Overview

Now it's time to tackle the most complex aspect of Paper Space Dimensioning! There are two schools of thought on dimensions as they relate to Paper Space layouts: one school believes the dimensions should be placed in Model Space; the other believes the dimensions belong in Paper Space. (One year at Autodesk University, I had two Paper Space instructors: Shane Bartley of Disney, who was adamant that dimensions belonged in Paper Space, and Dave Espinosa-Aguilar of Toxic Frog Multimedia, who absolutely believed they belonged in Model Space.) Both choices have their pros and cons.

So who is right? I'm not about to tell you that one way rules supreme over the other, but I am prepared to share with you the pros and cons of both so you can decide what works best for you.

I'll look at the basics from the 10,000-foot level. If you use AutoCAD 2000i or before and you place your dimensions in Paper Space, it's very easy to ensure you're getting the proper text height, arrow size, and so on. Simply set the dimension variables to reflect the actual output value. However, when you dimension the Model Space objects from Paper Space, you immediately see that you don't get the proper dimension text value. You have two options here override the dimension text and key in the proper value (lots of work and bad CAD manners) or change the dimlfac (linear scale factor) to reflect the scale factor of the viewport.