I am new to sketchup and layout. I imported a floor plan to layout from sketch up. In layout i set the scale to 1:50 and the paper size of A3. The problem is the floor plan is too big. How can i make it smaller to fit on the paper and be still on scale.
Change the scale to one that fits the sheet size.
There are four options.
As @222unknown said, change the scale so the floor plan fits on the sheet.
Two: change the size of the paper in File>Document Setup>Paper so the house fits on it.
Three: Split the floor plan across multiple sheets.
Four: model a smaller house.
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You seem to be asking for an impossibility: the scale is the relationship between printed size and actual size, e.g. 1:50 means the print will be 1/50 of real size. You can’t make the print smaller without changing the scale or eliminating part of the floor plan.
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The drawing will be to scale whatever you do, providing you started with parallel projection. It won’t necessarily be a recognised scale though. Here is one way to rescale a viewport and change the drawing scale as you do so. But you are more likely to want to choose a particular scale and then see if that fits.
Well, a house that doesn’t fit on an A3 sheet at 1:50 has probably at least 300 square meters (more than 3000 sq.feet).
Joking aside, @cynthsoy, have you used the right modelling unit in SketchUp? We have seen houses with walls three kilometers high when an user has been using meters while thinking he was using millimeters.
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thanks, changing the scale to 1:100 works, although the floor plan becomes tiny on A3, the project requires the work to be on A3 size paper.
Yes i used the right unit, millimeters.
thanks you for this illustration. I didn’t Know what viewport meant before. The project requires the drawings to be on a recognized scale so i guess i will change the scale to one that fits.
Standard metric scales for architectural plans are 1:50 and 1:100. It is not uncommon with larger houses (pace @Anssi) that they don’t fit on an A3 at 1:50 and yet look a bit small at 1:100. Nothing much you can do about that if you have a fixed paper size and have to work to recognised scales. That is, assuming the house was drawn correctly at 1:1 in Sketchup in the first place.
OT: It is most often not possible to show readable plans on A4 sheets but generally other people hate us architects for using A3 paper. Most only have access to A4 printers anyway and A3 is a similar nuisance to store as large format sheets.
When I used a drawing board (I can just still remember those days), we normally produced drawings on A1 sheets with the occasional A2 and even A0. You had to have an advanced degree in origami to fold them and boy did they take up space!
Some architects do seem to manage just using A4 and you can see why one might want to in terms of printing and storage. I just find that A3 is a good compromise and as I send them electronically as PDFs, they can be printed out at A4 even if they are not at a usual scale.
Yes, for the projects I do, contractors like A3 PDFs - not too much scrolling on the monitor at base or even their extra large phones on site.
And if the drawing is not too cluttered then if they print out at A4 the information is still legible.
I standardised on A3 years ago when I became a sole trader, the main reason being I couldn’t afford a larger printer. I’ve never had a complaint from Client or Contractor and they’re easier to handle on site, certainly for domestic scale work. More often than not the client and contractor will print them at A4 and, as noted, they are still readable. One of joys of CAD is the ability to easily rescale - I have a large house at the moment where the plans won’t quite fit at 1:50, so I rescaled them 1:75. Works fine, and it’s dimensioned anyway, so no one need scale from it.