Using a Scale Ruler;

Using a Scale Ruler; What is Scale and why do we use it. Designers and Architects use ‘scale’ so they can draw on paper a small replica of the real space, building or layout as it will be when built, but in miniature, so that everything is in proportion and you can carry the drawings around and work on them. There are different scales you can use giving you larger scale drawings or small scale. An example of this is if you look at the Deeds of your house you should find a ‘site location plan to scale’ at possibly 1:500. It just shows the outline of your property in relation to other buildings and roads etc It does not show detail of the building but … will show out-houses or drive ways. It also has a red line around your boundary which confirms the land your property will occupy and forms part of your contract on purchase. Architects will often use a scale of 1:100 to draw up an outline of a new building and it will show details of how the property is divided up into rooms, stairs entrances and different floor levels. Using the scale of 1:50 you can put a lot more detail in, showing basic furniture layouts within the rooms and identifying bathrooms and kitchens with fitted units shown and changes of ceiling height, floor levels and is often used for planning applications with a site plan or a plan at 1:100 depending on the type of application and the details required. 1:20 is used by Kitchen and Bathroom companies and anyone wanting to detail a room down to where the handles are and the drawers pull out. They show where everything is going and a builder can take this drawing and in general, build from it. He may want additional drawings showing even greater details of how a unit or cupboard is to be made or he made a need a detailed drawing showing the joining of sections of units, surfaces and fixtures and these can be at 1:10, 1:5 or even in some cases a 1:1 which is exactly the size of the actual item. Hopefully you can see a parallel between the scales and the size of the drawing. The larger the number, the smaller the items will be in plan on paper, the smaller the number the larger it will be on paper. Have a look at the examples of the drawings enclosed but do NOT reduce or enlarge them other- wise you will destroy the scale! When downloading and printing out, everything is drawn to fit on A4 paper and is to scale. PLAN I have used the word PLAN and will explain further. A plan is like a map of a house in interiors. It works as if you were looking down at your living room from about a metre above and everything structural, eg walls, doors, windows and anything ‘fitted’ should be seen. If there are changes in ceiling height, or there is lintel showing how two rooms have been knocked through and connected as one, a dotted line is used, to indicate that this is not on the floor but above a metre and in the ceiling. This is just the basic principle and there are variations, but this is sufficient for starters. Elevations There are additional drawings that are used in Interior and Architectural Drawings and the most important are ELEVATIONS and SECTIONS. An Elevation relates to each wall in the room and anything that is attached to it eg Windows, radiators, shelves. Sections A Section is a cut through of the room at any place and it shows a cut through the relevant walls and everything that is from that point, backwards. Therefore you will see the elevation plus any furniture that sits within the cut point and you could see the whole of a house in section. On drawings you will see where a section has been cut through the plan with arrows the often have a relating letter eg. A A and the arrows point in the direction you are looking at or the cut has been taken and sometimes it’s not a straight line, but may deviate once or even twice but there is a broken line to guide you. There is one slightly unusual feature of elevations and sections that takes a little understanding. You do not see any ‘depth’ – therefore the drawings are not three dimensional, but ‘two dimensional’ . 3D We have methods of drawing in Axonometric and Isometric which shoes 3D but at the moment don’t get too worried about the technicalities. Drawing plans and the odd elevation is usually sufficient for interiors and if you need to give further information then it may be time to call in some help. CAD There is of course CAD, Computer Aided Design which is where everything is automatically drawn in plan and can be printed out at any scale. Some software eg Sketch-up draws, in 3D from the start which aids visualisation but it takes time to learn how to operate the software accurately and at the moment a pencil, paper and some straight lines with a scale ruler is the best way to start. When you feel confident about all of this then it is great to move into the world of CAD. We will discuss this further, but don’t think this will be an easy way out of planning properly. You need to understand every line you draw and what it represents and I have seen a lot of very in-accurate and optimistic drawings that look very professional but actually are not very good at doing the job required. Another Scale 1.25 I would like to introduce you also to another scale of 1:25 which is a very good size to use for Interior work as it is not as detailed as 1:20 but better than 1:50. The ruler I have recommended has all the scales on you will need at the moment. You will be able to use architects drawings, note the scale they have used in the box in the right hand corner and use your ruler to find out how large a space is. Some drawings have the basic dimensions already detailed but some do not and for doing your own drawing and space planning you need to understand and use your own scale ruler. Getting to grips with Scale Let’s now look at the ruler: It is best if you have it in front of you. The ruler I have recommended (along with others )whether they are flat and slightly bevelled or triangular will all have one, or sometimes two scales , designated at each end of the ruler, front and back and you must be very carefully initially, to make sure you always use the rights side and the right end of the ruler. Sticking a little coloured dot at the scale you are using will help, until you are used to it. A Simple Exercise to Start Using a piece of A4 paper, either squared, plain paper or tracing paper, taped down to the table draw a line with a straight edge – do not use the scale ruler to do this – use a metal or wooden ruler. Then place the scale rule on the line and using the scale of 1:20 find 0 and measure along the ruler until you see 1 (one metre). Put a dot on the line at this point. Now draw a vertical line up using either a ruler (or ideally a set square) and do the same until you find 1 and put a dot to mark the metre mark. You can do the same across the top and down again to make a 1 metre square. (See my examples and options). Now draw a square using a different scale eg. 1:25, and so on. Practice using all the scales on the ruler and then find the half metre – which is 50 cms or as we say in the professional world 500mms. You will also find that if you draw a diagonal 45 degree line from the 0 you will not have to measure up the vertical as you will find where the two lines cross you have your square and the same for the final line across. This ensures speed and accuracy. Once you have found the half metre mark you can find the 10 cms or 100mms mark and also work out what each little notch is worth which at 1:25 is 20mms or 2 cms. If you think about measuring up your space each centimetre is valuable so you can understand why it is important that when you survey and draw up, you need to be as accurate as you can. Some people find this type of work easy but if you are like I was – it took time, help and practice so don’t be hard on yourself if you find this a little difficult. I often annoyingly found my husband understood this better than I did but then he had done technical drawing at school and also was good at numbers. Don’t give up. If you are trying to work out what you can do with your space you need to get to grips with drawing to scale so you can plan efficiently and effectively. Imperial v Metric You may have been born into the Imperial World but unless you are going to work in America you are going to have to be metric if you are going to ‘draw to scale’ because that is what we use in the UK.

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