Small Scale in Drafting and 2D Layout  

This section describes the differences in small scale in Interactive and Generative Drafting and 2D Layout for 3D Design.
  The impact of small scale in Interactive and Generative Drafting and 2D layout for 3D Design is mainly on the following:

  • Annotation

  • Printing

  • Generated view linked to 3D geometry or 2D representation

The main purpose of Drafting and 2D Layout is to annotate and print the drawings. Thus it is very important that the drafting view created in Small Scale is created with adequate scale to be annotated and printed.

The features that are supported by Small Scale are view generation, annotation, geometry, print as well as the prerequisite commands such as sheet creation, standard management, 2D component creation and instantiation and view manipulation.

The 3D models are designed in units like kilometers (km) or miles (ml) for length values. These units are set in the Tools > Options > General > Parameters and Measure, Units tab.

When performing an annotation process (the distance between dimension line and the geometry, font sizes of text etc.), the annotation parameters should be expressed in the sheet paper space. The length values of these annotation parameters should be such that they are readable in the sheet paper space.

These parameters' length value is set in Tools > Options > Mechanical Design > Drafting, General tab, Paper Unit field, select unit from Length drop down list. For more information, refer to General settings. All length values related to sheet paper space are displayed with this length unit. You can set the value in millimeter, centimeter or inch.
If the Paper Unit, Length is set to Inch, then all the relevant parameters are displayed in Inch.
You can see that the font size is set to Inch.

Similarly the manipulator parameters are also set to Inch.

The commands and dialog boxes which use the sheet paper space unit are:

  • Geometry
  • Dimension
  • Manipulators (in Tools > Options > Mechanical Design > Drafting)
  • Extension line dimension (in Properties tab)
  • Font sizes
  • Offset value orientation of dimension value (in Properties tab)
  • Line spacing and wrap of text (in Properties tab)
  • Line up command
  • Length of curvilinear standard (in Tools > Standards)
  • Dimension manipulators
  • Customization of sheet formats
  • Positioning command
  • Table row height and column width
  • Table split command
  • Pattern (in Properties tab)

More about Small Scale in Drafting and 2D Layout
  • Drawings with the same scale can be opened. A drawing with different scale cannot be opened in the same CATIA session.

  • The drawing should be properly scaled to fit the sheet paper size.

  • Modifying the sheet paper unit, will be taken into account, only after the you reopen the Tools > Options dialog box again after changing the settings.

  • If the scale is changed, you will have to restart CATIA session to take into account the new scale.

  • Generating views of different scale in the same session is not possible.

  • Approximate view generation is only supported.

  • When working with Small Scale, the annotation parameters (or sheet format definition parameters) may be shown in an irrelevant display format.

  • Only CATDrawings can be opened in Small Scale session. Other format files like dxf, ccd, dwg etc cannot be opened.

  • Similarly saving of CATDrawing in any other format like dxf, ccd, dwg etc. is not supported.

  • You cannot directly print the CATDrawing or 2D Layout.

  • You cannot create a 2D component from a catalog if the scale of current document is not equal to scale of CATDrawing or 2D Layout that contains the 2D component reference. An error message is displayed indicating this.

  • You cannot instantiate a 2D component from a catalog, if the model scale of the catalog CATDrawing or 2D Layout file is not same as the instantiated CATDrawing file.

  • Copy / Paste and related functions like Drag and Drop, Export 2D Component Structure, Generate view from FTA are not possible between files of different scales.

  • Opening, creation or activation of CATDrawing or 2D Layout for 3D Design will fail with error message if the current scale is not equal to already defined scale of CATDrawing or 2D Layout for 3D Design.

  • The hardware configuration of the system also affects the display.