Drawing scale factors 1:1 or 1:12

[JRBOURNE]

The office i work in has this method of dealing with plans and details that usually results in a drawing being 1/12 of its true dimensions. I believe its because they set it up in decimal units, and type in 1 for 1 foot or 2.25 for 2'-3".
however i prefer in working with architectural units so i change the drawing units, this causes everything drawn at "10" to actually measure out to 10 inches. so now all of a sudden im scaling down every dimension i type in by 12. This seems to create more problems when it comes to setting the viewport scales.

i dont see why you would want a drawing set up in ANYTHING other than 1:1 scale, even if that does cause details to be tiny compared to the site plan.

They refer to it as having a drawing "set up in either Feet or Inches" depending on whether its a full site plan or just details. im thinking about recommending we stop doing this but has anyone else ever heard of working this way? If you have would explain the advantage or just the idea behind it.


*******EDIT******

so after talking more about it with others, i understand a little more-

Our surveys get brought in at a scale- that when measured in Architectural units- is at 1/12 scale, so 100 feet in the survey reads as 100 inches when in architectural units.
i said why not just scale the survey up by 12 when we bring it in, they said this screws the coordinates and makes it completely off the coordinate system.

so when i draw details in the same drawing using architectural units, it draws everything 12 times the size.

is this how everyone deals with surveys and site plans??