ARCHITECT SCALE RULERS

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Many people refer to a set of working drawings
as plans or blueprints.
In fact, working drawings are part of the
complete set of architectural plans.
Architectural plans include working drawings,
schedules, and other sheets shown in the list
below.
Not all architectural plan sets will include each
sheet listed below.

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1. Site Plan
2. Elevations
3. Foundation Plan
4. Floor Plans
5. Ceiling Framing Plans
6. Roof Framing Plans
7. Window and Door Schedules
8. Details and Section Views
9. Interior Elevations
10.Trade Plans (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing)

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A drawing that shows a real object with accurate
sizes reduced or enlarged by a certain amount
(called the scale).
Architect's scale ruler is a triangular shaped
instrument used for making or measuring scaled
drawings such as blueprints or floor plans.
Architect's scale ruler is designed for use in
determining actual dimensions of distance on
scaled drawing.
Architectural and construction drawings and
blueprints are scaled to allow for large areas,
structures, or items to conveniently fit on
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A triangular architect scale has a total of six
edges, often with two different scales—say both
1 inch to 1 foot and a ½-inch to 1 foot—
represented on the same edge.
Some sets with multiple rules can include up to
16 scales.
These are typically 12 inches long and you can
find a remarkable variety to choose from:
plastic scales, others of solid aluminum, and ones
with color-coded grooves.
Scales can be made of wood, plastic, or
aluminum.
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A scale is shown as a ratio, for example 1:100.
A drawing at a scale of 1:100 means that the
object is 100 times smaller than in real life
scale 1:1.
You could also say, 1 unit in the drawing is
equal to 100 units in real life.
So, if we were drawing a table that measured
100cm wide by 200cm long at a scale of 1:50,
you would draw the table 2cm wide by 4cm long
on your piece of paper.
This is worked out by dividing the real life size
(100cm) by 50 (1:50 scale). This gives you a
result of 2cm. For the length
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of the table we
divide 200cm by 50 to get a result of 4cm.
or

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Certain scales are used to produce different
drawings. These include:

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It is not always possible to draw an object to its
actual size.
For example, drawings of very large objects
cannot be plotted in full size because they are
too large to adjust on the drawing sheet.
Again, drawing a very small object cannot be
drawing in full size because it would be too small
to draw and to read.
There are different types of scales in architecture
drawing are used so that objects can be
accommodated and comfortably be plotted and
read are as follows:
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 when an architecture drawing is prepared to the
actual size of the object, the scale used is
termed as full-size scale and the drawing is
known as full-size drawing.
A scale with a ratio of 1:1 is known as a full-size
scale in engineering drawing.
Example: A 30 mm radius plain disc is
represented on the drawing by a circle of 30 mm
radius.

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When a very small object such as components
of a detailed drawing, is enlarged in some
regular proportion to accommodate its
drawing.
So when the drawing is prepared larger than the
actual size, the scale is said to be Enlarging
scale, and the drawing is said to be an enlarged-
sized drawing.
A scale in which the ratio is larger than 1:1.

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When the object is of large size, the actual
dimensions of the object have to be reduced to
accommodate the drawn object in the drawing
sheet.
So when a drawing is prepared smaller than the
actual size of the object, the scale used is
termed as reducing scale and the drawing is
known as a reduced-sized drawing.
A scale in which the ratio is smaller than 1:1.
Common scale for most architecture drawing

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1. Converting measurements from real life to a
scale drawing; and
2. Converting measurements on a scale drawing to
real life.

To create a drawing from a real-life object we

first determine the scale we are using for that
particular drawing.
Say we are drawing a bathroom room layout at
1:50 (one is to 50).
We measure the bathroom in millimetres.
Say it is 3,600mm x 2,400mm (3.6m x 2.4m).
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We can try to convert from 3,600mm by dividing
by 50, or we can use a scale ruler.
We take our scale ruler and flip it to our 1:50
scale.
We can see that 1000mm (or 1.0m) in real life is
equivalent to 20mm (or 2cm) on our scale ruler.
We can see that 3,600mm in real life is
equivalent to 72mm on our scale ruler.
You can see how all this swapping between
metres, centimetre and millimetres is confusing
so we use millimetres.

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The other way we can use a scale ruler is to
convert the measurements on a drawing to real
life.
The first thing we must check is that a drawing
has been printed at the correct scale.
If not, we must determine the scale within the
drawing.
Once we know the drawing scale, we can use a
scale ruler to determine the measurement shown
on the drawing in real life.

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Say your drawing is a floor plan at 1:100 and we
want to know how big the internal bathroom is.
We take our scale ruler and flip it to our 1:100
scale.
When we measure the internal walls of the
bathroom we can see that the drawing is 36mm
x 24mm.
Our scale ruler tells us these measurements are
3600mm (3.6m) x 2400mm (2.4m) in real life.

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A scale ruler is used to help understand the
proportions of the drawing or model
representation as a proportion of the real-life
object.
The first thing you must consider in choosing a
scale ruler is which type of unit of
measurements you are using.
This will vary depending on which country you
reside in.
Imperial Units – Refer to feet and inches.
Metric Units – Refer to millimetres (mm),
centimetres (cm) and metres (m).
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Let’s look at converting a scale drawing to a
different scale.
You can considering changing the scale of a
drawing by a decimal factor or by a
percentage.
For example, lets imagine we have a drawing at
1:50, but we want amend the scale, to show
that drawing at 1:200.
A drawing at 1:200 is 4 times larger than a
drawing at 1:50, therefore we would need to
increase the size of the drawing 4 x.
The table below demonstrates the different
scale factors required 22
to convert a scale up or
down.
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Example -1: suppose we have a map with a
scale of 1:50,000. we measure the distance
along a property boundary as 1.7cm. What is the
length(Km) in the real world?
Example 2: suppose we measure a rectangular
piece of Property that is 3cm by 4cm on a
map. The map is at a scale of 1:24,000. what is
the area of the parcel? The area of the parcel
on the map is
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