Drawing to Scale
When you draw building floor plans or switchboard layouts, you need the dimensions in the drawing to match reality. That is what the scale is for.
How does the scale work?
The scale is the ratio of dimensions on paper to dimensions in reality. For example, a scale of 1 : 50 means that 1 cm on paper corresponds to 50 cm in reality. The width of an A4 sheet (27.7 cm) then holds 13.85 m.
Building drawings are usually drawn at a scale of 1:50.
| on paper1 | : | 50real object |
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Once the scale is set, you get three advantages:
- In the Properties panel you can enter real dimensions (e.g. 5.2 m)
- The scale is automatically shown in the title block
- The ruler shows real units
How to set the scale
Right-click in the drawing, choose Page settings from the menu and select the item Page Scale. In the dialog, choose one of the predefined values. For each value, the program shows the paper size in real units.
⚠️ Choose the scale so that the whole drawing fits on the paper. Changing the scale later is not advisable.
Entering real dimensions in the Properties panel
Enter dimensions in the format numeric value unit. The unit can be mm, cm, m or km. For example: 6 mm, 12.5 cm, 5.11 m, etc.
Scale in the title block
To show the scale in the title block, use the variable {_sc}. The title block standard8.ptb already contains the scale.
Ruler with real units
Once the scale is set, the ruler automatically shows real dimensions – so you can easily measure distances right on the screen.
💡 Pro tip: Think about the scale before you start drawing. If you are not sure, enter the dimension of the largest element into the drawing and check whether it fits on the paper.
