Scaling Small Architecture

[Hotshot]

If you draw an 2D-office layout in architecture with the wall dimensions, doors, etc...How can you scale it when it is time to print.

(Example: A 20 ft. X 40 ft. office.) How do you scale it to fit on a 8 1/2"X 11" or 11"X17" or 24"X36" so that any person with a scaled ruler could read the prints. such as 1 inch= 5 feet scale?

I'm having difficulty with the smaller drawings, but when I do large drawings for office park layouts with multiple buildings and landscapes, the scale comes out fine.

Any input would be great.

[pennylove]

Depends on what you want it to do. Will you have any other drawings or text that you will need to add to the sheet? Do you know what size of sheet you want to use? And most importantly, are you plotting out of model space? or paper space with viewports?

I'm a paperspace advocat, so I'll give you directions on that. It's simple, make your viewport active. Then, to scale, it's a zoom command. You need to know your dimscale first, however.

To find your dimscale for any give scale, the formula = 12" / x
for example: if you want a scale of 1/4" = 1'-0", then to find your dimscale, 1/4" = x, therefore (12" / 1/4" = 48 ). If you want your scale to be 1/8" = 1'-0", then 1/8" = x, and your fomula will look like (12" / 1/8" = 96).

Once you understand that part, scaling your drawing in a paperspace viewport is easy. Once the viewport is active, type in "zoom", then type in "1/dimscaleXP".

For example, if your scale is 1/4" = 1'-0", then you would type in "zoom" then "1/48XP". Don't forget the "XP" part, it's important.

Any questions or anything you don't understand?

[Mr T]

Personally I draw scale 1;1 then print to fit the page.

Do you really want somenone reading the drawing with ruler ?
Will that not lead to errors ?

Alternative would be to draw a tiled scaled 3ft grid pattern.

Nick