scale drawings

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

Is there a way to set scales in Illustrator CS like there is in CorelDraw?

Engineering scales such as 1:10 - 1:20, et cetera - and/or - Architectural
scales such as 1/4" = 1' -0", et cetera.

And then...if there is, will the Transform data read out in Feet and Inches
for Architectural scales?

[B. Philippus]

write an action to do this.

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

> write an action to do this.

Uh...Ok. If only I new what steps were involved in order to create such an
action. Then, of course, I'll have to figure out how to write actions.

[Philip_Peterson@adobeforums.com]

Open the action pallet. Click on the 'creation new action" button. That basically starts a "recorder" going. Go through the steps you need. Press the stop recroding button.

[B. Philippus]

Uh...Ok. If only I new what steps were involved in order to create such
an action. Then, of course, I'll have to figure out how to write actions.





There's this fantastic tool, that Adobe has used to great advantage to inform the chosen few, called a "Manual". The manual for Illustrator actually includes a how-to for Actions.

[Nasty comment about switching to using MS Paint removed by Poster]

Bert

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

> There's this fantastic tool, that Adobe has used to great advantage to
inform the chosen few, called a "Manual".

Yes, quite true. And there's another fantastic tool wherein kind &
knowledgeable people come together to to be helpful. You may be the latter,
but perhaps not the former.

Why not answer every post with this comment, Bert? Maybe everybody should
just RTFM and never asks questions in this forum.

Bert, you seem to have overlooked the fact that I didn't ask for further
instructions, but merely stated that I would have to begin finding out about
such things as actions and what steps were required to do what I asked about
in the first place. Hey...maybe that meant checking out the manual and not
mining this valuable resource first.

> [Nasty comment about about Bert's newsgroup personality deleted by Poster

even though Bert's claim to have deleted his nasty comment was, in fact, not
true. Clever? Perhaps - but false.]

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Hey...maybe that meant checking out the manual and not mining this valuable
resource first.





Yes.

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

> Hey...maybe that meant checking out the manual and not mining this
valuable

> resource first.

I understand that's what was meant. I didn't realize there was some sort of
rule that one had to state all the research one had done in the manual
before was was permitted to ask a question in this forum.

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

RRose,

Take a look at:

[url]http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.eed5198.2cd0728e[/url]

[B. Philippus]

rrose:

I lose my patience around lazy users who don't do their own research. Illustrator is a PROFESSIONAL application, for crying out loud. I lose my temper on behalf of all the helpful, nice users who are too civilized and/or polite and/or smart to do so.

I didn't realize there was some sort of rule that one had to state all
the research one had done in the manual before was was permitted to ask
a question in this forum.




Maybe there should be. I'm all for it. I'll put it in the Feature Requests. A special form, just to make sure YOU'VE done YOUR homework before getting snotty with everybody.

Bert

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

> A special form, just to make sure YOU'VE done YOUR homework before getting
snotty with everybody.

You've all assumed I've done nothing but leap to asking the question without
trying to acquire information on my own previously. It's a curious
assumption, based upon nothing but that...assumption. And for the record,
Bert, it is you who launch the snottiness, not I.

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

<LenHewitt@adobeforums.com> wrote


Thanks Len. As an NNTP user I've never seen that page.

[B. Philippus]

You've all assumed I've done nothing but leap to asking the question without
trying to acquire information on my own previously. It's a curious
assumption, based upon nothing but that...





....your reply to my initial response made that clear.

NeenerNeener.

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

> NeenerNeener.

How adult. So this is the level of rhetoric from PROFESSIONALS, eh?

[James_E._Talmage@adobeforums.com]

"Is there a way to set scales in Illustrator CS like there is in CorelDraw?"

No. AI offers a few choices of ruler units, but does not have a custom scale feature. One of my (and hopefully many others') long-desired feature requests.

"And then...if there is, will the Transform data read out in Feet and Inches for Architectural scales?"

Even if you used Actions to create for yourself, say, a set of scaling buttons as a workaround, I don't know of any way you could make it cause the value fields of palettes and such to reflect your scaling (show full scale values while drawing to your custom scale).

You might look into a plug-in package called Hot Doors Cad Tools which (among other things) sort of adds its own customizable rulers "on top of" AI's built-in one.

JET

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

James,

Thanks so much for opening a new thread to provide this information as it
substantiates my own findings which I posted in the "original" thread and
was derided for with the "Neener Neener ... Whatever. Actions work. Go
study."

I'll take a look at your Hot Doors suggestion.

[James_Talmage@adobeforums.com]

rrose,

Just so you understand, my mention of the plug-in unfortunately cannot come with a hearty recommendation. No reflection on its authors, but such an approach is a rather clunky (and in my experience, somewhat buggy) workaround.

Well-integrated custom drawing scales should be standard fare for any program claiming to be for "professional" illustration. I personally would not want to build workaday dependency upon a 3rd party add-on for functions like that. If drawing to scale and/or technical drawing is more than an occasional part of your work, I'd recommend your using a different program. FreeHand, Canvas, and CorelDraw all support custom ruler scales, and all offer competitive side-grade offers which can cost as little or less than an AI plug-in package, and you get alot more stuff to boot.

Contrary to some overly defensive opinions here, there is no law stating that an illustrator has to use ONLY AI in his/her work to be just as "real" an AI user as they.

But of course, take a look at the CAD Tools plug in and see if you think it will work for you. I think they have a downloadable demo version. Look especially for a download of the users manual. A little "reading between the lines" may reveal some of its practical limitations.

JET

[Rick Moore]

I have CADtools but haven't upgraded to the new version for CS because it's
just not worth the money, for the little that I would use it for. $149
upgrade price is way too steep for a $249 plugin. I have AutoCAD for
drafting purposes, but if I was an Illustrator without a CAD package and had
to produce dimensioned drawings, this plugin makes it much easier than with
stock AI.

--


Rick Moore
Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
[url]www.bgkarchitects.com[/url]

[Rick Moore]

As for scaled drawings, CS has finally added "scale by" in the DXF/DWG
import dialog, but it requires doing the math by hand. It would be great if
there was "scale to" option with common Architectural and Civil scales to
choose from. That shouldn't be very hard to code into the program, one would
think.

--


Rick Moore
Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
[url]www.bgkarchitects.com[/url]

[rrose_selavy@adobeforums.com]

Thanks, James and Rick.