Ok all you tech savy peeps in here I got my hands on a PDF of the book Anatomy of the ship: Bismarck (dont ask how ) The rib plans in the book are 1/400 scale. How do I resize them to 1/144 scale so i can use them to cut my ribs? If it helps (or hurts) I am useing a Mac
You send them to someone who has the full version of Adobe Acrobat and ask them to resize them and send them back. Or, get yourself one of the many print to pdf utilities out there, and print the pages in question with a scaling factor of 400/144
If you open the pdf with google docs, it will display the pages as images (PNG format i think) you can then save these images to your hard drive. You then open the image up using the photo editing software called GiMP. Using the measuring tool, you then measure either the length or width of the hull in inches. Using a calculator you divide that amount by the amount it should be (make sure to keep your units of measurement the same) . The result is the percentage by which you will need to scale the plans by
that just means its even more likely to be wonky these are likely to be cleaner: http://www.schlachtschiff.com/krieg...plaene.htm (actually for the Tirpitz though, dont know if you care..)
Nick those are some awesome Plans and a great site thank you. How does one get them from the site into a resized state to be printed and used as rib guidelines?
You could take the PDFs to your local copy shop and have them scaled up and printed out. If you PM me your email address I will resize just the hull sections view and email you a copy tomorrow. You'll still need to grab a ruler and verify the size after it comes off your printer though.
Warning to anyone trying to work with these things- these pdfs are more along the lines of 1/600 than the indicated 1/300 scale (not majorly surprising), so if you want to print the full sheets you'll need to scale them accordingly.
Another option. Bring the pdf pages into photoshop and work in inches rather than points... you can get the plans to proper scale easily and consistently. It also allows you to easily check multiple sheets of the pdf for inconsistencies -Greg
My typical methods, assuming a PDF (I've been known to make images into PDFs just so I can make use of Acrobat's markup and measuring functionality): I use the measuring tools in Acrobat (or gsView, depending on where I am) to check dimensions and determine the actual scale of what is in the document (vs what it claims). Usually will then export the pdf pages to image files, rescale them to the needed size in whatever image editing program is on hand based on the scale I need vs the scale I've determined is present, create a new PDF from the resulting image and re-check the scale with the measuring tools.
I use AutoCAD for all these things. With a few basic commands, its easy to rescale, crop the images you want and print them. You can drag PDF's right into CAD too. Then scale by reference, such as picking 2 points, and then telling CAD what the distance ought to be. No math involved. Just scaled a set of 17x22 plans to something over 10 feet for a friend of mine. Worked fine. (www.autodesk.com) has 30 day free trials for all their software.
There are a lot of tools online that you could use so that you will be able to scale your project even to that small of a size. But in all fairness, you have to keep in mind how they are going to be pieced together which means that the smaller you get, the harder it is to maintain and put together. Looking at what you are planning, you seem to be really decided with it so that should be a good one.
