How to Make a Map to an Engineering Scale

Make your own scaled maps and drawings.

Finding your way in the world is easier with the use of a map, and you can create your own map to show the location of just about anything. Whether you're drawing out a landscape plan for your yard or showing the location of buried treasure, a map that is drawn to scale will help pinpoint exactly where everything is. With the aid of an engineer's scale, making a map is a relatively easy task, allowing quick conversions from large distances to map size.

Things You'll Need

• Compass
• Graph paper
• Engineer's scale
• Measuring wheel

Instructions

1. Find true north by using the compass, and mark that direction on the graph paper so you can keep your directions straight when making the map.

2. Calculate the scale by taking the length and width of the area to be mapped and reducing it to the size of your map paper. A typical triangular engineer's scale will be marked on each side with either 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60. If your map paper is 10 inches square and the area to be mapped is 100 feet square, you could use the 10 scale (1 inch = 10 feet). Add or subtract zeros as needed. If the area to be mapped is 1,000 feet square, you could still use the 10 scale but now 1 inch = 100 feet.

3. Measure from the corner of the area to be mapped to the first object you want to show on the paper map. For objects not on the perimeter of your map area, you will need to measure the distance horizontally and vertically from the starting point in order to correctly locate it on the paper map.

4. Measure the same distance on the graph paper map using the scale you selected in Step 2. If you are using the 10 scale and you measured 20 feet in Step 3, then you would measure 2 inches on the paper map (1 inch = 10 feet, 2 inches = 20 feet).

5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for each object you want to map.

6. Write the scale you used somewhere on your map so that others reading your map will know distances between objects.

Tips & Warnings

• Use an appropriate scale for your map to keep it legible. Using 1:50 will make your lines five times closer together than 1:10.

References

• U.S. Fire Administration: Using Engineer and Architect Scales
• CAD Tutor: Units and Scales
• Integrated Publishing: Engineer's Scale