AutoCAD Electrical symbols insert at the wrong size or scale

Autodesk Support

Apr 4, 2025

Products and versions covered

Issue:

When adding symbols, wire numbers, or source/destinations arrows to the drawing in AutoCAD Electrical, they get inserted in the wrong size or scale. They are either too big or too small. 
This might also happen when:

  • Wire Number, wire related symbols such as Dot and Angled Tee markers are inserted.
  • Source or destination signal arrows are inserted.


 

Causes:

  • Project settings or the drawing Settings do not match leading to inconsistencies of drawing units.
  • The drawing was used with a different library standard (NFPA, IEC, JIC...etc.) before. Therefore existing symbols (blocks) are from a different library and have larger or smaller sizes. The block definition of the symbol is different than the symbol of the currently used standard.
  • The specified blocks are not scaled correctly for the current project: 
    • For example: working with an IEC (metric) project, but some of the project settings point to JIC block libraries. The symbols are inserted at the wrong scale by a factor of about 25.4x.
    • Using NFPA standards but the template for the drawings is in metric system (Millimeters), or using IEC standards, but the drawing is created from an imperial template (Inch).

    Solution:

    Follow these steps:

    1. Removing existing symbols of incorrect size

      1. Select the symbol
      2. From the Properties palette, note the name of the block
        1. Run QSELECT command > 
        2. Object type: Block 
        3. Properties: Name
        4. Operator: Equal
        5. Value: pick the name of the block from the list
        6. Click OK to select all the instances of the block
      3. Erase the selected symbols.
      4. Run PURGE command > purge the same block name from the drawing.
      5. Save the drawing file.

     

    1. Configure project and drawing settings to use the expected electrical library

      • Change the project properties if needed, and point it to the correct library folder (such as: NFPA, IEC60617 ..etc).

     

    1. Adjusting the scale of symbols when inserting them

      Try one or more of the following:
      • Working with custom symbol blocks, the block content might be created in a different scale than the scale/size expected for the current project.
      • Edit the block/symbol files, adjusting the content scale to fit your project requirement, and save them as new symbols.
      • Type in the correct scale for scaling the inserted component, in the appropriate field, as shown below. The scale will remain in that field until it is changed manually by the user.
        • component scaling
       
      • For panel footprint: on the footprint insertion dialog, check which factor is set for the current session: 
        • 220214 ADSK -[105513] -S.png
       
      • In the project properties (and in the drawing properties), check the scale multiplier. This will also affect the size of Dot Tee and Angled Tee markers.  
        • 220214 ADSK -[111655] -S.png


    Notes:

    • Check all the involved drawings for their Scale properties. 
    • In case of project drawings having incorrect drawing units, try to recreate the project based on one of the demo projects shipped with AutoCAD Electrical.
    • Check the drawing units used for your drawing:
      • a quick way to see what units are used is by typing -DWGUNITS (1 = Inch, 3 = Millimeter, 6 = Meter). 
      • For symbol blocks, open the original symbol as normal DWG file. Then check its drawing units.

    Products:

    AutoCAD Electrical;

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