AutoCAD 2010/2011/2012 DWG Format

[#1]

What are the maximum usable coordinates that AutoCAD can handle. We curremty have an Alaska UTM gird of aprox. E1,425,000  N2,383,500.

• What are the types of problems that occur at the higher coordinates.
• What are the best work-arounds.
• Any further reading.

TIA

[#2]

With thoughtful useage of named UCSs, origin selection, and unit selection there are no effective limits.  For example, trying to design a penny on the moon using angstroms for linear units and an origin point in New York won't work very well, but using millimeters and using the center of mass of the penny as the origin should pose no problems.

[#3]

AutoCAD stores coordinates as double-precsion real numbers (about 15 decimal digits) so the limits for coordinate values are quite broad - see e.g. the SOLAR.DWG sample drawing

http://www.cadstudio.cz/download?file=Solar.dwg

and watch the label on the landing pad on the Moon.

There could be some numerical instability in special cases (very large geo coordinates) - e.g. for hatching, AEC objects - but you can solve it using UCS as advised.

Vladimir Michl, www.cadstudio.cz  www.cadforum.cz