Setting the drawing scale
You can choose a preset or custom drawing scale so that distances in a drawing are proportionate to real-world distances. For example, you can specify that 1 inch in the drawing corresponds to 1 meter in the physical world. A preset drawing scale lets you set a typical scale, such as 1:2 or 1:10. A custom drawing scale lets you set any distance on the page to correspond to a real-world distance. For example, you can set a more accurate, precise scale that includes decimal numbers, such as 4.5 to 10.6.
Drawing scales are particularly useful if you are creating a technical or architectural drawing with dimension lines. For information about dimension lines, see “Drawing flow and dimension lines.”
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The checkered effect in this graphic was created by using a grid.
To choose a preset drawing scale | ![]() |
To create a custom drawing scale | ![]() |
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If the drawing scale is set to anything other than 1:1, the units on the vertical ruler are the same as the units on the horizontal ruler.
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