how to make maps of a certain scale and how to print them on larger pieces of paper

[ChrisHolcomb3]

Hi! as always Esri support is hard to use so I am just doing my best to put this question where it belongs. Thanks for your patience.

Anyhow.....I need to make a map with a scale that is 1 inch = 20 feet.  It will be of an area that is basically square and roughly 11
acres.  I suspect that this will require me to go to some business (such as Fed Ex Kinkos) with some oversized printer in order to print it out. 

Is this possible to do this with ArcMap 10?  Could anybody give me general guidelines on how to make a map of this scale? Could anybody give me suggestions of where to find information on this support website on what I want to do -- like for instance suggest search terms?

[RobertBorchert]

What are the dimensions of the area you wish to show?

For the sake of argument lets say it is a polygon. 

Basically if it is 11 acres and it is a perfect square then it is roughly 479160 ft Square or  692.21383979230002101435931902876 ft on a side so if you have 1 inch = 20 feet then 692.21383979230002101435931902876/20 = 34.610691989615001050717965951438 inches of paper space on each edge.

So in your layout window adjust your layout size to 34.6 (not exact but close) on each side then zoom your polygon in so that it is perfectly matching the edges of the paper space.

So if you know the dimensions of your are in feet make your layout window adjusted appropriately

Say your 11 acres is 300 feet on one edge then it would be 1597.2 on the other

300ft/20ft/in = 15" by 1597.2ft/20ft/in = 79.86"

Keep in mind that is going to be the size of your data frame in the layout window.  Your plotter may need at least .75 inches on the edges of the paper.  As it would be on a roll you would not need to worry about the other edges.


Basically take the lengths in feet and divide by 20 to get the sizes needed for your paper then put the edges of the area right on the edge of the paper.

Hi! as always Esri support is hard to use so I am just doing my best to put this question where it belongs. Thanks for your patience.

Anyhow.....I need to make a map with a scale that is 1 inch = 20 feet.  It will be of an area that is basically square and roughly 11
acres.  I suspect that this will require me to go to some business (such as Fed Ex Kinkos) with some oversized printer in order to print it out. 

Is this possible to do this with ArcMap 10?  Could anybody give me general guidelines on how to make a map of this scale? Could anybody give me suggestions of where to find information on this support website on what I want to do -- like for instance suggest search terms?

[ChrisHolcomb3]

Thank you very much Robert-- this gives me good info on how large the paper will be.
One concern that I have is that I expand something up on a plotter will it make the font all weird looking? I continue to know very little about this process and if anybody could recommend tutorials and search terms for 'Esri support' that would be great.

[RobertBorchert]

If your looking at it in the layout window it should print the same relative size as it does there. 

What you can do is export your map as a pdf.  say your paper is 36 x 24 the pdf will be that size.

then print the pdf to your local printer in 11 x 17 or 8 1/2 by 11.  Have it tile the pages and that will give you something of an idea how it will look on a full size page.

FedEX is probably going to charge you an arm and a leg so you want to get it right the first time.

Thank you very much Robert-- this gives me good info on how large the paper will be.
One concern that I have is that I expand something up on a plotter will it make the font all weird looking? I continue to know very little about this process and if anybody could recommend tutorials and search terms for 'Esri support' that would be great.