What is ʼAnnotative Scaleʼ in BricsCAD?

Short Answer

Annotative Scale in BricsCAD lets text, dimensions, hatches, and blocks display at the correct plotted size across different viewport scales. The most common professional method is to enable annotative behavior on objects and manage scales with ANNOSCALE. Limitation: annotative objects can become cluttered if too many scales are attached.

What You Need to Know Before

Warning: Annotative objects may not appear in a viewport if their assigned annotation scales do not match the viewport scale. A very common failure is copying annotative content between drawings with different scale lists, which creates inconsistent display behavior.

How to Use Annotative Scale in BricsCAD

• Command: ANNOSCALE

• Shortcut: [no default alias commonly used]

• Quick Steps:

  1. On the Status Bar, click the Annotation Scale control, or run ANNOSCALE and choose the current annotation scale.
  2. Select text, dimensions, hatch, or a block, then in the Properties panel set Annotative = Yes if supported by that object type.
  3. In a layout viewport, set the viewport scale to match the needed annotation scale, then enable the proper scale representation for the object.

Variables & Settings

• System Variable: ANNOSCALE (Default: 1:1)

• Expert Setting: This sets the current annotation scale for new annotative objects and for adding scale representations during editing. If it does not match the viewport scale, annotative objects may appear too large, too small, or not display in that viewport.

Why it Fails

• Cause 1 (Geometry): The object is annotative, but the required annotation scale is not assigned to that specific object.
• Cause 2 (layers/Locks): The object is on a frozen, off, or locked layer in the viewport, so the scale looks wrong when the real issue is layer visibility.
• Cause 3 (Command/Logic): The viewport scale and current annotation scale do not match, so the annotative representation is not shown as expected.

Quick Fix & Best Practice

• Quick Fix: Set the correct ANNOSCALE value, then select the object and add the required annotation scale in Properties so it matches the viewport.
• Manager’s Verdict: Use annotative scaling for text and dimensions in multi-scale sheet sets. Avoid it in loosely controlled files where users mix manual scaling and annotative objects.

FAQ

Does Annotative Scale change model geometry?

No, it only controls the display size of supported annotation objects.

Why is my annotative text missing in one viewport?

Its assigned annotation scales likely do not include that viewport’s scale.

Should I use annotative dimensions in all projects?

Yes, if your team uses multiple viewport scales and follows a consistent standards setup.

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