I'm not sure when dynamic scale blocks showed up (maybe mid 90's?). We have them with a graphic scale, a north arrow, coordinate, elevation, scale factor statements. The block can be inserted into a drawing and it displays the proper scale.
The question is who is altering the drawings, rescaling them and then needing help in figuring out the "new" scale?
Why would it be the surveyor's responsibility to make it easier to use an altered drawing? The stated scale and the many lines are sufficient to have as a check if the drawing is compromised.
So, is the scale bar important to show that drawing is altered (all the lines will show that anyway), or is the argument that it's important to help third parties alter the drawing and still use it?
Cause if the argument is the latter count me out.
I'll assume MightyMoe just expressed themselves badly and didn't actually intend to accuse everyone who ever looked a survey plat they didn't pay for it of planning to deceitfully alter it. Let's take a look at a PDF from the Vermont Land Survey Library, located near 73°08'34" W 43°36'41" (web Mercator WGS 1984), a survey drawn by Land Surveyor Timothy L Short, not signed, not sealed, and not dated.
When displaying the whole sheet and displaying it as large as I can fit in my screen, the displayed scale is 1 inch = 170 feet. To display it at the scale indicated in the drawing, 1 inch = 100 feet, I would need a screen 20.4 inches tall just for the survey, plus some more for the rest of the Adobe Reader display and the Windows control bar. Sorry, I don't feel like running out and buying a monitor that large.
If I choose to display it at the scale stated on the drawing, and only seeing part of the drawing at a time, Adobe Reader purports that the actual size of the page is 8.5 X 11 inches, so any help that the software might offer in zooming to the correct scale would be a lie. Since I'm not a surveyor, I've never been through the process of submitting a drawing to this library. I don't know if it was Mr. Short who submitted it as 8.5 X 11 or if the folks who run the library shrunk it to that size.
Anyone can download my boundary surveys, my state being a recording state, and print them out at will. I may not be liable for misuse, but I still like to avoid trouble wherever I can. A scale bar helps with that.
