Xref insertion units

Arno Van Eeuwen
Arno Van Eeuwen
in 2D Drafting
Hello all,

I'm inserting Xrefs into my drawing using COM and/or BRXNet but I get confusing results regarding scaling.
Can anybody give a small explanation (or point one out for me) on:
ScaleX, ScaleY, ScaleZ, BlockUnit, Unit Factor, InsUnits , Insertin Units Default source/target and the fact that the attached drawing might be created from a mm.dwt (millimeters) while the main drawing is created from a m.dwt (meters) 
Eventhough I specify XYZ scale factors 1,1,1 I get ScaleX = 0.001 etc. for the insert for example.

I realize people tend to grab what ever template to work from (mm, inch, m etc) , they all mean to enter World Coordinates (e.g. UTM meters) in Modelspace.

How do I get the Xref to scale the way I want ( = ignore intelligent scaling)?

Highly confusing.

TIA,
Arno van Eeuwen

Comments

  • Louis_Verdonck
    Louis_Verdonck
    Hi Arno
    To insert an Xref at the correct scale, both the inserted drawing and the parent drawing need their INSUNITS setting to be defined correctly. Please read the topic 'Inserting Blocks' in the Bricscad Help under User Guide / Blocks, Attributes and External References. As a matter of fact inserting external blocks and inserting xrefs use the same procedure to calculate the correct scaling factor.
  • Arno Van Eeuwen
    Arno Van Eeuwen

    Hi Louis,

    there is a different behaviour between attaching Xrefs manually or by (in this case) BRXNET:

    I have a drawing showing a harbour outline, but its INSUNITS = 4 = mm, saved on disc: harbour.dwg.

    I open a meter.dwt so this one has INSUNITS = 6 = meters.

    After manually Xref-ing the harbour with scales 1,1,1 @ (0,0)  , the xref appears but shrunk by a factor 1000 as expected. The proprty grid shows scales 1,1,1.

    If I attach the same drawing by BRXNET, BlockReference.Scalefactors = new Scale3d(1,1,1) then the Xref appears at true size ('unshrunk') but the scales in the property grid are 1000, 1000, 1000.

    That's my confusion....

    Arno van Eeuwen

  • Arno Van Eeuwen
    Arno Van Eeuwen
    Ok, for those interested:

    after a few emails with Bricscad Support we came to a solution, I think its worth sharing.
    The C# code below is just a snippet, I hope it explains enough.

    The solution is: weather you add an external DWG to the blocktable as block or xref, always read it into a temporary dataBase and obtain the INSUNITS.
    Store the INSUNITS in the blocktablerecord.
    Upon insertion of the block the scaling vector can be adjusted.

    On with the dotNet quest....

    Arno

    //loading the DWG

    BlockTable blockTable = (BlockTable)trans.GetObject(doc.Database.BlockTableId, OpenMode.ForRead); 

    if (!blockTable.Has(blockName)) 
    { 
    using (Database tempDb = new Database(false, true)) 
    { 
    tempDb.ReadDwgFile(dwgFileName, FileShare.Read, true, string.Empty); 
    if (!asXref) 
      id = doc.Database.Insert(blockName, tempDb, false); //load the DWG as block
    else 
      id = doc.Database.AttachXref(dwgFileName, blockName); // create Xreference 

    BlockTableRecord rec = trans.GetObject(id, OpenMode.ForWrite) as BlockTableRecord;
    rec.Units = tempDb.Insunits;                        //<< here we store the INSUNITS from the DWG in the blocktablerecord</span>
    rec.DowngradeOpen(); 
    }  

    //while inserting the blockreference

    BlockReference blockReference = new BlockReference(insPnt, blockTable[blockName]); 
    layoutBlock.AppendEntity(blockReference); 
    trans.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(blockReference, true); 
    blockReference.ScaleFactors = scale3d * blockReference.UnitFactor; //<< here we can adjust the scale for the units of the block</span>


    On with the dotNet quest.....


    Arno van Eeuwen




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