If you are thinking of giving a useful gift to some of your customers, here are some ideas. These are the people who would love to get an architect scale ruler from you, with your company logo.
Architect
Kitchen Designer
City Planner
Engineer
Contractor
Builder
Draftsman
Construction Estimator
All of these people design or read blueprints in the course of their daily work. An architect scale ruler is a necessity for measuring the size of objects on the blueprint. It is used in the office and at the job site.
If your company needs to advertise to the people on this list, then you need to order architect scale rulers with your logo permanently engraved.
Let’s jump right into a subject that is close to everyone: Designing a kitchen. The architect scale ruler is a very useful device to plan your new kitchen. It helps you to draw your room and appliances to scale, and to read the measurements later. It will tell you if there is enough room to place a refrigerator in a certain part of your space.
Designing Your Kitchen with an Architect Scale Ruler
Now let’s get to the nitty gritty. Which scale should you use on the ruler? Your ruler may have some or all of these scales:
(1/8, ¼), (½, 1), (3/8, 3/4), (3, 1½)
If you use the “1” scale, that would mean that 1 inch on the scale equals one foot in real life. Let’s not use that one, because your 15 foot long kitchen would need a piece of paper at least 15 inches long. Let’s use the 1/4 scale, which means 1/4 inch on the scale (on the paper) represents one foot in real life. This means that your 8 inch wide paper will represent 32 feet. Your kitchen will fit on that paper now.
From here on, you just measure your room and appliances, and draw them on your paper, to scale.
A quick designer tip: Draw your appliances to scale on colored paper, cut them out, and move them around on your drawing for the best arrangement. Also, do the same with any other cabinets or tables that you already have, and want to use them in your design.
Not all rulers are created equal. Some are rigid, some are retractable tapes, some are in metric, some are in imperial. There is also a special kind of ruler used for converting the measurements on a scaled-down drawing or map: the architect scale ruler.
If you had all these materials to choose from, and needed to make an architect scale ruler, which would be the best choice?
wood. Too thick. The markings wouldn’t be close enough to the drawing. Also, printing fine delicate lines on wood is impossible. Warping and changing of length due to heat and humidity is a big factor to consider.
steel. It would rust in time. Stainless steel would be a better choice, but a little expensive.
plastic. Not durable enough for daily use. Plus, how would you put fine markings on it?
aluminum. The best choice, because it won’t rust, lasts forever, and you can print fine lines on it using Photo Anodizing.
Architects, designers, and planners use architect scale rulers in their work every day. Here are 3 ways that an architect scale ruler can help a homeowner like you, too.
Plan a new arrangement of furniture in your living room. Whether you just
Kitchen Design
moved in, or you just want to make a fresh arrangement of your furniture, you can start with a piece of paper and an architect scale ruler to see if your plan will actually fit the way you want it to fit.
Design a new kitchen in your home. The best way to start is to find a picture of a kitchen in a magazine, then see if the components will fit into your space. An architect ruler will let you make precise measurements in your drawings of different kitchen designs.
Design a garden in your back yard. If your space is limited, the architect ruler will help you to make the best of the space you have. You may discover that you don’t need to buy as many tomato plants, or pepper plants.
Most people don’t need an architect scale ruler, but for those who do need one, this is for
Architect At Work
you.
This ruler will make your job easier, so you can obtain measurements off the drawing without having to convert from the drawing’s actual measurements. You can use the 12″ size in the office. Or, you can take the 6″ pocket version with you into the field. For larger drawings, you can use the retractable pocket architect tape. This will work either in the field, or the office.
Everyone knows how to use an inch ruler. And most people know how to use a metric ruler. It doesn’t matter that there are 2.54 centimeters per inch. A centimeter is a centimeter. But, if you remember when you saw an architect scale ruler for the first time, you will agree that the scales are a
Architect Working on Plans
mystery. There are several scales on the same ruler. There are (1/8, ¼), (½, 1), (3/8, 3/4), (3, 1½). What do these scales mean?
Let’s bring in a blueprint. Now you need that architect scale ruler to measure the size of objects on the blueprint. Since the objects are drawn at a scale of the original size, you need to match up that scale with the corresponding scale on the ruler.
How do you choose the correct scale? Look in the bottom right corner of the blueprint. There is a box of useful information. It has the name of the drawing, the date drawn, the architect name, and the scale that it was drawn with. If the scale is 1/8, then every 1/8″ on the paper represents 1 foot (or 1 mile, etc) in reality. So you would use the 1/8 scale on the architect ruler. Where the ruler says 16, the reality measurement is 16 feet (or 16 miles, etc). It doesn’t matter right now that the measurement on the paper is 2 inches. That’s too much information. Let the ruler do the work for you.
Congratulate yourself. Now you can consider yourself proficient at using an architect scale ruler.
An architect scale ruler with your company logo has more uses than you may have realized. Your customers need architect rulers. Here are 5 important uses:
To help new homeowners read the blueprints for a house that was designed for them. They can easily see if certain rooms will be large enough for their furniture.
Carpenters can easily find the sizes of lumber that they need to order for the job.
HVAC contractors can calculate the size and amount of sheet metal they need to install the furnace and air conditioning.
Excavators can see the exact location and size of the footers they need to dig.
And of course, architects use these rulers continuously in their day to day work.
