of the object Vs the paper size wanted to plot on. Once we found
a plot scale that would work; we would use that to determine the Scale Factor by calculating the
reciprocal of the plot scale. (Basically that means how many times the entire drawing gets reduced [or
increased] when it is plotted.) There are several ways to calculate the formula; a simple one to
remember is to cross-multiply the plot scale.
Here is how you find the scale factor for 1/4 = 1=0. First, you want to be comparing apples
with apples; so convert the feet to inches as shown below:

Next find the reciprocal by cross-multiplying,

48 is the scale factor.
One more example of 3/16 = 1=0 would be:

64 is the scale factor.

So now we know that at a plot scale of 1/4" = 1-0 the drawing will plot 48 times smaller. That means
Annotative Objects items like Text, Dimensions, and even certain Blocks and Hatch patterns that we
always plot the same size on the paper, needed to be scaled up 48 times to be the correct size after
plotting. So that meant the CAD user had to manually do this for all drawings that were not being
plotted 1:1 scale, and if the plot scale needed to be changed for some reason all of those items
needed to be rescaled in order to plot at the correctly at the new scale. If a drawing included multiple
scales like a detail sheet, it sometimes could be a nightmare to keep all of the scales, layers and
styles managed properly.

IN THE PRESENT
2

Size Does Matter: Annotative Scale Feature

AutoCAD now has its a built-in tool that will take out all of the hassle of having to manage all of
these different scales with its new Annotative Object feature introduced in 2008. In fact it will not only
allow us to control the annotation scale of an object, but whether it gets displayed or not at different
scales; the coordinate location of the annotative object on the drawing; and even the rotation of the
annotative object simply by picking a scale off of the Scale List. This eliminates a lot of manual
duplication and layering requirements that were needed in the past; and it even works using externally
reference drawings (Xrefs).
OBJECTIVES

Describe annotation scaling and the process of how to set it up for multiple scales in a new
drawing. (model space)
Describe how to use annotative scaling in viewports. (paper space)
Describe how to use annotative scaling through external references. (xrefs)
How to convert an old style existing drawing to use annotative scaling.
Explain how drawings that have annotative objects are saved and opened in legacy versions of
AutoCAD.
List each of the system variables and related commands that control annotative objects.
Show some Tricks to help Automate a custom environment.

ANNOTATIVE OBJECTS
Annotative scaling is a process in which annotative objects are automatically scaled based on the
scale of the view in which they are viewed. The following objects can be set to be annotative:

Dimensions
Text and Mtext
Leaders and Multileaders

Hatch patterns
Blocks
Attributes

CREATING ANNOTATIVE OBJECTS USING STYLES

Annotative Styles control how the annotative object will appear on your drawings. Some
annotative objects, such as Dimensions, Text and Multileaders are controlled through their
styles manager. And each of these object types created within that style inherit their properties
from the current style settings.

Note: Annotative Icon will display next to the name, and next to the cursor if hovering over an
annotative object. (A Double Icon displays if that object has more than one scale assigned to it.)

CREATING ANNOTATIVE OBJECTS FROM THE COMMANDS

Annotative objects can that are not controlled by a style manager (like Hatch, Blocks and
Attributes) are created during the command to create the object within the dialog box by
checking the Annotative option.

and
CHANGING NON-ANNOTATIVE OBJECTS TO BE ANNOTATIVE
Objects that were created non-annotative could be change to be annotative without recreating
the object. This can be done in several ways depending on the type of object.

Objects that are controlled by a style manager could simply be changed by changing it to an
annotative style; or all possible objects could be changed by an override just applying the
annotative option thru the Properties Palette.

- Or Now that we have talked about what an annotative object is and how you can make one; the
next thing that we will cover is how to assign the annotative scales and how to manage our
annotative objects. First lets take a look at the annotative scale list and its customization
capabilities. Then we will move into its automatic and display controlling feature buttons that
play a big part of understanding the management and behavior of annotative objects.

AUTOMATICALLY ADDING ANNOTATIVE SCALES TO OBJECTS

There are a few things that you need to keep a close eye on when applying an annotative scale
Automatically. This means that ALL Available Annotative objects (defined by the
ANNOAUTOSCALE system variable. See SYSTEM VARIABLES AND RELATED
COMMANDS at the end of this document.) will be assigned to have the new scale. (In fact this
is probably the main procedure of creating annotative objects that confuses most people.) First
lets take a look at the Annotative scale list. It is located on the status bar.

Tip: But remember that doing this way will only work if you have the Status Indicator button
Automatically Add scales to the annotative objects when the annotation scale changes button
set to ON in order to add the scales.
STATUS INDICATOR (AUTOMATIC SETTINGS) TOGGLE BUTTONS

Now the important part of adding a scale to the annotation is in the Status Indicators control
weather a scale is added to the object or not or if the object will be displayed in the current scale
or not. (This is also what trips up most people when learning to use annotative objects.) There
are two buttons next to the Annotative Scale button on the status bar that control these
Automatic Settings that you need to be familiar with. Both buttons toggle either ON or OFF
(Tip: if there is Yellow coloring in the Icon, its ON).
The Automatically Add scales to the annotative objects when the annotation scale changes
button (icon defined a scale and a lightning bolt). If ON, it adds the scale you choose to ALL of
the annotative objects. (Its Settings are defined by the ANNOAUTOSCALE system variable.) If
OFF, then you have to manually add the scales yourself. As shown in the manual steps above.
The Annotation Visibility button (icon defined a scale and a light bulb). When annotation
visibility is turned ON, ALL annotative objects are displayed. When annotation visibility is turned
OFF, only annotative objects for the current scale are displayed.

Note: When Annotation visibility is turned ON objects not supported by the current scale will
appear in the scale that they were created. So it may look strange but remember this is more of
a overall managing button; and in most cases is always turned off when set up properly before
printing. (See example below.)

MANUALLY ADDING/DELETING ANNOTATIVE SCALES TO OBJECTS

There are other ways to just control certain objects that you want to add additional scales to
without applying then to ALL the available Annotative objects to better fine tune only the
objects you need, or even delete scale that you dont want. You can accomplish this by
manually adding and deleting them several different ways.
When ONLY wanting to Add or Delete the current scale; the easiest way is to use the Annotation
Scaling panel on the Annotate Tab in the Ribbon menu. Just click the appropriate button, and
then select the objects. As a built-in added feature it also temporarily turns on the Annotative
Visibility button to display ALL Annotative objects for easier selection. Just in case it is not being

display because the object does not support that scale; and when the command is over, it will
return it back to the original state.

Using the Ribbon

Using the Right-click menu

Or you can Add or Delete the Current Scale is to select the object(s) then click the appropriate
button in the Right-click shortcut menu under Annotative Object Scale. Either way you can Add
or Delete the Current Scale on the Annotative Scale list.

Another common way of Adding or Deleting the ANY of the scales you desire (not just the
current scale) is to use the Annotative Object Scale dialog box. You can display the dialog box in
several different ways. The Add/Delete Scales button on the Ribbon menu; or same in the Rightclick menu, or inside the Properties Palette by clicking the ellipse button in the Annotative Scale
value field; or type the OBJECTSCALE command select your objects and [enter].

When the Annotation Object Scale dialog box is displayed you will see a list of all of the
annotative scales that object supports you can also very easily add and delete scales for that
annotative object(s) without having to use the Annotative Scale (list) button on the status bar.
If you choose to Add a scale it will display the Add Scales to Object dialog box and you can pick
any scale(s) form the list. To delete a scale(s) just highlight the scale you dont want and pick

the delete button. (You can use Shift key to highlight a range, or Ctrl to individually pick scales
for the list to add multiple scales all at once.)

CUSTOMIZING THE SCALE LIST

Now if you want to customize the scale list you can do so buy clicking the Scale List button on
the Annotative Scale panel on the Ribbon; or Right-Clicking the scale list on the status bar and
click customize or through the options dialog box under the User Preferences Tab, then click the
Edit Scale List button. Either way this will display the Edit Scale List dialog box. Here you can
add, remove, or rearrange any scale you want, or even Reset scale list button if you want to
return it to its original state.

Or Add your own

ANNOTATIVE OBJECTS DISPLAY ICON
Annotative objects display a special icon when you hover the mouse over them in a drawing. If
the annotative object only has one scale assigned to the object; it will display a Single Scale
icon. Objects that two or more scales assigned to it will display a Double Scale icon.

CHANGE AN ANNOTATIVE OBJECTS LOCATION AT DIFFERENT SCALES

Once you have created your Annotative object and added more than one scale you can change
the location of the object at the different scale representations. Simply select the annotative object

and use the grips to relocate the object to the desired location for that scale. If needed you can
sync the positions again, using the Sync Scale Positions button.

Before editing

After moving text up

Sync Scales Positions

Note: that you will see a display of all of the scales that are assigned to that object, but only the
current scale you are in will be modified.
USING ANNOTATIVE OBJECTS IN LAYOUTS
Once you have created your Annotative Objects in the Model Space and switch over to the
Layout Tabs, setting the appropriate scale of the Viewport(s) will display the proper settings in
the Model Space Viewport as intended.
First lets take a look at the Status Bar appearance in the Layout environment for the Annotative
features. When NO Viewports are active (Paper mode) the Status bar will NOT display the
Annotative Scale list button, because in theory, your layout or (Paper space) should always be
Actual Paper Size at a 1:1 scale and plotted that way.

Now with selected viewports (showing Grips) still in (Paper mode). The Status bar will display
the Annotative Scale list button, allowing you to change the scale of the Viewport(s) scale;
providing that the selected viewport(s) are NOT locked. You can Lock or Unlock a viewports
scale by using the Lock/Unlock Viewport button easily, or by using the Display Locked option in
the Right-click shortcut menu or in the Properties Palette.
Note: if only one viewport is selected (or multiple that all share the same scale) than the
Annotative Scale button will display that Viewport current scale. If multiple viewports are
selected that do NOT share the same scale; the Annotative Scale button will display VARIES.
Selecting a scale from the list at this point will change (or Zoom) all of selected viewports to the
same scale. If clicked inside a viewport (Model), then that Scale is displayed in the Annotative
scale list.

Tip: If your Viewport gets out of scale with the Annotative scale assigned; you can use the
Annotative scale is not equal to the viewport scale: Click to synchronize button.
Tip: Once you have set the Viewport Scale you should Display Lock it to keep from accidentally
changing the scale by an unwanted zoom in the viewport. But if you want to go a step further
Right-click the in an open area on the Status bar, (or use the Application Status Bar Menu
button next to the Clean Screen button) and remove the View Scale and/or Lock/Unlock
Viewport buttons all together. Just remember how to display them again when needed.
Using Annotative Objects through XREFS
When using XREFs in your drawing the Annotative objects will work the same way as if they
were in the current drawing in model and layout viewports under normal operation. However
there are a few things that can happen.
If the drawing that you are externally referencing into the current drawing does NOT share the
same scales from the Scale List, it will add the new scales in the current drawing for availability;
[i.e. Custom Scales Added to the drawing.] (Even if NONE of the Annotative objects are using
that scale.)
You can identify scales that have been externally referenced into the current drawing by the
appended _XREF tag noted after the Scale Name in the scale list. If you do not want to display
Scales that were Added by the XREF, you can suppress their display by using the Hide Xref
scales option located at the bottom of the scales list. Below is an example of the appearances
in different drawings and settings.

Appearance in XREF

XREF in Current DWG

Hides scales from XREF

Note: In the earlier versions of ACAD, There was a HUGE issue with XREFs adding ALL of its
scales (including duplicated scales) in to the current drawing for every XREF inserted. This has
been corrected with the release of service packs.
Tip: Even though you can change to any new scale you have in your list; if you wish to remove
scales from the annotative objects in the externally reference drawing you will need to open the
original file and fix it, or by using the REFEDIT command.

Match text layout to layout views (in text Style manager)

In the Text Style Manager the option Match text orientation to layout allows the text to rotate on
an orbit axis to realign to a normal reading direction, regardless of the viewport viewing
direction.

Here is an example shown with two viewports displaying the same object from different
viewpoints:

Tip: The Room Titles have been move up in the Z direction so that they are easier to display in
the isometric so that they would not be hidden by the walls in the rotated view.
Note: Only the Text objects are rotated in the view and NOT the Dimension text; even if the
dimension style is using the same text settings; it is not supported.

Creating Visual Fidelity for Annotative Objects for Legacy Drawing File Formats
When working with annotative objects, Set the system variable SAVEFIDELITY to 1 when you
save a drawing to a legacy file format. This preserves the visual fidelity of the drawing when it is
opened in a release earlier than AutoCAD 2008 by saving individual representations of each
scale of each annotative object. The individual objects are saved to layers that are used to
organize objects of the same scale. Setting SAVEFIDELITY to 0, when opening the drawing in
AutoCAD 2008 or later release, results in improved performance.
If you work primarily in model space, it is recommended that you turn off visual fidelity (set
SAVEFIDELITY to 0). However, if you need to exchange drawings with other users, and layout
fidelity is most important, then visual fidelity should be turned on (set SAVEFIDELITY to 1).
Note: The SAVEFIDELITY system variable does not effect saving a drawing to the AutoCAD
2010 drawing or DXF file formats.
Annotative objects may have multiple scale representations. When visual fidelity is on,
annotative objects are decomposed and scale representations are saved (in an anonymous

block) to separate layers, which are named based on their original layer and appended with a
number. If you explode the block in AutoCAD 2007 or earlier releases, and then open the
drawing in AutoCAD 2008 or later releases, each scale representation becomes a separate
annotative object, each with one annotation scale. It is not recommended that you edit or create
objects on these layers when working with a drawing created in AutoCAD 2008 and later
releases in AutoCAD 2007 and earlier releases.
When this option is not selected, a single model space representation is displayed on the Model
tab. More annotation objects may be displayed on the Model tab depending on the
ANNOALLVISIBLE setting. Also, more objects may be displayed in paper space viewports at
different sizes than in AutoCAD 2008 and later releases.

Tips and Tricks:

Objects that can perform like they are annotative
Tables: Are not Annotative, which I think surprised a lot of people, but if you block the table
afterwards, just make the block annotative.
Linetypes: Normally linetypes are not considered to be Annotative, but if you make sure that
the MSLTSCALE is set to a value of 1 they can act like they are annotative by simply changing
the Annotative Scale on the Scale list
Fields: Are not Annotative by its self using the field command, but if insert the field into a Text
object like Dtext or Mtext they will be Annotative.
History Lesson: Similar Dimension Feature (Old School, Before Annotative Scaling)
Scale dimensions to layout works like the Annotative scale feature in the dimension Style
Manager but the dimensions must be manually Updated each time the scale of the viewport
changes. So it is always better to use the Annotative option.

Conclusion
Now that you know the in and outs of Annotative Scaling. As you can see they are very
powerful and time saving once you get the hang of them. Today we covered how they are
defined, how to create them from new and existing content, how to manage their scales,
displays, locations and lots of other useful tricks that go along with using annotative objects.
They do take a little bit of practice to prefect them, and they may still have a few quirks;
Autodesk as released several service packs to address them over the last few years. But when
you factor in the alterative way of manually having to add and manipulate all of your content
the old way that you have been doing for years How can you not want to start taking
advantage of this long awaited feature!

REFERENCE MATERIALS:
SYSTEM VARIABLES AND RELATED COMMANDS

ANNOALLVISIBLE
Type:

Integer

Saved in:

Drawing

Initial value: 1
Function:

Hides or displays annotative objects that do not support the current annotation
scale.

Settings:

0 = Only annotative objects that support the current annotative scale are
displayed.
1 = All annotative objects are displayed.

The ANNOALLVISIBLE setting is saved individually for model space and each layout.
NOTE: When ANNOALLVISIBLE is set to 1, annotative objects that support more than one
scale will only display one scale representation.

ANNOAUTOSCALE
Type:

Integer

Saved in:

Registry

Initial value: -4
Function:

Updates annotative objects to support the annotation scale when the annotation
scale is changed.

Settings:

1 = Adds the newly set annotation scale to annotative objects that support the
current scale except for those on layers that are turned off, frozen, locked or
that are set to Viewport > Freeze.
-1 = ANNOAUTOSCALE is turned off, but when turned back on is set to 1.
2 = Adds the newly set annotation scale to annotative objects that support the
current scale except for those on layers that are turned off, frozen, or that are
set to Viewport > Freeze.
-2 = ANNOAUTOSCALE is turned off, but when turned back on is set to 2.
3 = Adds the newly set annotation scale to annotative objects that support the
current scale except for those on layers that are locked.
-3 = ANNOAUTOSCALE is turned off, but when turned back on is set to 3.
4 = Adds the newly set annotation scale to all annotative objects that support the
current scale.
-4 = ANNOAUTOSCALE is turned off, but when turned back on is set to 4.

NOTE: When the value is negative, the autoscale functionality is turned off, but the settings are
maintained:

ANNOTATIVEDWG
Type:

Integer

Saved in:

Drawing

Initial value: 1
Function:

Specifies whether or not the drawing will behave as an annotative block when
inserted into another drawing.

Settings:

0 = Nonannotative
1 = Annotative

NOTE: The ANNOTATIVEDWG system variable becomes read-only if the drawing contains
annotative objects.

ANNORESET
Type:

Command
Button

Ribbon: Annotate tab

Annotation Scaling panel
the ribbon in the current workspace
Menu: Modify

Annotative Object Scale

Command entry: annoreset

Sync Scale Positions Not available on

Synchronize Multiple-scale Positions

Function:

The location of each scale representation of an annotative object can be adjusted

using grips. For each selected annotative object, all alternate scale
representations are returned to the location of the objects current scale
representation.

ANNOUPDATE
Type:

Command

Command entry: annoupdate

Updates existing annotative objects to match the current properties of their
styles.
NOTE: When a non-annotative text object is updated to an annotative text style, the object
becomes annotative and supports the current annotative scale. If the text style has a fixed
Paper Height, the object is set to that height. If the text styles Paper Height is set to 0, the size
of the text does not change. The Paper Height value is inferred by dividing the model height by
the current annotation scale.
If an annotative object is updated to a non-annotative style, the object becomes non-annotative
and any alternate scale representations are removed.

CANNOSCALE
Type:

String

Saved in:

Drawing

Initial value: 1:1

Function:

Sets the name of the current annotation scale for the current space.

NOTE: You can only enter a named scale that exists in the drawings named scale list.

CANNOSCALEVALUE
(Read-only)
Type:

Real

Saved in:

Drawing

Initial value: 1.0000

Function:

Returns the value of the current annotation scale.

NOTE: Returns as the inverted scale factor (example if the scale is 1:5 returns value of 0.2; if
the scale is set to 1:10 the value is returned as 0.1 and so on.)
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