How do I…

Add a scale bar

Put a graphic scale on a sheet. It follows the sheet's scale and prints with it.

Where to find it: Palette (left edge) › Plan tools › Scale bar

1. Open Palette, choose the Plan tools tab, then Scale bar.
2. Click on the sheet where it goes. It is placed and selected, and the Properties tab flashes: its settings are there. A sheet has one scale bar: placing it again moves it.
3. Drag it to move it. Properties shows its Divisions and its Length. Leave the length empty for Auto, a round length about two inches long on paper, or type one such as 50' or 15 m. Back to Auto returns to the automatic length. A length longer than the sheet can hold is refused, with the most it can take. Its ⋯ holds Delete.

The bar reads 0, a quarter, a half and its whole length, such as 0 · 5 · 10 · 20 ft, or metres in a metric workspace. It is drawn from the sheet's scale, so it changes when the scale does.

The whole bar, its numbers included, stays on the sheet: placed or dragged near an edge, it moves in to fit.

A sheet keeps one scale bar. Pasted, one lands only on a sheet without one. If two people place one at the same moment, the first is kept, and its Properties offer Delete the other.

In Annotations it is listed under Plan tools with the compass, where one eye and one padlock cover both; see Place the compass.

It prints in the same place when you download a PDF. Versions already issued keep what they printed.

On a sheet without a scale the bar is grey and says Set the scale on this sheet first. Its Properties say Not printed and offer Set scale, and PDFs leave it out until the scale is set. The same happens when the blueprints on one sheet have different scales, and then it says Blueprints on this sheet have different scales.

Moving, resizing or turning a blueprint leaves the scale bar where it is on the paper.