Each floating viewport contains a view of model space that you scale relative to your drawing sheet in paper space. In addition to setting the scale for each view, you also scale noncontinuous linetypes (linetypes with dashes) relative to your drawing sheet.
The views in each viewport must be scaled to the same relative unit of measurement - paper space units.
For example, the illustration shows a paper space layout with several viewports, each set to a different scale and view.
When you work in paper space, the scale factor represents a ratio between the size of the plotted drawing and the actual size of the model displayed in the viewports. Paper space is based on the size of the paper you specify; therefore, you generally use a one-to-one scale when you plot from paper space. To derive this scale, divide paper space units by model space units. For example, to plot your drawing at one fourth of the model space units, you specify a scale factor of one paper space unit to four model space units (1:4).
To scale views relative to paper space units, use the XP option of ZOOM. Unlike other ZOOM options, the scale factor you enter with xp is relative to the current paper space scale. As shown in the illustrations, if you enter a scale of 2xp, the scale in the viewport increases to twice the size of the paper space units. A scale of .5xp sets the scale to half the size of the paper space units, so the model is plotted at half its actual size.
If you need to edit your model, switch to tiled viewports by turning on Tile mode. Then, when you edit your drawing, you won't reset established scales if you zoom into or out of the model space views.
If you want to magnify part of your drawing without affecting the scale setting of a floating viewport, make sure you are in paper space before starting ZOOM.
When you scale views in floating viewports, you sometimes create inconsistency in the appearance of dashed or dotted lines. For example, the line spacing in a dashed line is wider at a one-to-one scale than it is at a one-fourth scale. In paper space, you can base the linetype scale on one of the following:
The drawing units of the space in which the object was created (model or paper)
With the PSLTSCALE system variable turned on, you can maintain the same linetype scaling for objects displayed at different zoom scales in different floating viewports. With PSLTSCALE turned on, you can still control the dash lengths with LTSCALE and CELTSCALE. In the following illustration, the pattern of the linetypes in the drawing on the left has been scaled to be the same regardless of the scale of the view. In the drawing on the right, the scale of the linetypes matches the scale of each view.
See Also
Working with Linetypes