Revit does not plot to scale?

[Anonymous]

I feel like this would have been already addressed and have been mining this forum for some clarity but have found none. Hoping a new post will get some answers. 

PROBLEM: Revit does not plot 100%. 

Hopefully I can ward off flippant answers by qualifying:

1. It is NOT set to 'Fit to Page.' Print Settings are set to Zoom: 100%. 

2. It is NOT a printer problem. This occurs when printing to PDF, no printers involved.

3. It is NOT a specific PDF writer issue. I have used multiple PDF writers (Bluebeam and Microsoft Print to PDF) with the exact same results.

4. It is NOT an issue of a titleblock drawn to the printer limits and the PDF writer overwriting or autocorrecting the Revit settings. Exact same results with or without titleblock. Exact same results without titleblock and nothing within 1/2" of printer boundary. Exact same results plotting portions of sheets using 'Visible portion of view.'

So, here is the precise issue:

PDF plots to 24x36 size paper are actually 99.93% scale.

PDF plots to Letter size paper are actually 99.95% scale.

Plots direct to HP printer are actually 100.3% scale.

Here is my process:

1. Plot from Revit using a PDF writer and Zoom:100%. (I've used Bluebeam PDF and Microsoft Print to PDF with exact same results).

2. Open with PDF reader and measure the content. (I've used Bluebeam Revu and Adobe Acrobat with exact same results).

Granted this is not a real big problem. These tolerances result in a Letter size plot being .005" off and 24x36 sheet being .0135" off. For our office standards at 1/4" scale, this is about a Pen 02 thickness and Pen 03 thickness. That is to say, too small to detect with a scale when plotted. In fact, after finding this issue, we reviewed past projects and found that we've had this problem for 5 years without noticing. However, I would like to know why exactly this happens, and if it can be resolved - if only for my piece of mind.

Lastly, I noted that plotting directly to an HP printer was also a little off. I know this can be due a bunch of additional factors and am not concerned with them. I only tested this to compare against the PDF output and to see if the phenomenon was consistent. 

[RobDraw]

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@crayEDN9P wrote:

Have you tried it with your 24 x 36 titleblock? 

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I don't have a 24 x 36 title block of my own and I'm sure if I used scale to fit, the scale would change if I altered it so that the overall extents were slightly different.

In my world, the discrepancies listed above would be acceptable. We actually have blurbage that tells the readers of our prints to not use them for scaling measurements.  This was originally intended to cover discrepancies associated with reproduction of prints not for errors in programming but it still covers these insignificant differences.

[crayEDN9P]

Yeah that note is probably a good idea. The discrepancy wasn't an issue for me at all until I started drafting a 300,000 SF building and the differences began to show more.

Thanks for the tips/responding.

[RobDraw]

Have you tried editing your title block so that it is a different size in both directions and printed it to fit the paper?

I'd be willing to bet that those settings plot it scale.

[john_kinder · Accepted solution]

Austin is 100% correct.  Revit does NOT print to scale at 24x36.  At least not with Bluebeam.  Try the settings below and ignore anything anyone else tells you.  You DO know what you're doing.  Revit was simply never fully developed or tested.

ARCH_D_(24.00_x_36.00_Inches),  <default tray>

Offset from corner: Printer Limit

Fit to Page

[chauh]

Solved for Revit 2022.1 and probably other versions as well. Use paper placement of Offset from corner, User Defined and set to 0,0. Perfectly scaled PDFs every time with Fit to Page.

I think using other paper placement options causes division and rounding that Revit doesn't handle well.

[scongNC2K5]

Works for me if I export, instead of printing. 

[andrew.freng]

This is still an issue in Revit 2024.  I've attached a .rvt which includes a 24x36 title block and a single sheet that is applied to.  I'm not able to make sense of what Revit is doing when printing or exporting .pdfs of 24x36 (and other misc. sized sheets) but am positive it's incorrect and needs fixed.  It appears this is more than just a scaling issue though and this can be seen when referencing the sheet and the print or .pdf export (or print) that is generated (it appears Revit is moving lines).  Note that this issue was brought to our attention by a Wisconsin DOT employee (our customer) who was reviewing our planset w/in bluebeam and was getting erroneous results when attempting to use the measuring tool.  Per Chauh's direction in an above post, printing "fit to page" w/ user defined margins of 0" does fix this issue but printing "fit to page" can produce some non-desirable results if a print set includes multiple sheet sizes which are printed at once. Please review and let me know if I'm missing the mark on any of this.  Thanks in advance!

[hpowellFQ3L8]

I just want you to know you've saved me so much headache. Yours was the only answer that worked, and it doesn't matter which PDF driver I use (which is great because I don't like Adobe's print in Revit). Thank you so much!

[devindiver48MZ4QV]

I stumbled across this thread because I was having the same issue using Revit 2024.3. I was verifying measurements in Bluebeam Revu 21.3 and noticed that the default scaling was not correct as stated by other users. Using your "Fit to page" and "Printer limit" counterintuitive solution worked perfectly for me as well and all dimensions are accurate without having to calibrate and use a custom scale in Bluebeam. Hopefully Autodesk will develop a fix for this soon. Thanks for figuring it out and posting the "solution" for others like myself!