What’s on the Scale poster
The rule, 3 worked examples, and the mistake everyone makes.
- The scale tells you how many real millimetres one drawn millimetre stands for.
- real = drawn x scale factor
- 20 mm at 1:50 = 1000 mm real
- A 3 m room at 1:100 = 30 mm on paper
- A 100 mm block at 1:5 = 20 mm on paper
- Common mistake: Scaling a dimension off a printed drawing → Read the written dimension
Common set: 1:5 and 1:10 details, 1:20 assemblies, 1:50 and 1:100 plans, 1:200 and 1:500 site, 1:1250 location.
Questions about the Scale poster
- What’s on the Scale poster?
- The rule, 3 worked examples, and the mistake everyone makes. The scale tells you how many real millimetres one drawn millimetre stands for.; real = drawn x scale factor; 20 mm at 1:50 = 1000 mm real; A 3 m room at 1:100 = 30 mm on paper; A 100 mm block at 1:5 = 20 mm on paper; Common mistake: Scaling a dimension off a printed drawing → Read the written dimension. Common set: 1:5 and 1:10 details, 1:20 assemblies, 1:50 and 1:100 plans, 1:200 and 1:500 site, 1:1250 location.
- Who is the Scale poster for?
- Scale belongs to the Architecture section rather than to a school year, because design is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning representation can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Scale poster?
- Use it before you start a drawing. Drawing at the wrong scale wastes an entire day. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Scale belongs on the wall where that design work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Scale?
- The Site Plan, Annotation and Dimensions and Axonometric sit alongside Scale in the Architecture section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.The Site PlanAnnotation and DimensionsAxonometric
- Is the Scale poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Scale downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Architecture section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Scale poster print at?
- Scale is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Scale loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Scale on the same wall.
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