My clients never specify a scale requirement for topographic surveys so I generally use either 1:200, 1:250 or 1:500 in Carlson. I prefer to use 1:200 as it prevents too much clutter in the drawing but for larger surveys 1:500 is used to fit on drawing sheets. Just wondering what scales everyone else default to.
It all deeeepends!
For highly-developed areas I generally use 1:240 (1"= 20') or 1:360 (1"= 30'), if it's more open I'll go 1:480 (1"= 40') or smaller.
My scale is entirely dependent on the drawing and what size paper I need or want to fit it on. All my scales are based upon what can be found on an engineers scale, 1":10', 1":20', 1":30', 1":40', 1":50', 1":100' and so on.
Totalsurv, post: 387405, member: 8202 wrote: My clients never specify a scale requirement for topographic surveys so I generally use either 1:200, 1:250 or 1:500 in Carlson. I prefer to use 1:200 as it prevents too much clutter in the drawing but for larger surveys 1:500 is used to fit on drawing sheets. Just wondering what scales everyone else default to.
I'd say it depends upon the factors you mention, i.e. how much text the map will have and how much space it will take up at some legible text height, as well as what scale will fit the mapping onto the fewest number of sheets without loss of legibility. The usual ranges (in non-metric practice) would be:
1:120, 1:240 and up to 1:480. Beyond that, the details such as trees tend to disappear.
In a great majority of cases I use 1"=20' for topo. In a few cases 1"=40'. The Oregon DOT uses 1"=50' for everything.
Totalsurv, post: 387405, member: 8202 wrote: My clients never specify a scale requirement for topographic surveys...
Until I get all the deliverable specifications from the client (scale, datum, contour interval, cad standards, exact scope marked on a plan, etc.) upfront, even in-house engineering "clients", I refuse to schedule the field work. I'm too old to put up with the whining that I didn't give them exactly what they wanted anymore.
I use what ever fits on an 18x24 or a 24x36 at engineering scales as Monte mentioned, of course sometimes a contract requires a particular scale.
Looking at some of the scale responses, 1:240 1:480 looks like some of you are working in feet. I usually use AutoCad's default of a inch as a unit.
It is rare these days that I give any of my clients a sheet drawing anymore. Mostly they are just interested in the cad file. All of my text is annotative so the only real thing that needs scaled is the symbols. If I was energetic I would update my circa 1990's symbols to annotative and then even they would not be a problem. As a default I use 1:600 for larger areas and 1:240 for smaller / more detailed sites.