topic Re: How to calculate appropriate text size? for 1:50 etc, sc in Documentation

How to calculate appropriate text size? for 1:50 etc, scale?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 May 2023 13:57:58 GMT

Hello,

I'm just wondering what is the proper calculation for a text for appropriate scale?

I used to use a calculation formula for it but forgot.

Because I'm drawing details of box gutter, it is 1:50 scale and the text size is 2.00mm, I do not know if that's the fixed size for the scale, seems a bit too big.

Thank you.

Re: How to calculate appropriate text size? for 1:50 etc, sc

Anonymous — Wed, 29 May 2013 15:47:36 GMT

Text size is independent of the building scale and will print the same size on paper whether the drawing is 1:10 or 1:200.

I would not recommend text smaller than 2mm as this will become difficult for some people to read. Most jurisdictions in the US have a minimum size for text. One that I worked with set it as 1/10 inch (about 2.5mm) and I believe this is typical. Also the trend lately has been to work a lot with half size sets which means the fonts should, if anything, be a bit larger than standard.

Re: How to calculate appropriate text size? for 1:50 etc, sc

David Shorter — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 05:35:34 GMT

If you want 2mm or 2.5 or any other size of text simply use that size. In Archicad that is the size of the text ( like a stencil) at 100% at any scale.
So if you set your scale to 1:50 and use 2 mm text and print the drawing at 1:50 the text will be 2 mm high
If you change the scale to 1:100 and print the drawing the text will still be 2 mm high
Quite simple really

Re: How to calculate appropriate text size? for 1:50 etc, sc

David Maudlin — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 13:01:33 GMT

Text size is independent of the building scale and will print the same size on paper whether the drawing is 1:10 or 1:200.

There is a setting for the Text Tool (but not other annotation tools) that switches between Paper Size and Model Size, so be sure you have the correct setting. With Imperial units, the change is more apparent, as the font size changes from points to inches. With metric the change is less obvious.

David