Site & scale

Some of you guys have had trouble with the scale of the site plan. If you're site looks like this please see the comments below to help resolve the problem.

Crazy Topo

Original email:

Hello Nathan,

So two questions about the site plan homework assignment 9. 

1.) I've attached two pictures of my problem. So the site contours increase by 1'. They always increase...so the end contour slope is 22' high! That doesn't seem right, but I can't find any other numbers/clues on the site grading plan to suggest otherwise. Am I doing something wrong?

Reply:

Did you scale the drawing in CAD?

my guess is that the scale might be thrown off from importing/exporting. The easiest way is to verify in CAD and then re-importing to Revit.

Reply:

The drawing has not been scaled anywhere. It's the same scale as the original C4.01. I've doubled checked all steps to make sure scale is the same. 

The contour is 1' increments, right?

 

Instructions:

Ok, since it hasn’t been scaled at all the whole site that you’ve modeled is 24" x 36"… the same size as the page that it was exported from.

In CAD, take a measurement of something that you can verify against the drawings (parking spots usually work well for this). For example, a parking spot (non ADA) should measure 8'-0" wide. So take a dimension measuring what this distance is on the CAD file. Since it hasn’t been scaled at all, that dimension will probably be ½ an inch since that is what size it is shown on paper. Use the scale tool to increase the size of the drawing.

For example: if my parking spot measured ½" across instead of 8'-0", I would need to scale my drawing up by 192 (8'-0" ÷ ½" = 192). Now make another dimension to verify that you're close to 8'-0"; this doesn’t have to be exact but reasonably close. If you're scaled up correctly, change the heights on your polylines since they would scale up also (1' would now be 192').

Warning: this step includes math. If you're not great with multiplying/dividing dimensions I would suggest using a Construction Calculator. You can download a number of free apps that serve this function (INCHcalc, Home Pro, or Dewalt) or you can find a few decent versions online. Construction calculators are great as they can do all the tedious fractional dimensions very quickly.

Now when you import your CAD file into Revit and extrude your site you should see a much more gradual slope.

This step is done automatically within acrobat usually but other times it is not. Depending on your version of acrobat, your compression settings, and your export from PDF settings the scale may/may not be preserved. Many people have lucked out and had the scale preserved, sorry that yours did not cooperate.

 If you continue to have trouble, please email me and we will get it resolved.

-NH