Warning: I just realized my old habit of skipping the title block check on legacy files almost cost me a client in Cincinnati last month.

I was rushing to update a 2018 site plan for a permit resubmission and almost missed that the original drafter had the project scale set to 1"=30' instead of the 1"=40' the client's engineer required, which I only caught because the surveyor's email signature had the right scale listed.

4 comments

4 Comments

valh321mo ago

Wait, the scale was wrong in the actual title block? @rowanellis

wyattrobinson1mo ago

Man, that's terrifying. So the printed plans everyone was working from had the wrong scale written right there in the corner? How far did it get before someone caught it? I've seen small stuff slip through, but a wrong scale on the actual sheet feels like a whole different level of problem. That's the kind of mistake that gets a building put in the wrong spot.

kim3731mo ago

But how big of a deal is a wrong scale really? Most people use the digital dimensions anyway, not a ruler on paper. It seems like a scary typo that wouldn't actually change much work.

rowanellis1mo ago

Wasn't there a whole article about this being a common blind spot? I read something about how our brains just skip over title blocks we've seen a thousand times, especially on old files from other people. It's like we're on autopilot for the main drawing and forget the notes hold critical info. Your story is a perfect example, catching it from a random email signature is pure luck lol. That's a scary close call, makes me want to literally put a sticky note on my monitor to check it first every single time.