Measuring from a PDF

Now that RoS has moved away from working with paper documents, plans officers often have to measure, plot and scale from digitally held deed plans, normally in a PDF format. This guide illustrates one method for taking scale measurements from a PDF file.

Useful links

Vector perfect mapping

Plan Creator Technical Guide

1 Open the PDF
2 Click on the Tools tab
3 Click on the Measure icon a toolbar will now be displayed with the pdf.
4 Click Measuring Tool on the tool bar
First time only a. Right mouse click on PDF b. Select Preferences from the pop-up list c. At the bottom of the left-hand panel select Units d. Change the Page units to centimetres e. Close the window.
5 On your PDF, use a feature you know the 1:1 scale (real world) measurement for, or you can use the scale bar on the PDF of there is one. Click the start of the line Click the end of the line This will give you the "paper" length of the line.
6 Right mouse click and select Change Scale Ratio and Precision In the first box type in the length as measured on "paper" In the second box type in the actual 1:1 scale (real world) length Use the drop down boxes to change the units to match the measurements you are using Click OK.
7 All measurements on the PDF will now be shown as 1:1 scale (real world) measurements.