ACA: Assigning Display Configurations to Drawing Scales (or Not)

If you have experienced having the way your Walls and Doors (and other AEC objects) display change when selecting a different drawing scale, the most likely reason is that you have Display Configurations assigned to one or more drawing scales. When you select a drawing scale with an assigned Display Configuration, the assigned Display Configuration is set current. Depending on what Display Configuration was previously current, the change may be subtle (out-of-the-box Medium Detail to out-of-the-box High Detail, for example) or dramatic (out-of-the-box Reflected Screened to out-of-the-box Low Detail - where did my ceiling grids go?).

If you are using the out-of-the-box template files (or template files that are based on those), then you will have the following Display Configurations assigned:

• Low Detail: 1:200 (metric) or 3/32" = 1'-0" (imperial) or smaller scales.
• Medium Detail: 1:150 (metric) or 1/8" = 1'-0" (imperial) through 1:25 (metric) or 3/8" = 1'-0" (imperial), inclusive.
• High Detail: 1:20 (metric) or 1/2" = 1'-0" (imperial) or larger scales.

(The above is based on content distributed in the United States. Localized content in other areas may have different settings in the out-of-the-box templates.)

After choosing the scale, you can then change the Display Configuration (back to what it was, or to some other Display Configuration), but you probably do not want to have to do that on a regular basis. So, how can you edit the Display Configuration assigned to a specific scale, or disable this feature? Use the AECDWGSETUP command to open the Drawing Setup dialog and select the Scale tab, if it is not current. (Or, go straight to the Scale tab of that dialog with the AECDWGSCALESETUP command.)

Select a scale in the Scale list box at the upper left of the Scale tab. The Display Configuration drop-down list just below the Scale list box will show the Display Configuration assigned to that scale. Select the Display Configurations drop-down list to see a list of available Display Configurations in the current drawing and, if desired, choose a different Display Configuration or select *None* to not have the Display Configuration change when selecting that scale.

Do that for each scale where you desire to make a change. Note that this will only affect that particular drawing. If you want to make changes that affect all future drawings, then make these changes in your template file(s).

We set them all to *None*, to avoid confusing casual users. If you find the feature useful, you could set up multiple templates, one for each drawing type (floor plan, reflected ceiling plan, etc.) to avoid having to reset the Display Configuration when changing the scale in a non-floor plan file. We have customized the Display System and use one Display Configuration for most contract document floor plans, so there was insufficient benefit to us to make using this feature desirable.