Online Scale Calculator

[zemjw]

Hello,

I'm doing some scratchbuilding at the moment, and found myself having to convert full size measurements to scale ones. Being very lazy, this seemed like something the computer should be doing 

I'm sure such things are out there, but I couldn't find an online convertor, and I couldn't find an "app for that"  (although there were a few that were almost there)

Anyway, I've written my own very simple one, and who knows, it may be of use to others as well 

It's at http://scalecalculator.appspot.com/

The basic form looks quite ugly on a normal browser, but works



It's really designed for my iPhone, which is more likely to be beside me when I'm measuring



I have no access to Android or anything else, so I've no idea how it'll behave on those devices.

Usage is (hopefully) fairly obvious

- put in the measurement you know in the units you like.

- select the output scale and the units you want (I generally measure in inches, but convert to mm for the thing I'm building  )

- press Calculate

It can also be used to convert between scales. For example, if you measure something on a 28mm figure (1:56), set the original scale to 56 and it will give you the corresponding measurement in the output scale you choose.

It's all server side, as I don't know javascript well enough to do it locally (if someone wants to do such a version, please do)

Anyway, hopefully it'll be of use to someone beside me

If you find any problems with it, or have any thoughts for improvements (nothing guaranteed ), please let me know

[Hammers]

Hello,

I'm doing some scratchbuilding at the moment, and found myself having to convert full size measurements to scale ones. Being very lazy, this seemed like something the computer should be doing 

I'm sure such things are out there, but I couldn't find an online convertor, and I couldn't find an "app for that"  (although there were a few that were almost there)

Anyway, I've written my own very simple one, and who knows, it may be of use to others as well 

It's at http://scalecalculator.appspot.com/

The basic form looks quite ugly on a normal browser, but works



It's really designed for my iPhone, which is more likely to be beside me when I'm measuring



I have no access to Android or anything else, so I've no idea how it'll behave on those devices.

Usage is (hopefully) fairly obvious

- put in the measurement you know in the units you like.

- select the output scale and the units you want (I generally measure in inches, but convert to mm for the thing I'm building  )

- press Calculate

It can also be used to convert between scales. For example, if you measure something on a 28mm figure (1:56), set the original scale to 56 and it will give you the corresponding measurement in the output scale you choose.

It's all server side, as I don't know javascript well enough to do it locally (if someone wants to do such a version, please do)

Anyway, hopefully it'll be of use to someone beside me

If you find any problems with it, or have any thoughts for improvements (nothing guaranteed ), please let me know

Great! Can you get it to stir paint pots to?

[zemjw]

That'll be in the next release 

[Froggy the Great]

Feature request - convert from "mm" scale to ratio scale.
So I have a character that's 34mm tall but supposed to represent 6', what scale is that when I go looking for model cars to match him.

That sorta thing.

This is excellent, by the way.

[zemjw]

@ Froggy, wasn't ignoring your request, was busy implementing it 

So, some changes for version 2

There are now two calculators - the original scale one, and one doing what Froggy suggested.

I've rounded the answers, rather than leaving them "raw". They're rounded to 3 decimal places, which is better than I can measure (1/1000 of a mm )

Scale Size Calculator is at http://scalecalculator.appspot.com/scalecalc, while the new Figure Scale Calculator is at http://scalecalculator.appspot.com/figurescale

Scale Size Calculator screen shot - operation as before



Figure Scale calculator screen shot



Simply put in the scale size, the size the object should be in real life, select the appropriate units and click "Calculate". Scales are rounded and shown to nearest number.

Another addition is that I've added two cookies, one for each calculator, which save the units and values between visits.

@ Hammers - still working on the paint stirrer - next release 

[Gluteus Maximus]

Very interesting and lots of potential uses.

Thanks very much for doing this 

[zemjw]

@Gluteus - thanks, you're welcome 

I've been thinking of a minor addition to the calculator, and thought I'd run it past the folks here.

Most of us talk about figure scale in terms of mm - 28mm figure, 6mm tank etc. What I'm thinking of adding is a drop down control with a list of the common scales. When you select one it populates the "Original scale" or "Output scale" controls with the appropriate scale value. This is optional, and you can still enter the value directly into the input box if you want.

The list I have so far is



So, I have a couple of questions I'd appreciate your thoughts about.

1. Are there any obvious mm/railway scales I've missed. I don't know anything about model railways, and most of the info was taken from Wikipedia

2. The scales don't always map as they're traditionally interpreted. What I mean by that is that 15mm is actually 1:122, but is commonly treated as 1:100. 6mm is 1:305, but everyone talks about 1:300. Should I use the actual value or the "popular" value when I fill in the list values? The value can be modified in the input box, so it doesn't matter too much, but it would be handy to know what people think.

The mapping list I have at the moment is

mm scale	scale factor
54 mm	1:34
32 mm	1:57
28 mm	1:65
25 mm	1:73
20 mm	1:91
15 mm	1:122
10 mm	1:183
6 mm	1:300
OO/HO gauge	1:87
N gauge	1:60
O gauge (UK)	1:43.5
O gauge (Europe)	1:45
O gauge (USA)	1:48
Z gauge	1:220
life size	1:1

Thanks