Good Question: Scale List Cleanup Utility

We’ve received many inquiries regarding a problem that was introduced in AutoCAD 2008, which causes excess scales in the drawing scale list. The problem was fixed in the AutoCAD 2008 service pack, but it did not fix drawings that were previously affected. Fortunately, the AutoCAD development team has released a utility to help you clean up the affected drawings.

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Description of Problem
When a file contains excess scales, performance may be negatively affected. Eventually, the file may become unusable. To use the file, some scales must be removed. This utility repairs affected files by removing excess scales.

NOTE: Nested external references (xrefs) may produce excess scales. To correct this problem, install AutoCAD 2008 Service Pack 1 or corresponding service packs for AutoCAD-based products. The Scale List Cleanup Utility repairs files affected before the necessary service pack was installed.

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Affected Products
AutoCAD® 2008-based products, including DWG TrueView™ 2008
AutoCAD 2009-based products, including DWG TrueView 2009

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Installation Instructions
To install the Scale List Cleanup Utility
You must have administrative privileges on your Microsoft® Windows® operating system to complete installation.

1. Based on your operating system (32-bit or 64-bit), download the appropriate self-extracting executable file.

2. Select a folder.

3. Extract files to the selected folder.

4. Navigate to the folder and copy CleanupScales.exe, CleanupScalesRes.dll, and CleanupScales.html to the installation directory of your AutoCAD-based product.

NOTE: To run this utility you must launch CleanupScales.exe from the installation directory of your AutoCAD-based product.

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Repair Affected Files
To repair affected files

1. Close all affected files. Open affected files will not be repaired.

2. Launch the Scale List Cleanup Utility from the installation folder of your AutoCAD-based product.

3. Under Files to Clean, select affected files.

4. If desired, select Maintain Visual Fidelity for Annotative Objects.

   NOTE: This option allows you to maintain visual fidelity for annotative objects when they are viewed in AutoCAD 2007 or earlier releases and corresponds to the SAVEFIDELITY system variable. Annotative objects may have multiple scale representations. When you select this option, annotative objects are decomposed and scale representations are saved (in an anonymous block) to separate layers, which are named based on their original layer and appended with a number.

5. Under New Scale List, in the drop-down list, select a scale list template.

   NOTE: Each scale list template contains a different scale list. When you run this utility, unused scales are deleted from files and the scale list from the selected template is applied.

6. If desired, change the scale list threshold.

   NOTE: The scale list threshold determines the minimum number of scales a file must contain in order to be repaired. The default scale list threshold is 50. Files that contain fewer scales than the scale list threshold will not be repaired. To change the scale list threshold, on the New scale list panel, enter a number in the Scale List Threshold field.

7. Click OK. Repaired files are saved in the same format last saved in.