Standard Scales Used on Drawings

[MikeKovacik4928]

We are in the process of implementing Vault, Implementing Inventor instead of Autocad, ( ie doing a total

change from 2d to 3d) and setting up drawing office procedures and standards

I would normally post this to the Cad Managers Forum, but it is not very active and doesn't get a lot of replies

Standard Scales to be used

SABS 0111-1 (South African Standard - Code of Practice for Engineering Drawing) 3.1
gives recommended scales to be used 1:2, 1:5, 1:10, 1:20, 1:50, 1:100

As a draughtsman of 37 years experience I disagree with this
I think that a scale should be used, regardless of what it is, to make the drawings
as big, as clear, and as readable as possible.
Therefore scales of 1:2.5; 1:4; 1:7.5; 1:15; 1:25, 1:40  if they fill the drawings space better
and make the information more readable to the end user are okay.
This scale is for reference only and is NOT going to be measured directly off the drawing anyway.

What have you other drawing office managers/cad managers done in your drawng offices

Mike Kovacik

Inventor Pro 2020

Vault Pro 2020

South Africa

[mdavis22569]

I tend (depending on who I'm working with) make them the biggest I can on the sheets for layouts..  But tend to keep them on a nominal size. 1:4 - 1:2 - 3:4 - 1:1  as well as  2:1 -  2.5:1

[IgorMir]

Hi Mike;

Totally agree with you on the idea of dumping standard scale factors and just scale the view on a page to it's practical maximum. So, if the view got to be scaled to the factor of 1:1.75 - what's wrong with that? Nothing at all. In the title blocks of mine I always put NTS for a scale factor. Should I miss a dimension on a drawing - I want a client of mine to call me up and find out - what the missing dimension is. I don't want him to measure anything off the drawing, which was created on A1 page but printed on A3 page and delivered to him in this format.

Believe it or not - that topic is as old as CAD itself. I, for one -  have been involved in discussion of that topic while using AutoCAD R13. Which is a long time ago. 🙂

Cheers,

Igor.

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@MikeKovacik4928 wrote:

We are in the process of implementing Vault, Implementing Inventor instead of Autocad, ( ie doing a total

change from 2d to 3d) and setting up drawing office procedures and standards

I would normally post this to the Cad Managers Forum, but it is not very active and doesn't get a lot of replies

Standard Scales to be used

SABS 0111-1 (South African Standard - Code of Practice for Engineering Drawing) 3.1
gives recommended scales to be used 1:2, 1:5, 1:10, 1:20, 1:50, 1:100

As a draughtsman of 37 years experience I disagree with this
I think that a scale should be used, regardless of what it is, to make the drawings
as big, as clear, and as readable as possible.
Therefore scales of 1:2.5; 1:4; 1:7.5; 1:15; 1:25, 1:40  if they fill the drawings space better
and make the information more readable to the end user are okay.
This scale is for reference only and is NOT going to be measured directly off the drawing anyway.

What have you other drawing office managers/cad managers done in your drawng offices

Mike Kovacik

Inventor Pro 2020

Vault Pro 2020

South Africa

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[mdavis22569]

Also .. I agree. I don't use the standards as much ..    I also "pull" my views to help scale it up vs putting in the numbers 

[mcgyvr]

If you are in an industry where a scale ruler will be used and/or not all dimensions are included then "standards" can certainly be helpful.. Those standards are really from back in the "pencil drawing days" and really don't matter much in the digital age when full dimensions are given on drawings and even full scale 3d models are shared. 

[MikeKovacik4928]

Thanks everybody for all your replies.

I see we are all in agreeance about the principle of scaling the drawing up to fit

the paper, and make it as big and clear as possible, regardless of what scale it ends up at

Mike

[rhasell]

Hi

I am stuck with standard scales. It has it's pros and cons. I find that I can keep the drawings consistent across the project, there are nothing left for interpretation. Also a scale ruler works, as all my drawings are A1 and in house printed on A3.

The downside is that sometimes the standard scales work against you, especially with the larger scales, eg 1:50  1:100 and 1:200 It really would be a nice to be able to use smaller increments, even if it's 1:25 increments. A view might be just too big to fit on the sheet @ 1:100 but becomes tiny at 1:200 The same goes for the larger scales, 1:5 and 1:10, but that can be resolved with detail and section views.

That's my take, I have grown to like it, and don't think I will move away from it.

[cadman777]

Hi Mike,

I use standard drafting scales (e.g., 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:5, 1:8, 1:10 ... etc.).

When doing structurals, the scales are in ft-in (e.g., 1/8"=1'-0" ... etc.).

I hardly do metric.

I don't mix base 2 scales with base 10 scales on a drg, unless absolutely necessary.

Can't kick the old drafting habits, plus the fab shops always 'scale the drg' even though they're not supposed to!

For readability, I use Cut Views and Detail Views.

I can get a lot more fine detail on a drawing this way.

Never had a complaint.

I think the shop and field guys like seeing simple lines and blown-up details.

Cheers ...