What a measurement rests on.
Where the scale comes from, what the measure tool does with it, and when it refuses.
Measurement & scale
Every quantity measured off a drawing rests on one number: how much real length a point on the sheet stands for. Blueprint Auditor reads that from the drawing where the drawing states it, and says so rather than assuming one.
Where the scale comes from
- The title block. A sheet that prints "1:50" or "1/4″ = 1′-0″" is read, and the measure tool starts from that with the scale shown beside it.
- Your own calibration. Type a scale and it governs from then on, which is the answer for a sheet plotted to fit the paper.
- Nothing. A sheet that states no scale is left uncalibrated, and shapes drawn on it are kept as shapes with no quantity until a scale is set. They are counted in the export as excluded, and never quietly at 1:100.
A CAD file is different: DWG and DXF carry real units, so a length is read from the file rather than from a printed statement.
What the measure tool produces
- Lengths, areas and counts, each against a named condition with your own cost code on it.
- An area becomes a volume when you give it a depth, and a length becomes an area when you give it a height. The depth is typed, never inferred from a hatch pattern.
- A deduction is subtracted from its condition and kept visible: the export carries the gross, what was taken off, and how many deductions there were.
- A shape drawn but not inked is a proposal, not a measurement. It is excluded from every total, and the row says why.
Getting it out
CSV for a sheet you already have, or a workbook where each condition's total is a SUMIF formula over the quantity column — so a row corrected in Excel moves its total, and deductions sum correctly because they are written negative. A second sheet in the workbook records the scale the quantities were measured at and every shape left out of a total.
What it will not do
- It will not measure a sheet with no scale. A wrong scale turns every quantity on the drawing into a wrong quantity, which is worse than no quantity.
- It will not convert a nominal figure into an effective one. What is measured is what is drawn.
- A scanned sheet can be measured once you calibrate it, but nothing on it is read automatically: there is no text and no geometry to read.