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Lohbauer1-Visitor
1-Visitor
March 14, 2014
Question

For Discussion: Should SCALE be in a drawings titleblock?

  • March 14, 2014
  • 31 replies
  • 14557 views

Happy Friday,


This is more of an academic discussion starter thana problem. We are looking at updating our engineering formats and the question of whether to eliminate the SCALE field came up. Given the approaching model-onlystate of ASME Y14.41-2003, is the information necessary to have in a drawing?


Have at it.


Thanks,
WindchillAdministrator



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31 replies

S
23-Emerald III
StephenW23-Emerald III
23-Emerald III
March 14, 2014
As far as I know, ASME Y14.100 still says the SCALE SHALL BE INDICATED ON THE DRAWING. I haven't looked lately to see if they have updated. It may have been updated several times since I looked though.

Y14.41 pertains to model based definition and not drawings so it's not really the same. From my perspective, Y14.41 is decades away.

Of course this is my opinion so it shouldn't be construed as my employers opinion.

W
wfalco16-Pearl
16-Pearl
March 14, 2014
I honestly see no reason for using scale. Keep in mind I was on the
board. Back then - I'd say yes. Now....I don't see the point.


B
23-Emerald III
BenLoosli23-Emerald III
23-Emerald III
March 14, 2014
My complaint with the scale being on the drawing is that too many times no one pays attention to what the system is scaling your views to. View scales should be, if used, something that makes sense for the drawing.

For metric dimensioned drawings we had this in our standards: 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:5, 1:10, 1:20, 1:40, 2:1, 4:1, 5:1, 10:1, 20:1, 40:1
For English dimensioned drawings, adjust accordingly to multiples of 2, so 8, 16, 32 and 64 instead of 5, 10,20,40.

I have seen many drawings with scales like 3:50, 7:100, etc. You can’t measure them and convert to a valid size, anyway. Plus our drawings all say “Do Not Scale Drawing”.

L
Lohbauer1-VisitorAuthor
1-Visitor
March 14, 2014
This what I hoped for, people smarter than me chiming in.

Yes, it is absolutely true that scale is specified in these specs. But should they? I work with both the manufacturing floor, and an old school tool shop that is old school in the best sense of the word. The issue becomes what to do in situations where there is a missing dimension and a machinist with a scale answers the question on their own?

Thanks
Bob
B
BillChapman13-Aquamarine
13-Aquamarine
March 14, 2014
If they are that old school, they could just measure any dimension on the print and figure out what scale is being used. Seems crazy in this day and age that this is still going on and they are not interrogating an electronic file to get this information.

Bill Chapman
Email: -<">mailto:->
Tel: 708-496-3100 | Cell: 708-205-5705

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D
dgschaefer21-Topaz II
21-Topaz II
March 14, 2014
I'd say absolutely. If I'm looking at a drawing, I want to know what scale these views are. While it's never appropriate to make design decisions based on a measurement from a drawing, if you need to know roughly how big a feature is, measuring the drawing is a handy way to figure this out. It also helps to get an idea how big the part in question is. "Oh, wait, this drawing is 5X (¼) scale, this thing is tiny (enormous)!"

Of course, scale information is useless these days of being able to print on any size paper without also including the sheet or format size.

We had a vendor make a sheetmetal part half size because he went off the exported drawing DXF and failed to check the scale in the title block. (This of course begs other off topic questions like should he have gone from the drawing DXF (it wasn't a flat pattern) and if we knew he was (we didn't) should he have been given a full scale version instead?)

--
S
23-Emerald III
StephenW23-Emerald III
23-Emerald III
March 14, 2014
Scaling a drawing has absolutely no relation to the scale being shown on the drawing. Not too many places (I may be wrong) actually provide full scale prints to the manufacturing personnel.

If there is any known dimension on the drawing (or not), preferably in the same orientation as the dimension in question, I can and will scale a drawing using ratios. I’ve done it a bunch of times with varying results. It may be the only way I can get a specific dimension to make something that looks right and is not necessarily “perfect”. Vendor drawings are a good example. They usually have all the critical interface dimensions but sometimes don’t have other dimensions that I need to make a model look reasonable close to what the part will look like.

I used to say all the dimensions have to be on the drawing to be able to build something until I met a guy who explained boat/ship building to me. A lot of stuff is not dimensioned but is expected to be done “to the drawing.

T
TimKnier1-Visitor
1-Visitor
March 14, 2014
Take the scale off the drawing completely. The only purpose for the drawing scale being in the title block was to tell us old time board drafters which scale to use on our old triangular drafting scales (rulers) whenever we worked on the drawings. You never want a machinist or fabricator to measure a drawing when trying to determine a missing dimension. In fact we’ve told all of our young whipper-snappers to not even worry about always using a standard scale on their drawings. Use whatever scale is needed to make the drawing views the clearest and most informative to suit the drawing size, BOM and notes.

Tim Knier
QG Product & Support Engineering
QuadTech
A Subsidiary of Quad/Graphics
Sussex, Wisconsin
414-566-7439 phone
-<">mailto:->
www.quadtechworld.com<">http://www.quadtechworld.com>
J
jstone12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
March 14, 2014
What a topic for a Friday! Eliminate the DETAIL SCALE by right clicking on it and ERASE.
Thanks,
jef
S
23-Emerald III
StephenW23-Emerald III
23-Emerald III
March 14, 2014
That’s a good way to put it.

“Use whatever scale is needed to make the drawing views the clearest and most informative to suit the drawing size, BOM and notes.”


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