And lo on Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:40:26 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake, saying:

> I'm just sitting here looking over the plans for our new building at  
> work. It looks roughly like a tangled maze of lines, encrusted with text.
>
> Some of the text is in fact almost unreadable because it's so tiny. Even  
> when printed out, I can bearly read it. I had a look at the PDF file,  
> and it says the document dimensions are "23.39 x 33.11 inches". A quick  
> trip to Google tells me that's 594.106 x 840.994 mm. (Wow, that sounds  
> pretty big!) A quick check on Wikipedia tells me that's exactly A1. (!!)
>
> So, where the plan says "1:50 scale", it's really "1:400" when printed  
> on A4 instead of A1.

Taking into account that the software may have 'fixed' it to print within  
your printer margins.

> The drawing contains a number of items of interesting text. For example,  
> this is "DWG NO 2222.173". It is described as "GROUND FLOOR PLAN, OFFICE  
> B SETTING OUT".
>
> Also, next to the stairs, I found this:
>
>    OVERALL RISE OF STAIR 3825mm
>
>    EACH RISE: 165mm (x23)
>    EACH GOING: 250mm.
>    BALUSTRADE TO BE TOP FIXED.
>    DESIGN TO COMPLY WITH B.REGS
>    PART K & M.
>
> I just love the way they quote the size of a flight of stairs in  
> millimeters! I mean, it rises 12 feet up, and we care about 25mm?

Yes if you want it to be 12 feet up when it races the top.

> I have no idea what "BALUSTRADE" is. (Assuming I've even read it right  
> from the tiny writing on the printout.)

It's that bit that stops you from falling off the side of the stairs.

> Similarly, ever head of "BRISE SOLEIL"? Because apparently this building  
> will have *lots* of those.

Sun-shade.

> But most of all, it's just numbers. *Millions* of numbers. Almost every  
> line has a second line next to it with some numbers. Many of the corners  

> there are dashed lines *everywhere*.
>
> (I just reliased... Every single doorway in the place has a unique ID  
> written on it. Wow.)

Yup

> There are also all sorts of symbols that look like they probably mean  
> something to a building engineer. Means nothing to me though! Heh.

Yup again

> It's certainly interesting anyway...

Looking at building plans is always fun.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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