Do you draw in Metres or Millimetres?

[arshiel88]

I wonder which is much popular, to draw in meters, or to draw in millimeter.
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For me I draw in meters, that is 1m=1 autocad unit. to get rid of 3 zeros when you draw it in millimeters. I think its faster. Just imagine how many times you input measurements in a day.
The books said Metric system is to draw 1m by 1000units. I beg to disagree. 1/1000th of a meter is a millimeter, and therefore I call their method as "millimetric" and not "metric".
I see more new generation users to use meters, and old-fashioned users stick to millimeters. How about you? Where do you belong?

[andy.manninen]

I wonder which is much popular, to draw in meters, or to draw in millimeter.
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For me I draw in meters, that is 1m=1 autocad unit. to get rid of 3 zeros when you draw it in millimeters. I think its faster. Just imagine how many times you input measurements in a day.
The books said Metric system is to draw 1m by 1000units. I beg to disagree. 1/1000th of a meter is a millimeter, and therefore I call their method as "millimetric" and not "metric".
I see more new generation users to use meters, and old-fashioned users stick to millimeters. How about you? Where do you belong?
What is a Milli.....millimeter..?
I'll go with decimal feet. or surveyors foot. whatever they call it these days. Civil engineering sometimes uses Meters but not very often.

:Cheers:

[scott.wilcox]

For me each modelspace unit is a metre, each paperspace unit is a millimetre. I'm not sure what book you refer to, but a meter is what you park your car beside and put coins in; a metre is a unit of linear measure.

The system is SI (http://www.bipm.org/en/si/)

[andy.manninen]

For me each modelspace unit is a metre, each paperspace unit is a millimetre. I'm not sure what book you refer to, but a meter is what you park your car beside and put coins in; a metre is a unit of linear measure.

The system is SI (http://www.bipm.org/en/si/)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&defl=en&q=define:Meter&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

Meter is a unit of measurement. you didn't scroll down far enough.;)
see quote below from above website.....LOL:p



1) The recurrence of a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
2) A device used to measure and record the amount of electricity used by a consumer.
3) The pattern in which a steady succession of rhythmic pulses is organized.
<LI>4) unit of length measurement in the metric system, equal to 39.37 inches.

[techdon618967]

We use Meters in a Site Plan and Millimeters in a building plan.

[arshiel88]

For me each modelspace unit is a metre, each paperspace unit is a millimetre. I'm not sure what book you refer to, but a meter is what you park your car beside and put coins in; a metre is a unit of linear measure.

The system is SI (http://www.bipm.org/en/si/)

The modern Metric System, known as "System International " (SI) was established
by international agreement in 1960. It is the international standard of
measurement and the system mandated by the Metric Conversion Act for use in the
United States.

Architectural GRAPHIC Standards

It's basically the same. :D

[avdesign]

Arughhhhhhhhhhhh Metric..... Mulitples of 10.......
I'm stuck in imperial, I only use metric if it's the last resort... Try telling a sparky you need 7.62 meters of cable pulled.. }-As the crickets start to chip-{ you say 25' then the crickets go away.

[arshiel88]

We use Meters in a Site Plan and Millimeters in a building plan.

So when you paste the building plan to the site plan you need to rescale it by 0.001? Remember dimensions are all screwed up when scaling drawings. They retain their dimension style until you changed them.

I rarely met users who use two different methods in drawing. Maybe, it is drawn in the same method, but with a different Measurement Scale Factor. (system variable DIMLFAC). Correct me if I'm wrong.

[CadDog]

We use Meters in a Site Plan and Millimeters in a building plan.

Same here and I also use Inches and Feet.. :D

[scott.wilcox]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&defl=en&q=define:Meter&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

Meter is a unit of measurement. you didn't scroll down far enough.;)
see quote below from above website.....LOL:p
Check here (http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemistry/general/si_en.html)

QUANTITY, NAME, SYMBOL
length metre (meter): m (the correct English spelling of the unit is "metre", but the variant "meter" is frequently used in the United States) mass kilogram: kg time second: s electric current ampere: A thermodynamic temperature kelvin: K amount of substance mole: mol luminous intensity candela: cd

[scott.wilcox]

I think most of the world use SI except for the USA. In Canada everything is metric except for construction, since imperial units are still standard for wood sizing. Government contracts are all in SI units; Canada went metric in 1970.

I think the american scientific world is metric, even old Star Trek episodes had Chekov giving distances in kilometres.

The Canadian Football League measures it's field in yards, still. Poor Ricky Williams is having a tough time of it up here. (http://tsn.ca/cfl/news_story/?ID=172092&hubname=cfl)

[Robert.Hall]

I am a bit screwy with my cad work.

My die designers like everything in english units. -I draw it in English

My quality inspectors use metric tape measures -I dimension in Metric to mm

I need to show weights in KG using thedensity of steel -I use cubic meters in the calculation

See where I am going with all of this?

Ouch, ouch, and double ouch.

I can hack it, however, it is tough to convince new employees to use the system.

[techdon618967]

So when you paste the building plan to the site plan you need to rescale it by 0.001? Remember dimensions are all screwed up when scaling drawings. They retain their dimension style until you changed them.

I rarely met users who use two different methods in drawing. Maybe, it is drawn in the same method, but with a different Measurement Scale Factor. (system variable DIMLFAC). Correct me if I'm wrong.

We just show an outline of the building for the Site Plan. All building details are in a separate drawing.

[jaberwok]

It depends on what you're working on.

You (usually) wouldn't dimension 2 inches in metres or 200 miles in millmetres.

And a meter is a measuring device.

[arshiel88]

We just show an outline of the building for the Site Plan. All building details are in a separate drawing.

OK. So WE use two different methods. In our case, we use meters in the design department ('coz its time-saving), and millimeters in the production/working drawings (coz the 'elders' said its the standard.) I just feel not comfortable to work in millimeters coz i always (by instinct) type .5 when what i need is 500. :D
I'm not comfortable using Inches/Foot units. In fact I made a program to convert it to meters. :)

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if a meter is a measuring device, then foot is a body part. :D

[thomas.stright]

Feet and Inches here, But when required to design in metric it's millimeters.

[johan d]

We use millimeter (1/1000 of 1 meter)

meter is a measure device , but also...

the metric and SI base unit of distance. Originally, the meter was designed to be one ten-millionth of a quadrant, the distance between the Equator and the North Pole. (The Earth is difficult to measure, and a small error was made in correcting for the flattening caused by the Earth's rotation. As a result, the meter is too short by about 0.013%. That's not bad for a measurement made in the 1790's.) For a long time, the meter was precisely defined as the length of an actual object, a bar kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris. In recent years, however, the SI base units (with one exception) have been redefined in abstract terms so they can be reproduced to any desired level of accuracy in a well-equipped laboratory. The 17th General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1983 defined the meter as that distance that makes the speed of light in a vacuum equal to exactly 299 792 458 meters per second. The speed of light in a vacuum, c, is one of the fundamental constants of nature. Since c defines the meter now, experiments made to measure the speed of light are now interpreted as measurements of the meter instead. The meter is equal to approximately 1.093 613 3 yards, 3.280 840 feet, or 39.370 079 inches. Its name comes from the Latin metrum and the Greek metron, both meaning "measure." The unit is spelled meter in the U.S. and metre in Britain; there are many other spellings in various languages (see Spelling of Metric Units).

[arshiel88]

Side Topic?

Meter or Metre?
Center or Centre?
Theater or Theatre?

-re spellings are widely used in Britain and Canada. How about the majority of the world? :D

http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/english/2005/04/center_or_centr.html

...whatever. :banghead:

[jaberwok]

Metre (and theatre) are originally French words so it's probably no more than a matter of courtesy to use the French spelling.

£0.02

Anyway, in English, there IS a slight (a very slight) difference in the pronunciation of "meter" and "metre"

[johan d]

that must be it

....re = fREnch
....er = English

[Doodlemusmaximus]

I think it depends on what I'm having to do, generally things like roads are in metres and construction tend to be in millimetres. I have worked for a company that had offices over here and in the US and I had to draw in both metric and imperial sometimes both on a drawing, which became a little bit of a head ache.

[bmonk]

Decimal feet 98% of the time

[Arben.Allaraj]

For mechanicals engineers that live in Europe or other countries that use the base
system ISO ,they should draw only in millimeters.
I will draw forever in millimeters.

[arshiel88]

How about in centimetres? anyone?

We receive from an interior design office, a cad drawing that is drawn in cm. that is 1m=100 autocad units. I dont know, maybe it depends on what profession you're in.

The same in milli. Do you think accuracy is the issue? Maybe not. Coz i can always put 5.365 in meters as opposed to 5365 in millimeters with the same accuracy.

[jaberwok]

In SI, for scientific and everyday use, centi(anything) is a preferred sub-multiple but milli(anything) isn't.
For engineering use the preferences are reversed. Probably because millimetres are more useful for small things like engine parts, door furniture, etc.. Machining is often done to a precision measured in units of 0.001 mm which would be 0.0001 cm.