Question: How to Scale Raw Art to 20:1

Hi Dan, 

I wanted to thank you for sharing the Adobe Illustrator videos you've got on Youtube. I started using Illustrator about a year and a half ago after doing everything by hand, and didn't really ever have any teaching in it, just figuring it out as I go along. The tips and techniques you share are very valuable and I am sure will help me in my design process. I had been thinking about how to streamline and the things you shared about creating symbols is going to help quite a bit. It seems like a large task to under take but a little bit here and there should help.

I do have one question which may be pretty elementary, but I haven't been able to find it in other tutorial videos so I though I might ask you.

I see why you do everything in 1"t 20' scale.. However I am not sure how you scale your original image to that scale. I am typically pulling imagery from Google Earth Pro, which is how I've been creating contour maps.

How would you scale the initial image that you place from a saved google image into 1 to 20? I have been drawing a line in google earth 100' long and then creating a scale based off that. This way everything is sized relative to the other things in the design, but it doesn't actually translate to proper scale.

Any advice would be much appreciated, as is everything you've already put out there. thanks!!!

 

 

Hi Tom,

I too draw a line and have some real measurement to scale from. If that 100' line is at 20 scale it will be 5" long right?

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If I have a side property line that is said to be 1300 feet long I divide that by 20. Than I know it should be 65" long. In AI that is pretty big, but we don't care about that. We have 120" to work with on the drawing board. If the original import is on the design and its 27" long, 65/27 is a multiplier of 2.4 or 240%. Enlarge the art 240% and it will be at 20 scale and the line will be at 65".

Can I put your question on my blog?

Also, do you want access to our United Designer libraries?

 

Thanks Dan, Sure put it on, if it's something others may get value from knowing! So you just size it to 5 inches using the ruler in ai?

And sure that library would be a great thing to have access to and would probably save me a good deal of time, thanks!

I'm going to follow up with one more question but I need to run to a consult. Have a great day

 
Tom,

I measure it and do the scaling math with the AI measuring tool. Unless I get a pdf vector survey, I am usually measuring raster image aerial. I suggest a survey be done, then scale that into 20:1.