Specifying Units

Specifying Units
You’ll start by creating a new file called
Bath
. Then, you’ll set up the unit style.
Use these steps to create the file:
1.
If you haven’t done so already, start AutoCAD. If AutoCAD is already running, choose
File 
New.
2.
In the Select Template dialog box, select
Acad.dwt
, and click Open. Metric users should
select
Acadiso.dwt
and then click Open.
3.
Choose View 
Zoom 
All.
4.
Choose File 
Save As.
5.
In the Save Drawing As dialog box, enter
Bath
for the filename.
6.
Check to make sure you’re saving the drawing in the
My Documents
folder or in the folder
where you’ve chosen to store your exercise files, and then click Save.



The next thing you want to tell AutoCAD is the
unit style
you intend to use. So far, you’ve been
using the default, which is decimal inches. In this unit style, whole units represent inches, and decimal
units are decimal inches. If you want to be able to enter distances in feet, you must change the
unit style to a style that accepts feet as input. You’ll do this through the Drawing Units dialog box,
shown in Figure 3.1.
TIP
If you’re a civil engineer, you should know that the Engineering unit style lets you enter feet
and decimal feet for distances. For example, the equivalent of 12´-6˝ is 12.5´. If you use the Engineering
unit style, you’ll ensure that your drawings conform to the scale of drawings created by
your architectural colleagues.



Follow these steps to set a unit style:
1.
Choose Format 
Units or type
Un
↵
to open the Drawing Units dialog box.
2.
Let’s look at a few of the options available. Click the Type drop-down list in the Length
group. Notice the unit styles in the list.
3.
Click Architectural. The Sample Output section of the dialog box shows you what the Architectural
style looks like in AutoCAD. Metric users should keep this setting as Decimal.
TIP
You can also control the Drawing Units settings by using several system variables. To set the
unit style, you can type ´
lunits
↵
at the Command prompt. (The apostrophe lets you enter this command
while in the middle of other commands.) At the
Enter new value for Lunits <2>:
prompt, enter
4
for Architectural. See Appendix C for other settings.
4.
Click the Precision drop-down list just below the Type list. Notice the options available. You
can set the smallest unit AutoCAD will display in this drawing. For now, leave this setting
at its default value of
1
⁄
16
˝. Metric users will keep the setting at 0.0000.
5.
Press the Esc key to close the drop-down list, and then click the Direction button at the bottom
of the Drawing Units dialog box to open the Direction Control dialog box. The Direction
Control dialog box lets you set the direction for the 0° angle. For now, don’t change these settings—
you’ll read more about them in a moment.



6.
Click the Cancel button.
7.
Click the drop-down list in the Insertion Scale group. The list shows various units of measure.
8.
Click Inches; or, if you’re a metric user, choose Centimeters. This option lets you control how
AutoCAD translates drawing scales when you import drawings from outside the current
drawing. You’ll learn more about this feature in Chapter 27.
9.
Click OK in the Drawing Units dialog box to return to the drawing.
If you use the Imperial system of measurement, you selected Architectural measurement units
for this tutorial, but your work may require a different unit style. You saw the unit styles available
in the Drawing Units dialog box. Table 3.1 shows examples of how the distance 15.5 is entered in
each of these styles.



In the previous exercise, you needed to change only two settings. Let’s look at the other Drawing
Units settings in more detail. As you read, you may want to refer to Figure 3.1.