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I would like to read blueprints of my house in Adobe Illustrator. I know, this app is not designed for that purpose, but forget about that for a moment.

I would like to measure distances on the blueprint, but when I import the plans of my house into Illustrator, then the size of the blueprint won't match with the reality. I can't use the Rulers of Illustrator, because there is no nice scaling factor between the imported blueprint and Illustrator's ruler. I need to scale the blueprint to match the distances on the plans.

Is there a way of scaling compound objects by declaring the size of it's sub-objects? Let's say, there is a window hole on the blueprint, who's width I know, and I would like to scale everything by declaring the size of a line that represents the window hole.

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    No. Illustrator isn't a CAD application.
    – Scott
    Commented Apr 30, 2020 at 10:51
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    Does this answer your question? Illustrator: How to scale precisely to a specific (off-screen) reference point?
    – Wolff
    Commented Apr 30, 2020 at 11:03
  • What format are the plans in? You might be better to simply download something like the free version of Autodesk's DWG TrueView. There's a tutorial on youtube which shows how to measure dimensions in a drawing.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Apr 30, 2020 at 11:03
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    Hi SaWo and welcome to GDSE. I'm voting to close this question as a duplicate of a question I once answered. At first it might not look like the same issue, but I think you could use the method I mention. Make a rectangle the same size as the window hole and at the same position. Use that rectangle as clipping mask for the whole drawing. Scale the rectangle to the correct size and release the clipping mask.
    – Wolff
    Commented Apr 30, 2020 at 11:05
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    Another possible way to do it might be to have the drawings printed to scale. Many architects' offices or building firms have the right plotting equipment, and a print will cost you very little. Then you can use a scale rule to take measurements off the drawing.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Apr 30, 2020 at 11:19

2 Answers 2

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Unless you have a very small house, this will not be possible.

Illustrator has a maximum canvas size of 227x227", or about 18.9ft / 5.8m.

If you do happen to have a tiny house, or you can go room by room, the following might work:

  1. Make sure the document is set with the desired units. File > Document Setup > Units
  2. Click on the "window" rectangle that you know the real width of.
  3. Note the width of the object. Now compute your scaling percentage, which is {actual size} / {Illustrator size} x 100%. E.g., if the actual size is 1m but Illustrator shows 20cm, your scaling is 1000cm/20cm x 100% = 2000%.
  4. Select All (or select all parts you wish to resize together).
  5. Object > Transform > Scale...
  6. Enter your scaling percentage in the Uniform box, and click OK.

You may need to experiment with "Scale strokes and effects," depending on the drawing. You may need to scale the strokes and effects to be able to see the lines at all, if the scaling factor is sufficiently large.

Illustrator will also complain that it's unable to apply the transformation, if objects would not fit on the canvas.

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Since AI is not A CAD software, handle with this task could be really tricky. But you can try to make a rectangle having the desired dimension of the window, then you can freely scale the whole blueprint until you match the window "hole" with the rectangle that you made with your 1:1 dimension. Anyway, Tolerances will be modified, so if you are looking to export this blueprint in order to use it for cnc or laser cutting to make a prototype or something, it will not work.

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