Drawing Studio · Scale and measure
Most quick measurements on a project are taken from PDFs: a run of skirting, the area of a plant room, the clear width of a corridor. The measuring is easy. Trusting the scale is not, because a PDF printed to fit the page or exported at the wrong paper size no longer matches the scale written on it. In Fidrel’s Drawing Studio the scale comes first, stated or calibrated against a known length, and only then does the Measure tool read lengths, areas and angles off the sheet.
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An A1 drawing saved to an A3 page, or printed with “fit to page”, keeps the 1:100 in its title block but is now nearer 1:200. Every length read off it is wrong by the same factor, and nothing on the page warns you.
An estimator takes the stated scale on trust and prices twenty metres of handrail that turns out to be fourteen. A single check against a dimension written on the drawing would have caught it.
Measuring with lines in a markup tool leaves construction lines on a sheet that may be shared later, and the next person cannot tell which lines are design and which were somebody’s checks.
A scale on a drawing is only true at the paper size the drawing was made for. The same 1:50 detail measures twice as long on A1 as on A3, so a stated scale is worth checking against something you know: a dimension string, a grid spacing, a standard door width. Checking against the longest dimension you can find on the sheet keeps any error from clicking small.
Documents, drawings & models
A scale can simply be stated, measured on the drawing between two points of known distance, or stated and then checked against a dimension. The scale panel tells you which: “Stated scale.”, “Measured on the drawing” with the length used between the two points, or “Stated scale, checked against a dimension on the drawing” with that dimension. A scale can apply to the whole drawing or to one page only, which matters for a PDF that mixes plans at 1:100 with details at 1:20.
Step 1
In Drawing Studio choose New drawing and start from an existing drawing in the project’s documents, or drop a PDF in. Fidrel creates a working copy over it, and the original file in Documents is never changed.
Step 2
Pick a listed scale or Custom scale, such as 1:75, for the whole drawing or this page only. To calibrate instead, choose Calibrate scale, click two points a known distance apart and type the real distance, for example 3500 or 3.5 m.
Step 3
Fidrel shows the measured scale and the nearest standard scale, and offers to use it. The panel then states what the scale rests on, including the length you measured, so others can see how it was set.
Step 4
Choose Measure and click points along a run to read its length. Click the first point again to close the shape and read its area and perimeter, with the corner angle shown. Clear removes the measurement, and nothing is left on the sheet.
The Measure tool reads a distance along any number of points, and an area with its perimeter once the shape is closed, with the angle at each corner. Results appear in the unit you choose, from millimetres and metres to feet and inches, at the precision you set. Without a scale, the readings are millimetres on the paper, and Fidrel says so rather than inventing real sizes.
When a measurement should stay, draw it as a dimension from the Dimensions and scale tools, or place a scale bar, which follows the drawing’s scale. When the drawing is exported, the scale goes into the PDF itself as measurement data, so a PDF reader with its own measuring tool reads the same real lengths and areas as Drawing Studio did.
Measurements are read on screen one at a time; they are not collected into a list, priced or carried into an estimate. There is no take-off of quantities from a PDF: counts and volumes come only from IFC models, in BIM take-off. The scale is never read from the title block or the scale bar printed on the PDF; you state it or calibrate it. Dimensions and new drawings are made on a computer or tablet, not on a mobile phone.
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Read moreDrawing Studio · Scale and measure
Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usRead the stated scale and paper size from the title block, then check it: calibrate on a dimension written on the drawing and compare. Fidrel shows the measured scale and the nearest standard one.
Yes. Click round the shape and click the first point again to close it. Fidrel shows the area, the perimeter and the angle at each corner.
Set the scale for this page only, or calibrate on a dimension inside the detail you are measuring. A scale can apply to the whole drawing or to a single page.
No. The Measure tool draws nothing, and the original PDF in Documents is never changed. Only dimensions you deliberately draw stay on the working copy.
When you export a drawing with a scale, the scale is written into the PDF as measurement data, so a reader’s own measuring tool gives the same real lengths.
Not from a PDF. Measurements are read one at a time. For counts and volumes there is BIM take-off from IFC models, exported as a CSV list.
