Scale Quickstart Manual

I routinely have to start at the building blocks of a scale whenever I need to change a scale or modify paper size. One of these days, I'm hoping it will click. In the meantime, I'm trying to take good notes for my future self to refer to.

In Architecture, scales are chosen for print and there is often a unit translation associated with the scale. For instance, the paper will be measured in inches and the real world coverage will be expressed in feet. The inch to foot relation is how the scale is expressed, not the unitless ratio.

Some common Architecture scales include:

• 1" = 1'-0"
• 1/2" = 1'-0"
• 1/4" = 1'0"
• 1/8" = 1'0"

All of these have 1 foot as the common unit and the inch is broken into different fractions of that. To find the unitless ratio, you would have to multiply both sides by the denominator to get to 1 and then multiply by 12 remove the translation of inches to feet.

1" = 1'-0" would be 1' * 12 to equal 12". 1" (paper) = 12" (real world) is simply a unitless 1:12 ratio. 1/2" = 1'-0" would be 1/2 * 2; 1 * 12 * 2. 1:24

Thus, these are the aforementioned scales as unitless ratios:

• 1:12
• 1:24
• 1:48
• 1:96

Cartography and Engineering drawings both developed scales for print with a similar inches-to-feet relation, only this time the inch is the base unit and the feet are the changing factor.

• 1" = 10'
• 1" = 20'
• 1" = 40'
• 1" = 50'
• 1" = 100'

These are easier to convert to a ratio because there are no fractions. Every number expressed in feet can simply be multiplied by 12 to be expressed in inches, and thus if there is no change in units, then the ratio is unitless.

• 1:120
• 1:240
• 1:480
• 1:600
• 1:1200

I'm currently working on a map that looks best at the 1:1000 to 1:1200 range. The smaller version will be 1" = 100' (1:1200) and I want to do one big print of 1:1000.

At 1:1200

• 9 x 12 paper will cover 900 by 1200 feet
• 11 x 17 paper will cover 1100 by 1700 feet
• 12 x 18 paper will cover 1200 by 1800 feet

At 1:1000

• 9 x 12 paper will cover 9000 by 12000 inches
• 11 x 17 paper will cover 11000 by 17000 inches
• 12 x 18 paper will cover 12000 by 18000 inches

Common scales for 11 inches of paper

Ratio	Common	Blender* (m)	Inches*
1:100		27.94	1100
1:120	1"=10'	33.528	1320
1:150		41.91	1650
1:160		44.704	1760
1:200		55.88	2200
1:240	1"=20'	67.056	2640
1:250		69.85	2750
1:300		83.82	3300
1:360	1"=30'	100.584	3960
1:480	1"=40'	134.112	5280
1:500		139.7	5500
1:600	1"=50'	167.64	6600
1:1000		279.4	11000
1:1200	1"=100'	335.28	13200

• Camera scale setting to view 11 inches of model at the given ratio.

Then you may ask,

How many pixels wide should it be?

For best quality print, 300 dpi is recommended, 300 multiplied by paper length:

3300 x 2550 pixels.

And for 12 x 9 paper

Ratio	Common	Blender* (m)	Inches*
1:120*	1"=10'	33.528	1440
1:150*		41.91	1800
1:160*		44.704	1920
1:200*		55.88	2400
1:240*	1"=20'	67.056	2880
1:250*		69.85	3000
1:300*		83.82	3600
1:360	1"=30'	109.728	4320
1:480	1"=40'	146.304	5760
1:500		152.4	6000
1:600	1"=50'	182.88	7200
1:1000		304.8	12000
1:1200	1"=100'	356.76	14400

And lastly 12 x 18 paper

Ratio	Common	Blender* (m)	Inches*
1:1000		457.2	18000
1:1200	1"=100'	548.64	21600