Introduction

Just about every drawing used in the construction industry is drawn to scale. A small but important detail may be drawn full size – that is, at a scale of 1:1 – but this is quite rare.

A standard range of scales is used, ranging from 1:2 (the drawing is half of the real-life size) down to 1:500 (the drawing is one-five-hundredth of the real-life size). The scale the draftsperson will use will depend on what needs to be shown in the drawing and the size of the sheet of paper used.

In this section we look at which scales are commonly used and how to use a scale rule.