Drawing to Scale

This section should help you with drawing to scale

Why draw to scale?

To be able to create something in real life it is very helpful if we can create a draft first. To do this we put it on paper or onto the computer. We also shrink it down so that the paper size is practical to work on. When we shrink it down we do it at a known factor. The factor which we scale down our project by is our scale E.g. 1:100 which would mean that it is 100 times smaller than in reality.

Common Scales

Plant View (looking down from the top):

  • Residential Projects 1:100

  • Planting Plans 1:100 or 1:50 when we need to show detail of smaller plants

Section View (from the side)

  • Details: Paving 1:10

  • Pergolas 1:25, 1:50

Using a scale ruler

A scale ruler has generally has multiple scales on it which can be used when they are rotated to be in the top left corner.

Rotate the ruler so that the scale you wish to use is up in the top left-hand corner. Reading across your ruler you should be able to now see lengths that correspond to real world sizes at the scale factor you have selected. Simply draw a line from the zero point across until you hit the length you wish to represent.

Using Graph Paper

Graph paper can be used to draw roughly to scale by matching distances to squares. A one-centimetre square could represent a one metre square in the real world reduced at a scale of 1:100.

Activities

Drawing to Scale

Using a scale ruler or grid paper and a conventional ruler draw the below site on an A4 sheet of paper. Not everything is dimension-ed, so you will need to think your way through this.

Drawing+to+scale.jpg

Triangulation


Complete the following activity at a scale of 1:100 on an A4 piece of paper using a scale ruler or grid. You will need a compass or a circle template to complete the triangulation component of this.

Triangulation.jpg

Estimating Size

Understanding size and proportion within context is critical to becoming a good designer.

Session Outline

  • Why draw to scale?

  • Using a scale ruler

  • Using graph paper

  • Triangulation

Presentations


Activity

See Below

Definitions

Plan View - Is looking down from the top at a 3d object while taking out the perspective nature. It is an orthogonal drawing that of objects on the horizontal plane.

Section View - A drawing from the side where an element is where the subject is sliced open showing the inner workings. It is an orthogonal drawing so does not show any perspective.