Have you ever found yourself working on a project in AutoCAD and realized that the units are not set to your preferred standard? Don’t worry, changing the units in AutoCAD is a simple process that can be done in just a few steps. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of changing the units in AutoCAD to ensure that your drawings are accurate and aligned with your desired measurements.
Step 1: Accessing the Drawing Units
To change the units in AutoCAD, start by opening your drawing. Once you have your drawing open, navigate to the “Application” menu located at the top-left corner of the screen. Click on it to reveal a drop-down menu.
Note: The Application menu is represented by an Autodesk logo or an “A” icon.
In the drop-down menu, locate and hover over the “Drawing Utilities” option. This will display another set of options.
- Method 1: Click on “Units” to access the Drawing Units dialog box directly.
- Method 2: If you don’t see “Units” directly, click on “Drawing Setup”. This will open another submenu where you can select “Units”.
Step 2: Configuring Drawing Units
After selecting either “Units” or “Drawing Setup > Units”, you will be presented with the Drawing Units dialog box. This is where you can configure and change various unit settings for your drawing.
Main Units:
The first section of this dialog box allows you to define the main unit type for your drawing. You can choose from options such as inches, feet, millimeters, centimeters, meters, and more. Select the desired unit type from the drop-down menu.
Precision:
Next, you can set the precision of your units. This determines how many decimal places will be displayed for your measurements. For example, if you choose a precision of 0.00, your measurements will be displayed with two decimal places.
Length Type:
The length type section allows you to choose between architectural or decimal units. Architectural units are commonly used in construction and architectural drawings, while decimal units provide a more precise representation of measurements.
Other Settings:
Beneath these options, you will find additional settings that allow you to configure angles, area units, and volume units for your drawing. Adjust these settings based on your specific requirements.
Step 3: Applying Changes
Once you have configured the desired unit settings in the Drawing Units dialog box, click on the “OK” button to apply the changes to your drawing. AutoCAD will now display all measurements in the new unit format that you have selected.
Note: If you have previously drawn objects in your drawing before changing the units, they may appear visually different due to the change in scale. However, their actual dimensions remain unchanged.
In Conclusion
In this tutorial, we have learned how to change the units in AutoCAD to ensure that our drawings are accurately represented according to our preferred measurement standards. By accessing the Drawing Units dialog box and configuring various unit settings such as main units, precision, length type, and other options, we can easily customize our drawings to meet our specific requirements.
Now that you know how to change the units in AutoCAD, feel free to experiment with different measurement standards and precision settings to create drawings that align with your preferences. Happy designing!