Sizing plans on PC

[lastvautour]

There are several ways of scaling your plans but I prefer doing it on my PC. I first make a build folder to keep all research materiel and drawings, photos etc... I select the drawing in question and download to my subject build folder. Then open a word processing sheet. I prefer MS Word as it came with my PC. Insert the drawings onto the page. You will note that the drawings is automatically reduced in size to fit the page. (see photo 1 below)

I next copy the image and place one aside as a reference point. Using the crop feature I select the area that will fit a standard printer page once it is properly scaled. (see photo 2 and 3)

I next make a box with the drawing/insert feature and get it to measure 1/2 span measurement of 14.64 cm or 5.76 inches. Make the box with no fill and place over the drawing. Enlarge the drawing until it fits the box. Some programs will require you to use the wrap text feature. I select through so that images can be stacked over each other. At this time, select the image property and check out the percentage of the original drawing size. In my case it turns out the be 12%. The enlarged cropped wing 1/2 spans works out to 32%. So if you take any portion of the original drawing, crop what part you want and enlarge to 32% it should give you a 1/72 scale drawing of that part. The reason I keep a copy on hand at the top of the page is so I can copy another to crop for the next part. On occasion you may have to make your paper landscape but not in this case.

Once I have printed and confirmed the measurements are good, I will save that one page and label it HP Hampden wing or whatever portion you are scaling.

Lou

[Balsabasher]

Lou I think it is fair to say that many people do not realise that MS Word can be used to import drawings and photographs in this way,very nicely presented.

Our local copy shop have a machine that will copy up to A1 size,this is really useful for large drawings,you just give the chap behind the counter the wingspan say and he scales it to suit,then prints everything off,what I usually do now is buy two sets,one to paste onto card as templates and the other as a working drawing,in the past I used to draw up by hand but now it is hardly worth the effort,how technology has helped us ?

Barry.

[lastvautour]

I too used to take even small black images from Jane's all the World's Aircraft and size it up by measuring and redrawing to whatever scale I needed. It took time and usually generated many errors. Now the thing to watch out for is that your drawing is accurate. The F2H-3 Banshee drawings found on most web sites are incorrect. I tried getting the word out but no one has made the required changes. I also tried photocopying to a certain percentage of the drawing I had but soon found out that photocopiers are set to print 1% larger than what is requested to avoid the black edges if the paper is not perfectly lined up during the process. Also, photocopiers, even the $12,000 super deluxe versions will enlarge X% in the vertical but Y% in the horizontal. If you keep on enlarging from the enlargement you will quickly see what the drawing is hopelessly skewed. No system is perfect so, as I am reminded many times when I screw up, measure, measure and measure again before you first cut into that wood.

Lou