How to Map Distance
- 1). Determine the distance your map will cover. If you are mapping a room, a building or an apartment unit, you will need to measure this yourself. If you are mapping a larger area such a forest, city, state or country, it might be possible to research the distance online or in an atlas.
- 2). Choose a reasonable proportion for scaling your map. For example, 1 mm can equal 1 foot, 1 yard, 1 mile, 100 miles or more. The smaller the proportion, the larger your paper will need to be. Crunch the numbers before you begin or your map won't end up fitting on the paper you chose.
- 3). Draw the scale in a corner of the map to accompany the map's legend or key. Communicate exactly what scale you chose so those reading the map can decipher distance correctly.
- 4). Map a central landmark first. Depending on what you are mapping out, this could be a piece of furniture, a room, a building, a city or a mountain range. You can either mark this landmark with a dot and a label, or you can actually draw the landmark. Consider whether this drawing should be to scale. A building might not need to be to scale, but a river or mountain range will.
- 5). Use this central landmark to measure where everything else on the map should fall. If your scale is 1 mm per 1 mile, and your next landmark is 15 miles away, draw it 15 mm away. Keep working until your entire map is filled in.
