How Do I Change Units in AutoCAD?

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In AutoCAD, changing units is a fundamental aspect of creating accurate and professional drawings. Whether you need to switch from inches to millimeters or vice versa, AutoCAD provides a simple and efficient way to modify your drawing units. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of changing units in AutoCAD.

Step 1: Accessing the Drawing Units

To begin, open your AutoCAD software and navigate to the Application Menu located in the top-left corner of the screen. Click on it to reveal a drop-down menu.

Tip: If you prefer using keyboard shortcuts, you can also access the Application Menu by pressing ALT on your keyboard.

In the drop-down menu, select Drawing Utilities. A sub-menu will appear with various options; choose Units.

Step 2: Modifying Unit Settings

The Drawing Units window will now be open. Here, you have several options to customize your unit settings according to your project requirements.

Note: The Drawing Units window consists of several tabs which control different aspects of unit settings. We will focus on the Main Units tab for general unit modifications in this tutorial.

Main Units Tab:

  1. To change the overall drawing unit format, locate the Type section in the Main Units tab. Here, you can select from various unit types such as Decimal, Architectural, Engineering, Fractional, and more.
  2. If needed, specify precision for linear measurements using the Precision field.

    This allows defining how many decimal places AutoCAD displays.

  3. In the Insertion Scale section, you can choose the scale value for blocks and external references. This is particularly useful when working with drawings from different sources.
  4. Under the Angle section, you can set the unit format for angular measurements. AutoCAD provides options such as Decimal Degrees, Degrees/Minutes/Seconds, Gradians, and Radians.

Note: Feel free to explore other tabs in the Drawing Units window to customize additional settings like Angular Units, Length Units, Area Units, and more based on your specific project requirements.

Step 3: Saving Changes and Applying to Drawings

Once you have made the necessary modifications to your unit settings, click on the OK button to save your changes.

The updated unit settings will now be applied to all new drawings created in AutoCAD. However, if you wish to apply these settings to an existing drawing, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Drawing Utilities option from the Application Menu again.
  2. In the sub-menu that appears, click on Drawing Units.
  3. The Drawing Units window will open once more. Click on the Apply To Existing Drawings tab at the top of this window.
  4. In this tab, choose whether you want to apply unit changes globally or selectively by selecting appropriate radio buttons.
  5. To apply your modified unit settings to a specific drawing or drawings:
    • Select one or multiple drawing files from within AutoCAD by clicking on the Add Drawing File.. button.
    • Navigate to the location of your drawing file(s) and click on Open.
  6. Finally, click on the OK button to apply your unit changes to the selected drawing(s).

Congratulations! You have successfully changed units in AutoCAD.

Note: It is important to remember that modifying unit settings after creating drawings can lead to inaccuracies. Therefore, it is always advisable to decide and set your preferred units before starting a new project.

We hope this tutorial has helped you understand how to change units in AutoCAD effectively. Utilize these techniques to ensure your drawings are accurate and meet industry standards!