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How do I scale plans in Buildxact?
How do I scale plans in Buildxact?

Use the Buildxact takeoff tool to scale your plans. Learn how to apply a common scale to your plans or choose to scale your plans manually.

Matt Govett avatar
Written by Matt Govett
Updated this week

Audience - builders

Read/watch time - 5 mins

Article contents - How to steps/help video

Scaling your plans in Buildxact is quick and ensures more accurate costings.

Metric:

Imperial:

When you first upload plans you will see the following pop-up box asking if you want to scale your plans now. If you're ready to scale you plans, click 'Confirm'.

(To learn how to upload plans, click on the Uploading plans button at the end of this article)

Name your plans, rotate if needed and apply a common scale

Your plans will appear as shown on the screen below. You can toggle through each page of your plans by clicking on the menu of pages on the left of the screen. Select the page you want to scale.

  1. You can rename your plan by clicking in the Plan Name box.

  2. Rotate your plan to the left or right as required.

  3. Click on the empty box under Select common scale. Select the scale you want to apply to your plan. In the example below we're applying 1/4":1.

Note: depending on your location, the dropdown menu will show either Imperial or Metric measurement scales.

Using the dropdown menu allows you to select a common scale and apply it to one, or all, of your uploaded plans.

Manually scale your plans

4. You also have the option to manually scale your plans. Do this by clicking on the Manually scale button.

To measure manually, draw a horizontal line on the longest line on the plan with dimensions (you can zoom in on the drawing for more accuracy) then input the measurement. We recommend you draw the longest line on the plan. The following video shows how it's done.

Repeat this process for the vertical line.

Copy your scale to other plans

Once a plan is scaled manually, you have the option to ‘Apply to all plans’; however, if you only want to apply it to a select number of other plans, then follow these steps:

  1. Select the plan with the manual scale you want to copy.

  2. Hold down the SHIFT key and select one or more plans to copy to.

  3. The button will change to ‘Apply to selected plans’. Click the button.

Check the accuracy of your measurements

To check the accuracy of the measurements on your plan, zoom in on one of the lines (horizontal or vertical) and click at the start and again at the end of the line. The small label that appears will show the length of the line. This should match the length that Buildxact has indicated on the plan.

For more information on uploading and organizing your plans, see these related articles:

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