metric drawing format 1

[bearisle]

How do I start a new drawing in Metric. I have been drawing all of my drawings with whatever scale opens. If I ignore units, everything will be to "relative scale", but I would like 6mm to be 6mm rather than 6 feet. If I use an existing drawing as a template, i have to re-draw all of my dimenion lines, etc or else they are too small or too big.

 

[IFRs]

In Autocad, 6 is 6. 6 anything, that is. Autocad does not care, or does it understand what the units are. Miles or angstroms. Only when dimensioning does it matter. Dimensions assume feet and inches. What you do is to choose decimal format and MM as a suffix.

 

[AlexDring]

In you dimension settings, go to modify (whatever style your using) and pick the tab primary units. Find the measurment scale box and enter .03937

Then in your units on the drawing itself, use demical to whatever decimal place your heart contents.

IFRs is correct, Autocad doesnt draw in mm or in, one to one is one to one. When dimensions objects by telling it divide this value by .03937 and display that number, which will show the metric equiv. If your having problems with dim lines being too big and such, you will have to go in on the dim modify and change all the values such as leader size, offset to metric values.

If it was me, I would do this anyway, and when I would come accross it in another drawing, open that drawing up with your metric settings, CRTL+C the dim, go to the drawing reworked and just hit CTRL+V. You can cancel immediatly and the dim never gets placed in the drawing but the style does, and its a matter of match props then.

Hope this helps.

 

[AlexDring]

Also, to get the MM behind the dim, go to where you entered the .03937 and type in MM in the suffix box.

 

[IFRs]

AlexDring - You should not use a scale factor if you draw 1 to 1 and dimension using decimal units. I agree that you should use MM in the suffix field. If you want to then get a dimension in feet and inches, enable alternate units and use 0.03937 as the "multiplier". This way you are true to your scheme, Metric rules and Imperial are alternate units. BearIsle - you should not have to redraw anything. Start a new drawing, change the default dimension style, save the drawing as a template (use acad.dwt if you want it to be the default). Autocad 2004 comes with the template "Metric Layout templates.dwt" which could also be used as a guideline. File New pick it.

 

[CADSTUDENT]

Try this approach. At the command prompt, type UNITS. This should bring up a dailog box that will allow you to change dim to metric. Also, the DIMSTYLE command to change leading and trailing zeros to metric format. Hope this helps - John

 

[bearisle]

Thanks to all.

CADSTUDENT,
that was the 1st thing I tried, and it does not seem to change anything (I assumed it would convert dimensions).

I also figured out how to add alternate units using dimstyle. I can draw my drawing in inches - when I am done and someone says, "I need that in mm's" I can add the alternate units (using a 25.4 multiplier and mm suffix). This is great. However, many drawing do not have the space for both styles and a suffix. I just want to display the converted mm value.

 

[CADSTUDENT]

You could make use of the geometry calculator function CVUNIT. This approach allows the 'CAL command transparently (within another command). For example:

Command: L or Line
Specify first point: (pick first point)
Specify next point or [Undo]: 'CAL (drag cursor in app dir)
>> Expression: CVUNIT(1.0,inches,mm)
25.4
Specify next point or [Undo]:

I know this is testy approach but is it better than using a calculator? I don't know. Hope this helps - John

 

[IFRs]

bearisle
If you want to draw in inches but display MM as the only dimension, just change the "scale factor" for the primary dimension style using DDIM.