Had a close call with a bad PDF export from a client last month

They sent over a site plan, and the scale was totally off because they flattened all the layers before sending. I almost drafted a whole section of ductwork to the wrong dimensions. How do you guys verify scale on messy incoming files?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy_cooper462mo ago

Honestly, that sounds like a basic check you should always do. I just pull a known dimension, like a door width or a parking stall, and measure it in the PDF. If it's wrong, I ask for a clean file. It's annoying but not a crisis. Almost drafting to the wrong scale just means you caught it in time. Happens all the time.

sage_schmidt62mo ago

Wait, @amy_cooper46, what do you do when the PDF is just a scan and there's no clean file to get? I've had architects send me blurry junk where nothing measures right. You just have to scale off the one good dimension and hope for the best, which feels so risky.

the_wyatt1mo ago

My buddy got a scanned floor plan from a client. Everything looked off. He scaled off what he thought was a standard hallway. Turns out the scan was stretched weird. He drafted a whole apartment layout before noticing. Had to redo two days of work because a toilet was drawn the size of a couch. Just a blurry paper mess.