I have been sending AutoCAD drawings that have been converted from my Terramodel files for years. There have been very few problems or questions. An architect is using my very detailed 30 scale topo of about 40 acres. Today I was asked about providing the drawing at 1 to 1 scale. It seems the architectural firm scales things up and down for different departments and accuracy is vanishing in their conversions. I suggested it may be a setting in their scaling; that they may need more precision, but not being an AutoCAD person, that is just a guess. I am a loss. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.
Ken
I don't use Terramodel but in Autocad everything should be drawn at 1:1 anyway. If anybody is scaling your drawing they should at least scale from base point 0,0,0.
The ideal way to scale a drawing form say meters to mm in Autocad is to set your target drawing to the desired final units(mm) then set your survey drawing to the units you have used on your survey (m). Then xref and bind in your survey to the target drawing and it will automatically scale to mm preserving the grid co-ordinates (x1000).
What are you supplying to the client at present, is it a dwg file?
Totalsurv, post: 402687, member: 8202 wrote: I don't use Terramodel but in Autocad everything should be drawn at 1:1 anyway. If anybody is scaling your drawing they should at least scale from base point 0,0,0.
The ideal way to scale a drawing form say meters to mm in Autocad is to set your target drawing to the desired final units(mm) then set your survey drawing to the units you have used on your survey (m). Then xref and bind in your survey to the target drawing and it will automatically scale to mm preserving the grid co-ordinates (x1000).
What are you supplying to the client at present, is it a dwg file?
Yes, they get a DWG file, no view ports or external anything. The data is real world scale, but it is presented at some scale, this one is 1 inch = 30 feet.
thanks
Ken
I see this happen all the time. The problem here is the architect does not know how to scale the drawing between units properly while also preserving the grid in some form. You could either suggest that they scale as per the second suggestion above or you could do it for them. Either way this is their problem really as nearly every surveyor presents the drawing as you are.
The scale is only for the size of the symbols, text, etc. It doesn't affect the features shown in the drawing. It sounds like one guy is scaling 0.08; another guy 0.0833333333. If your drawing is state plane, that can have an effect on the resulting drawings. Significant figures are important.
Lets say your northing is 100,000.
Scale 0.08 x 100,000 = 8000.000
Scale 0.083333333 x 100,000 = 8333.333
If I had to guess, the artichoke is looking for the drawing to be scaled to inches. I can not recall the last time I got a drawing back from one that was not scaled up by 12. For the life of me I can not figure out why AutoCAD does not deal with like Microstation or any survey application. They should be able to display results in the requested units without the need to physically scale the file.
We use both Terramodel and Autocad in our office. The recent versions of AutoCad (15-17) seem to occasionally import the dwg file created by TM in inches despite the TM file being 1:1. This is an AutoCad issue and not a TM issue. The Artichoke needs to be instructed in scaling the project as reported above by others.
It really doesn't matter a lot as he will probably rotate the base data to look good on his sheet layout, move it all some random distance and direction, modify the elevation to be 100 feet at finish floor, design a floor plan that does not close and then send it back to you for staking in inches!
John Putnam, post: 402835, member: 1188 wrote: If I had to guess, the artichoke is looking for the drawing to be scaled to inches. I can not recall the last time I got a drawing back from one that was not scaled up by 12. For the life of me I can not figure out why AutoCAD does not deal with like Microstation or any survey application. They should be able to display results in the requested units without the need to physically scale the file.
I have had it happen (rarely) where all the settings in both drawings were correct and I brought inches into a feet drawing and it automatically scaled it. I was surprised that it worked, and it's only happened a couple times. I'm not even certain of what the settings are that control that, but I remember seeing that result before. If only everyone knew how to use CAD properly....(myself included to some extent)
KScott, post: 402899, member: 1455 wrote: We use both Terramodel and Autocad in our office. The recent versions of AutoCad (15-17) seem to occasionally import the dwg file created by TM in inches despite the TM file being 1:1. This is an AutoCad issue and not a TM issue. The Artichoke needs to be instructed in scaling the project as reported above by others.
It really doesn't matter a lot as he will probably rotate the base data to look good on his sheet layout, move it all some random distance and direction, modify the elevation to be 100 feet at finish floor, design a floor plan that does not close and then send it back to you for staking in inches!
The recent versions of AutoCad (15-17) seem to occasionally import the dwg file created by TM in inches despite the TM file being 1:1.
I have had this issue also - thought I was losing my mind...
Thanks for the comments.
Ken
It is a shame Trimble killed Terramodel. Terramodel made the best contours ever. I had to retire Terramodel when I couldn't get it to run on my Windows 7 computer. Now I use Carlson Survey and am pretty satisfied with the speed and quality of my contouring. Carlson has some 3D and surface routines that are fantastic. At first I though I would have to keep an old XP machine around just to run Terramodel, but as it has turned out I now prefer to use Carlson Suevey.
I recently took a position with a firm as the survey manager, and they had been, and still use, a version of Terramodel for some projects, and design. I am transitioning the survey department over to Carlson Survey and Carlson GIS. The techs are liking it, and even though one has a long history with Terramodel, he is slowly learning the Carlson software. He seems to like it, but it will take him a long time to transition.
Gary, I hate you had trouble getting Terremodel to run on Windows 7. Our company has Terramodel running on (7) Windows 10 machines. You are correct though, Carlson Survey is pretty slick.
Back to the original post
Export as a dxf at 1:1
Haven't seen Autocad open that wrong ( yet )
