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Drawing to scale
- Thread starter Mtndew
- Start date
- Replies 67
- Views 8,830
Shortcuts and hacks.
I was doing a floor layout for a cardboard baler, and apparently, the company fired all the
draftsman, and the sales man made his own Autocad drawing/layout.
By taking pre-drawn sections (baler, feeder, etc) he would quickly send you a file.
I found he just manually eddited the dimensions (text editor) to suit what he wanted.
And then there was a famous "Hi quality" german made spin balancer machine that just
hacked their way thru drawings, no rhyme nor reason. I wasted plenty of time trying
to figure out what scale they had used, nothing lined up.
"It looked good on paper"
I was doing a floor layout for a cardboard baler, and apparently, the company fired all the
draftsman, and the sales man made his own Autocad drawing/layout.
By taking pre-drawn sections (baler, feeder, etc) he would quickly send you a file.
I found he just manually eddited the dimensions (text editor) to suit what he wanted.
And then there was a famous "Hi quality" german made spin balancer machine that just
hacked their way thru drawings, no rhyme nor reason. I wasted plenty of time trying
to figure out what scale they had used, nothing lined up.
"It looked good on paper"
Hertz
Stainless
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2009
- Location
- Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Not too sure any reason. If I ever got a non scale drawing, the engineer better make sure he marks what scale he used otherwise I wouldn't waste time dicking around with it. Unless he is willing to pay for that extra time.
LockNut
Stainless
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2007
- Location
- Bergen County
I imagine parts will always be designed to scale. Drawing to scale is another matter. As a CAD guy and detailer, drawing to another scale had many reasons and still do today. Usually it was to fit large parts on a small sheet of paper, relatively. Drawing a large injection mold and having it fit on a "D" sized sheet. Today, there will always be a need to blow up small detail so it can understood. I do find people getting really sloppy nowadays.
Paul
Paul
Drawing with a pencil and paper I can understand, but a D sized sheet (I'm assuming you're talking about the print template) can still be scaled to infinity to accomodate the parts.
Scottl
Diamond
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2013
- Location
- Eastern Massachusetts, USA
The only reason for not drawing to scale (other than not having the ability to do so) is when certain features need to be exaggerated. An example would be something like a 4" x 1" x 6' bar where all of the machine work was near the ends. The bar would be drawn with the center part missing so the detail at the ends could be clearly shown. The 6' dimension would be shown from end to end and the drawing marked "Not to Scale".
I get that, but I'm mainly referring to the cad files that the customer sends me to machine his parts from.
Solid models, 2D wireframe, etc.. every single one of them are either 1/2 scale or 1/4 scale. It's so irritating. And these aren't big parts by any means.
LockNut
Stainless
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2007
- Location
- Bergen County
Grumpy365
Aluminum
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2013
- Location
- Brazoria county TX
It is hard not to draw to scale, however when you get the print some times the scale is "Scale to Fit" so, while it is to some scale, no one knows what that may be, but it fills up the sheet nicely.
These are known as "Tabulated" drawings.
These are known as "Tabulated" drawings.
macgyver
Stainless
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2012
- Location
- Pittsburg, KS
If it is a customer that you Want to work with, try and train them to give you the info the way you want it. I do that often if I know/feel like it will not offend them, if I think it will offend them to ask for info that is usable, then I figure the time I think it will take to convert their info into something usable and account for that in the quote. I tend to do alot of weird stuff from customers that are not in industry and I have to show them what I want/need, then after that it is usually close to ready to use.
I have found that many people just end up thrown into the job of drawing and really don't know what they are doing or have any understanding of creating usable geometry or even why a person would want to. If these people are open to training and or suggestions it is OK, not ideal, but OK. If they don't care, then they get charged for it or it goes somewhere else.
Oh, and if this guy is giving you a dwg that is 1/2 or 1/4:1, that is technically to scale. I think what you want to say is draw it 1:1
I have found that many people just end up thrown into the job of drawing and really don't know what they are doing or have any understanding of creating usable geometry or even why a person would want to. If these people are open to training and or suggestions it is OK, not ideal, but OK. If they don't care, then they get charged for it or it goes somewhere else.
Oh, and if this guy is giving you a dwg that is 1/2 or 1/4:1, that is technically to scale. I think what you want to say is draw it 1:1
dsergison
Diamond
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2003
- Location
- East Peoria, IL, USA
They don't know the software. Explain how it will save you both time and money and offer to show them the right way.
Scottl
Diamond
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2013
- Location
- Eastern Massachusetts, USA
Sounds like they are using a drawing for a larger part as a template and not changing the scale.
pcasanova
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2008
- Location
- vacaville ca
No reason at all. The only issue and it really wasn't an issue was getting drawings from civil engineering firms.
They drew that one unit was 1' not 1". Easy enough to scale up by 12 or down by 12 if it went back to them,
we were architects.
But for mechanical no reason at all. And if someone did I would be on the phone drilling them. Had a machinist
I worked with, that worked a a shop in the south bay and did work for HP. Got a drawing and I think he said it was
brass and the only only material they could get was a huge round slug to machine down and gave a price of like 30k for
the part and HP didn't flinch at the price so they started. Few weeks later they finish and deliver the part and the engineer
freaks out. The part was like 8x the size he wanted. And HP paid to have the right size made.
They drew that one unit was 1' not 1". Easy enough to scale up by 12 or down by 12 if it went back to them,
we were architects.
But for mechanical no reason at all. And if someone did I would be on the phone drilling them. Had a machinist
I worked with, that worked a a shop in the south bay and did work for HP. Got a drawing and I think he said it was
brass and the only only material they could get was a huge round slug to machine down and gave a price of like 30k for
the part and HP didn't flinch at the price so they started. Few weeks later they finish and deliver the part and the engineer
freaks out. The part was like 8x the size he wanted. And HP paid to have the right size made.
OMG those are the worst kind!
A friend of mine was an engineer at Delphi, I asked him why they put all the dimensions in a box in the corner, he said "because it's easier".
I said.. easier for who?? Not for the person that's making your fucking part! You're just jacking up the price.
jjclear
Aluminum
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2006
- Location
- South Jersey
In the early days, when CAD was just coming around, there were 2 ways of making a drawing. One group would would scale the part to fit the format, the other would scale the format, leaving the part "full scale". Each group had their reasons why "their way" was the right way. These days with paper space, 3D solids modeling and soon MBD (Model Based Definition) it doesn't make sense that anyone would not model full scale.
J.
J.
I'm not sure I am understanding the problem. If you are being sent a CAD file, surely any scale you want is but one or two mouse clicks away? And doesn't your CAD system give you correct dimensions no matter what the scale? You can't hold a ruler up to the screen to get accurate dimensions in any case....
If this is the biggest problem in your day, you have an easy life!
If this is the biggest problem in your day, you have an easy life!
In my case, the files were not in any scale, x plane might be 2x, y plane 1/3x, z plane 1/2x.
"Crayola CAD"
Was not simply a proportional problem.
