I’m currently experiencing two issues with Layout, specifically with Scale Autotext:
Occasionally, for reasons I can’t discern, the Scale Autotext fails to display the viewport scale and instead shows a “Not To Scale” message. (Refer to the image below)
I’ve received feedback from one of my clients regarding issues with Layout-generated documentation, particularly concerning the annotation style. While most of these issues have been easily resolved, customizing the Scale Autotext from the “xx:xx” format to “xx/xx” has proven to be more challenging. Specifically, we aim to change from “1:50” to “1/50”. Is this customization possible?
Make sure the leader for the Scale label is attached to an edge in the model.
I think this needs to be a feature request as currently displaying the ratio as a fraction isn’t an option.
FWIW, until such time as the scale as a fraction feature is added, you could convert the Auto Text to normal text and edit the label to swap the colon for a slash. Presumably the scale won’t change after the viewport is set up on the sheet so the Auto Text thing won’t be needed. It also won’t change if the leader becomes disconnected from the model.
It’s still not working. I’ll leave my Layout file, and I’d be really grateful if you could assist me in understanding what we might be doing wrong.
The file exceeds 16MB, so I’ll be sharing it via a Dropbox link: Transfer - Dropbox
Alright! The absence of this feature isn’t a major issue; we can proceed with manual text in this case.
I only looked at one viewport so far. I found that after I added the 1mm:250mm scale as a Custom Scale in my list and attached the leade for the label to the model, the scale was displayed as expected. Do you have the 1:250 scale in your list of scales?
Good deal. I’m wondering how the viewports were showing the scale of 1:250 when I opened the file although it wasn’t in my list yet. Was this file made by someone else who had already added 1:250 to their scale list? If so, did the not-to-scale message only occur when you opened the LayOut file on your computer?
The file was produced using a template created on a machine where this scale was saved. However, I’m not seeing the “not-to-scale” message; it doesn’t appear when I open the file.
When you open the file on which machine? A machine that doesn’t have the 1:250 scale? That change to Not to scale might not occur until after the file is updated or saved on a machine without the scale in the list. It’s an odd thing although I can imagine that the scale is being read from the Scales list. Maybe @adam would have some input on this.
Maybe the thing for you to do in your office is get every LayOut user to add the 1:250 scale if they don’t already have it. And also consider the possibility of adding other custom scales that might be used in your projects.
When I open it on a machine that doesn’t have the custom scale. If I understand correctly, Layout should display a message indicating that I need to add that scale, correct?
Yes, it seems like a solution. Initially, I thought that these custom scales were linked to the file, not the machines. It’s good to know that is not the case. Knowing that will make our workflow better.
I think that would be handy but it doesn’t unless you interpret the Not to scale message that way.
Yes, the custom scales are stored in a file in a location under the user’s login on the device. This makes that scale available to any LO file, new or old, opened on the device but it doesn’t travel with the file if it is sent to another machine.
Ugh, it should not be necessary to add a custom scale in order for the appropriate scale to be shown with the auto-text. This is something we will look into cleaning up.
@DaveR The reason it initially showed up for you was that the file had cached the auto-text display string and was using that - once the label is told to refresh the display text, it would revert to the ‘not to scale’ string.
