mängda

Set the scale on the drawing

Teach the tool how long a metre is on the paper, so every length you draw comes out right.

Get started5 min9 steps
  1. 1

    Find a measurement you trust

    The scale bar at the bottom of the drawing is safest. If that is no good, take a dimensioned line or a house wall where the measurement is written out.

  2. 2

    Pick Scale (“Skala”) in the tool rail

    Scale (“Skala”) sits in the bottom group of the rail. The panel on the right shows 2. Set the scale (“2. Sätt skalan”).

  3. 3

    Press Measure the scale (“Mät upp skalan”)

    The button sits under the heading Measure on the drawing (“Mät på ritningen”). The status line under the canvas says Click the first point of a known distance (“Klicka på första punkten på ett känt avstånd”).

    The scale panel: measure on the drawing, or pick paper size and printed scale.
    The scale panel: measure on the drawing, or pick paper size and printed scale.
  4. 4

    Click one end of the scale bar

    Zoom in with the scroll wheel first if the bar is small — the more accurate the click, the more accurate every length afterwards.

  5. 5

    Click the other end

    The dashed line between the points is the distance you have just measured.

    Worth knowing. If you clicked wrong, Backspace removes the last point.

  6. 6

    Type the distance in metres and save

    Fill in the box Real distance (metres) (“Verkligt avstånd (meter)”) — 10 if the scale bar shows ten metres — and press Save scale (“Spara skala”). The tool switches to Pipe run (“Ledning”).

    Worth knowing. A decimal comma works: type 12,5.

  7. 7

    Or use the scale printed in the title block

    Under Or use the scale of the drawing (“Eller använd ritningens skala”) you pick Paper size (“Pappersformat”) and Scale (“Skala”) and press Use scale 1:100 (“Använd skala 1:100”). For a PDF, Paper size (“Pappersformat”) comes pre-filled from the file, and then the conversion is pure arithmetic.

    Worth knowing. The scales you can pick are 1:50, 1:100, 1:200 and 1:400. If the drawing is printed at any other scale you will have to measure it up by hand.

  8. 8

    Check the scale against another measurement

    Take the Measure (“Mäta”) tool and click between two points where you know the distance. If the figure is wrong, press Re-measure the scale (“Mät om skalan”) and do the measurement again.

    Worth knowing. A scale that is ten per cent out makes every metre in the bill of quantities ten per cent out — and the price with it. If you change the scale, every length is recalculated automatically.

  9. 9

    Give a detail a scale of its own

    If part of the plan is drawn at a different scale, take Viewport (“Vyport”), drag a box around it and set that box its own scale. Measurements inside the box use that scale.

Next steps

Do the steps on a real drawing

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Stuck on a step? Get in touch — we are happy to take a look at your drawing.