Units = Feet instead of Metres

[Tim K]

AutoCAD 2000, 2004, 2006 & 2007 all have the same problem dealing with Units control.
I have lived with it on and off for a while but have given up waiting for AutoDesk to fix it.
(I am heading straight to the Wish List after this post.)

I can open a drawing created from 12D software or whatever and the Units are Feet, even though the originating software - such as 12D - does not store this info.
Then, in AutoCAD I change the Units to Unitless or Metres and save and close the DWG.
When I re-open the DWG the units are reset to FEET - Aaaaaaarrrrgggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!

This affects use as a Block or an Xref or working in it directly. Horrible.

Why oh why does AutoCAD not correctly - and permanently - store the UNITS as I set them. Surely I should be in control and not AutoCAD.

Can anyone shed light on this and perhaps even fix it?

Tim

[stelthorst]

Hi Tim,

I've never run into this problem. Here's the procedure from AMEP 2008 help on how to change drawing units. Is this how you do it?



Choose Drawing Setup from the Format menu.
Click the Units tab.
Under Drawing Units, select the desired units. Various imperial and metric units are available. The units that you select determine the unit of measurement that each unit in your drawing represents. For example, if you select Inches, each drawing unit equals one inch.To scale objects that you insert into the current drawing from drawings with different drawing units, select Scale Objects Inserted from Other Drawings.
Clear this option to insert objects at their original size without scaling. For example, if an item that is one inch long were inserted into a drawing set to Millimeters, this setting would scale the item to 25.4 mm in length when enabled. With this setting disabled, it would remain one unit long, (which would now be only one millimeter rather than one inch).
Under Length, select a unit type and desired precision.
Under Angle, select an angle type and desired precision. If you want to measure angles clockwise instead of counterclockwise, select Clockwise.
Under Base Angle, enter a value for the default 0 angle direction. The default is 0 degrees (East) and a counter-clockwise direction.
Under Area, select an area type and precision. If you do not want to use the default suffix that is displayed for the drawing units that you specify, enter a new suffix.
Under Volume, select a volume type and precision. If you do not want to use the default suffix that is displayed for the drawing units that you specify, enter a new suffix.
Save the units settings: NOTE: You can save one default drawing units set per unit type with the save as Default option. Define a set of imperial drawing units defaults, and click Save as Default. Then, define a set of metric default units, and click Save as Default again. When you start a drawing without a template with imperial units, the imperial default settings will be used. When you start a drawing without a template with metric units, the metric default settings will be used. If you start a new drawing with a template, the settings saved within that template file will be used regardless of the saved default settings.
Click OK. You are prompted to specify whether existing objects in the current drawing should be scaled for the new units.
Specify scaling of existing objects for Model Space and Paper Space:
Click OK.Hope this helps,

[Tim K]

Thanks for the info, but not quite work for me.
I am using 2007 version:

I don't have "save as default" option.
I am not asked "to specify whether existing objects in the current drawing should be scaled for the new units".

All the other Drawing Unit dialogue box settings I can change are set to "Decimal" this or "Decimal" that. My PC is set to Metric - XP SP2 Pro.

Any other ideas?
(I will happily email someone a sample DWG for them to see it directly and to try to resolve.)

Tim

[Opie]

What is 12D software? I haven't heard of it.

Has any customization of your AutoCAD been setup? This could be changing your units to feet. Just a thought.

[Tim K]

12D software is a Civil design software package.
The Units thing also happens with files from:
Geocomp - Surveying,
MXRoad - Civil design.

There is no company customisation that has (or should have) changed the behaviour of Units.
Other company PCs with the same or similar set up do not have this problem.

Thanks for the thought, though. I am mystified.

Tim

[Opie]

Can you post one of these drawings from 12D, Geocomp, or MXRoad? Someone may be able to replicate this problem. If it is a problem, this should be reported as a bug instead of a wish.

[Tim K]

Just noticed the "Attach Files" bit. Did think about this before but didn't look hard enough.

I opened various project DWGs that I had experienced the problem before and guess what - they all now store Metric Units correctly. I still have to reset the inital Units from Feet to Metric but after that it is stored just fine.

Don't know which Service Pack for which version fixed it but:
"Thanks AutoDesk". I trust I will never experience it again.

Thanks to those who read and / or replied to me.

Tim