Scales in Drawings

Scales in drawings apply to sheets or views. The scale for the active drawing sheet appears in the status line at the bottom of the window, and the scale for the active view appears in the view PropertyManager. You can also scale a drawing when you print it.

Setting Scales

To set scales:

  • To set the scale of an existing drawing sheet, do one of the following:
    • In the status bar click Sheet Scale and click a scale.

    • Right-click the sheet and select Properties, then edit the values of Scale.
  • To set the scale of a drawing view, do one of the following:
    • For existing drawing views, select a view or views, then set the Scale in the PropertyManager.
    • For new drawing views where the PropertyManager appears during view insertion (such as Model, Projected, Predefined, and so on), set the Scale in the PropertyManager.
The pre-set options in Use custom scale differ based on the dimensioning standard.

Autoscaling

Automatically scale new drawing views in the Drawings Options controls the scaling of new views as follows:
  • When selected, the SOLIDWORKS software automatically scales the views to best fit on the drawing sheet, and the scale of the drawing sheet becomes the same as the scale of the views.
  • When cleared, the views are inserted at the scale of the drawing sheet.
When you insert Projected Views, Auxiliary Views and Section Views, the scale is set to Use parent scale. If you change the scale of a parent view, the scale of all child views that use the parent scale is updated.

Scales in PropertyManagers

Use parent scale Applies the same scale used for the parent view. If you change the scale of a parent view, the scale of all child views that use the parent scale is updated.
Use sheet scale Applies the same scale used for the drawing sheet.
Use custom scale Applies a scale that you define. If you select User Defined, type a scale in the box below in the following format: x:x or x/x. Select Use model text scale to maintain the geometry used in the annotation views in parts.
The pre-set options in Use custom scale differ based on the dimensioning standard.