PSA: My blueprint scaling was way off on a city park project

I was laying out a storm drain detail for a park renovation in Columbus last week and realized my scale factor was set to 1.25 instead of 1.0 on the plot. The whole linework was shifted by about 3 feet from the existing curb, and I had to redo 6 hours of drafting. Anyone else double-check their plot settings after a near-miss like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

lucas_grant831mo ago

A few guys in the firm were talking about this exact thing last week, apparently it is a common mistake when switching between metric and imperial templates. One of the senior drafters said he started using a scale check layer in red that highlights the whole drawing before any plot ever goes out. Saved my ass on a similar job when I forgot to reset the viewport scale.

leobrown1mo ago

Red scale check layer? That sounds like overkill until the moment it saves you from printing 50 sheets of garbage. A senior guy at my last firm had a story about a structural plan that went out with column grids labeled in millimeters instead of feet - the contractor caught it before pouring, but barely. I can picture that red layer stopping something similar cold. That is the kind of hack you learn the hard way, usually after someone else's disaster. @lucas_grant83 your guy must have seen some real train wrecks to make that a permanent habit.