Operation Manual

Drawing to scale
In Draw a drawing is made on a predefined drawing area. This is normally Letter or A4 page size
depending on your locale, computer setup, and the default printer connected to your computer.
However, depending on the actual size of the drawn objects, it is often convenient to reduce or
enlarge the drawing by scaling (for example 1:10 or 2:1).
You can specify a scale value by going to Tools > Options > LibreOffice Draw > General (Figure
249) and selecting a value from the Drawing scale drop-down list. The default setting for this option
is 1:1. When you make a change to the drawing scale, it is reflected in the rulers at the top and left
side of your drawing.
Figure 249: Options LibreOffice Draw dialog -- General page
Any change in the drawing scale has no effect on the basic drawing operations. Draw automatically
calculates the necessary values (for example, dimension lines). The spacing of the grid points is
independent of drawing scale as the grid is an optical drawing aid and not a drawing element.
An increase in scale (for example 1:4) allows you to draw objects that would not fit into the paper
size for your drawing. A decrease in drawing scale (for example 4:1) allows you to draw small
objects accurately at an increased size to make them easier to understand. An example of drawing
to scale is shown in Figure 250. All three rectangles are the same size.
• The left rectangle was drawn at the default 1:1 scale and dimensioned.
• The drawing scale was then changed to 1:4 and the dimensions were automatically
increased by Draw to reflect the decrease in scale for the center rectangle.
• The drawing scale was then changed to 4:1 and the dimensions were automatically
decreased by Draw to reflect the increase in scale for the right rectangle.
Figure 250: Examples of drawing to scale
220 LibreOffice 4.3 Draw Guide