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I opened a new sheet in Solidworks drawing, in the title block, there was a field written "Do not scale drawing". What does that mean?

There is a scale already being chosen over there. It was just a new sheet and the default title box appeared. I searched the internet but could not find any simple straight description about that.

do not scale drawing

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  • $\begingroup$ "Do not scale" means that there are sufficient dimensions stated to locate all dimensions - just have to read the drawing correctly. $\endgroup$
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Jun 28, 2019 at 15:02

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This is information to be shown on the printed copy - it is telling the reader to please not print this A1 drawing sheet on A4 paper, or else the information you have highlighted "Scale 1:8" would not be true any more.

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    $\begingroup$ Even if you print it at the "correct" size, paper expands and contracts differently along its two sides when the humidity of the air changes, so you should never try to take accurate dimensions from a printed drawing by measurement. This is a standard warning message on printed drawings. $\endgroup$
    – alephzero
    Commented Jun 28, 2019 at 14:10
  • $\begingroup$ @alphazero not to mention line thickness. $\endgroup$
    – joojaa
    Commented Jun 28, 2019 at 21:55
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    $\begingroup$ The reality of engineering is that drawings are often not drawn to scale. The dimensions are changed to "be correct", but the physical size implied by measuring the print may be off. It depends on the skill of the drafter and software. $\endgroup$
    – JohnHoltz
    Commented Jun 30, 2019 at 3:57
  • $\begingroup$ @JohnHolz id say that that used to be the case but some industries have deprecated direct modeling. So the designer can not even model off scale uness they intntionally do so (even then its tedious as they need to fight the software at all steps of the way) $\endgroup$
    – joojaa
    Commented Jul 2, 2019 at 20:45
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In mechanical drafting and machine shop school, it meant not to measure the drawing using a 6" machinist scale, and use those measurements to fabricate the part.

(You can replace 6" scale with any type of measuring device.)

In my career I have worked with hundreds of mechanical engineers, machinists, toolmakers, tool-and-die makers, etc. To a man, I'm confident that they would all agree.

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