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SCALING UP FROM A DRAWING
JUst a quick one to find out how we all go about scaling up jobs from drawings which do not carry a scale on them.This is a very easy method i have used for years it is probably common knowledge for us oldies but it may help our newer members of the fold
This method is particularly good if you are costing a job from a lineart or colour print with only one size marked on it or specified for example a 5000mm fascia is all that is known and you want to know exactly how big any part of the text is going to be on the real thing,
As It is rare that clients provide a detailed drawing with all dims marked on it use this simple method” you can then be a lot more accurate with materials buying and quotingTHE IS AND NEEDS TO BE SCALE:
Using any printed matter in front of you measure accurately the size on this paper it could be anything ie a fascia on an A4 sheet measures 243mm client wants it to be 15000mm
the 243 is the IS and the 15000 is the NEEDS TO BE simply divide one into the other ie 15000mm divided by 243mm- answer is 61.72 THIS IS YOUR SCALE then simply measure every dim you want from the A4 and multiply by your new scale- ie cap height of text to be put on the fascia measures 21mm on A4 multiply by the scale 61.72 x 21mm=1296mm
it works every time for everything- you only need one true measurement TRY IT it is foolproof does anyone else use made up scaling like this?
Let me know if it works for you
regards to all Steve -
4 Replies
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I created a very simple Excel spreadsheet to do basically that ‘cos I was fed up with people from the sales office ringing me up and asking “I’ve got this logo that’s 100×50, how deep will it be if it’s 200mm wide?” 😮
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Good one Steve. That’s the exact same method taught to me by a foreman 17 years ago and I’ve used it ever since. I always write the scale in the corner on all photos etc like this. You can then even take an educated guess at any dimensions just by looking. Does this make me an oldie?
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sorry to say it does….. after 17 years in this job it puts years on all of us 😮
but little tips like this certainally help !! -
Sums was never my strong point, but what finally finished off any ability I had for mental arithmetic was the Gerber Sprint.
For the youngsters among us, the Sprint was a sign cutting machine marketed in the UK by Spandex in the mid 80s.
It consisted of a superb tangential plotter and a dedicated processor unit that required each line of text or graphical element in a design to be entered on separate a “page” with size, position, slant etc. entered numerically.
The biggest snag was that you could only scale things down to plot them, so you’d always want to create your data set for reproducing a logo as big as you felt you would ever need it. The percentages from business card to shop fascia tended to be pretty scary numbers.
I never was any good at working 17 times 2,816.35% in my head…the problem is that I still sometimes find myself working out 50% of 100 on a calculator (!)
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