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LTSCALE in AutoCAD: linetype scale

How AutoCAD's LTSCALE (LTS) sets the linetype scale for the whole drawing, so a dashed line shows its dashes at any size. Try it free in your browser.

LTSCALE sets the global linetype scale factor: how long the dashes and gaps of every dashed linetype are in the drawing. It asks for the new factor, offering the current one, 1.0000 in a new drawing: 2 makes every dash twice as long, 0.5 half as long. The factor must be more than 0, otherwise it says Value must be positive and nonzero. and asks again, and 1/2 and 1e3 are read as numbers. A change redraws the whole drawing, Regenerating model. as AutoCAD 2027 says it, and is saved with the drawing; it is a step that U takes back. Typed with an apostrophe inside a command, 'LTSCALE, the drawing is redrawn when that command ends.

Linetypes are patterns made for a drawing of the paper's size: in a drawing 4 metres across, in millimetres, CENTER's pattern, about 51 units long, repeats some 80 times across it, too fine to see, and a line shorter than one pattern is drawn solid. The scale to use is usually the drawing's own: 20 for a drawing to be read at 1:20, 50 at 1:50.

At the command line

The engine draws it and writes its history as you would type it: the prompts in AutoCAD 2027's order, with the same option letters.

A plate 4 metres long, its hole drawn with HIDDEN and its axes with CENTER, at the default linetype scale of 1: the dashes too fine to see.
A plate 4 metres long, its hole drawn with HIDDEN and its axes with CENTER, at the default linetype scale of 1: the dashes too fine to see.
The same plate after LTSCALE 20: the dashes of the hole and the axes drawn 20 times longer.
  1. Command: LTSCALE
  2. Enter new linetype scale factor <1.0000>: 20
  3. Regenerating model.
The same plate after LTSCALE 20: the dashes of the hole and the axes drawn 20 times longer.

What it does not do yet

A linetype scale for each object (CELTSCALE, the Properties palette's Linetype scale): only the drawing's. The Linetype Manager, whose Global scale factor is LTSCALE. PSLTSCALE and MSLTSCALE, as there is no paper space. Linetypes other than Continuous, DASHED, HIDDEN, CENTER, PHANTOM and DASHDOT.

What it does and still lacks, in detail (in English)

Questions

What is the shortcut for LTSCALE in AutoCAD?

LTS, then Enter or Space. The full name works too, and _LTSCALE in any language of AutoCAD.

Why does my dashed line show as a solid line?

Its pattern does not fit the drawing at the current scale. A line shorter than one repeat of its pattern is drawn solid; a long one at a small scale packs its dashes so close that it looks solid. Raise LTSCALE for a large drawing, lower it for a small one, until the dashes show.

What LTSCALE should I use?

The drawing's scale: in a drawing of millimetres to be read at 1:50, 50. For a drawing of the paper's size, 1.

What is the difference between LTSCALE and the linetype itself?

The linetype, set with LINETYPE or the layer, is the pattern: dashes, dots and gaps. LTSCALE is how long that pattern is drawn, the same factor for every object in the drawing.

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