Drawing Scales (2024)

FAQs

What scales are used in drawings? ›

The 1:100 scale means that 1 unit on the model represents 100 units in real life. For example, a room that is 1 inch on a 1:100 scale model would be 100 inches, or 8.3 feet, in real life.

Definition of Scale

For example, a scale of 1:5 means that the size of 1 unit in the drawing would represent 5 units in the real world. For example, if a giraffe with a height of 150 inches in the real world is represented as 30 inches on the drawing, it shows that a scale of 1:5 is used.

In this article, we will learn four types of scales such as nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scale. What is the Scale? A scale is a device or an object used to measure or quantify any event or another object.

1:50 and 1:100 are the most common scales. This means that, for a drawing using 1:100, 1 unit of length on a drawing equals 100 units of the same length in reality. 1:20, 1:10, and other larger scales are generally only used for details.

Generally, it is best to use full scale for small parts that can fit on the drawing sheet without losing detail or clarity. For large parts that cannot fit on the drawing sheet at full scale or that do not need to show every detail, it is better to use reduced scale.

The ratio is marked at the left end of the scale. For example, the scale of 1:50 means that 1 mm on the drawing represents 50 mm on the object. This means that the object is 50 times larger than the drawing of it. An object 450 mm long would be represented by a line 9 mm long (450 mm/50).

The length on the drawing is 9 cm, and the scale is 1:50. This means that 1 cm on the drawing is equal to 50 cm in real life. So to find out what 9 cm is in real life, you need to multiply it by 50: 9 × 50 = 450 cm.

Scales used in drafting include the mechanical engineer's scale, the civil engineer's scale, the architect's scale, and the metric scale. 1/32", 1/16", 1/8", 1/4", 3/8", 3/4", 1/2", and 1" units. The civil engineer's scale uses a U.S. customary inch-decimal unit of measure (Fig. 2-35).

Or in imperial scale 1/4" means that each 1/4" (inch) on the plan counts for 1' (feet) of actual physical length. So, as the numbers in the scale get bigger, the elements in the drawing get smaller.

What is a 1 2 scale drawing? ›

Half scale is 1:2. It is helpful to think of this as one unit on the drawing equals two units on the object. A small object can be enlarged on the paper and drawn in 2:1 scale. This means the drawing of the object is twice as large as the object itself.

If you are drawing in inches a scale of 1:2 means 1 inch in paper space = 2 inches in model space. If you are drawing in FEET and use a scale of 1:2, then 1 inch paper space = 2 feet in model space.

The standard scale is a system in Commonwealth law whereby financial criminal penalties (fines) in legislation have maximum levels set against a standard scale.

A plain scale consists of a line divided into suitable number of equal units. The first unit is subdivided into smaller parts. The plain scales give only two dimensions, such as a unit and it's subunit or it's fraction.

Typically in civil engineering applications, 1:10 (1″=10′) is used exclusively for detail drawings. 1:20 and 1:40 scales are used for working plans. 1:60 is normally used only to show large areas of a project.

Generally, drawings in AutoCAD and other CAD software are drawn at 1:1 scale- that is, life size. Occasionally, we end up with files that are out of scale, and this should be resolved before any further paper space scaling occurs.

For drawing paper space layout, the preferred scales for use are: 1:1, 1:10, 1:20, 1:50, 1:100, 1:200, 1:250, 1:500 and 1:1250.

The most commonly used scale for working drawings is the architectural scale. This scale is typically represented as a fraction, such as 1/4 inch = 1 foot.