Calibrating a Custom Scale Using a Known Area

Snake

It would be nice to have a tool that would (assuming both the X and Y axises are the same scale) calculate scale from a known area on the set of plans. I have had two sets of schematic drawings come across my desk in the last month alone, that did not have the correct scale and did not have any labeled linear dimensions, only areas of different office spaces (I understand that I can use a door opening to scale, but that is a little unreliable).

This is currently achievable through trial and error, but it's slow and a huge pain to do it this way, when I can't think of a good reason this couldn't be added to Revu.

Shaya Birnbaum

@Snake, sure Bluebeam has that option!

Here are the steps that I took from the help menu:

To calibrate a scale to the PDF:

1. Open the calibration tool. There are two ways to get to it:
   • Click Calibrate on the Measurements panel.
   •  Go to Tools > Measure >Set Scale to open the Apply Scale to Pages dialog box, then select Custom and click Calibrate.
     • You can also open the Apply Scale to Pages dialog box by clicking Scale Not Set on either the Navigation bar or the Status bar. If a scale has been set for this page, the scale will be shown instead; clicking it will .
2. A dialog box might appear with instructions regarding the use of the Calibrate tool. If it does, click OK.
3. Locate a measured length on the page. Click the first point of the known length, then click the second point to finish the line. Hold down SHIFT to snap the two points horizontally, vertically, or diagonally (as appropriate). When the second point is selected, the Calibrate dialog box opens.

• The length of the measurement will be automatically filled in as the left side of the scale equation. Enter the distance the measurement represents in the real world and select the appropriate measurement units on the right side to complete the scale. Note that the units of measure do not need to match and can even be from different systems.

• By default, the scale is applied to the current page only. To change this, choose one of the following options from the Pages drop-down list:
  • All Pages: Sets the range to all pages.
  • Current: Sets the range to the current page only. The current page number will appear in parentheses, for example, Current (2) if page 2 is the current page. This is the default selection.
  • Selected: Sets the range to the current selection. This option only appears if pages were selected prior to invoking the command.
  • Custom: Sets the range to a custom value. When this option is selected, the field acts like a text box. Delete any text left in the field and enter the page or pages to be printed directly. To enter a custom range:
    Use a dash between page numbers to define those two pages and all pages in between.
    Use a comma to define pages that are separated.
    For example: 1-3, 5, 9 will include pages 1, 2, 3, 5 and 9.

You can see more on scaling at: https://support.bluebeam.com/online-help/revu21/Content/RevuHelp/Menus/Tools/Measure/Calibrate--MV.htm?Highlight=scale