AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

Scale it to what exactly?

1) The scale is correct when opened in an Imperial units template,

2) when scaled in metric with the decimal unit of measure it is displayed as the correct inches that correlates with 1-meter; Right now in decimal my 1-meter interval measures exactly 39.370 (the inches per meter) is this correct or should it be 1 in decimal for 1-meter?

The solutions:

1) Are you confirming that this file must be scaled to 1/39.370079 for use in the metric template

2) If I takeoff the quantities in the Imperial template will it measure these in Imperial or try to measure in metric and convert to Imperial (I will test this today after lunch and post the results here but want to predict what to expect)

Is there any explanation for the video I posted?

[#2]

I'm not sure what problem are you trying to solve, but here is some information:

1. Pick a unit, convert everything to that and stick with it.

2. In Civil 3D 1 is a foot in imperial drawings, and 1 is a meter in metric drawings. The conversion between the two depends on if the foot is a US Survey foot or an internationa foot. Civil 3D is not designed to work with either inches or mm as the base unit.

3. I think that QTO assumes that the unit of drawing is the same as the unit of measure in the database. I know that on the fly conversion was not something that we built into it. You can apply formulas to all the takeoffs, but matching units is a better idea.

Regards,

Peter Funk

Autodesk, Inc.

[#3]

sorry to continually ask the same question,

what scale is the metric model since the current scale appears correct with a decimal measurement of 39.370, or should this be 1; as in 1-inch?

Also, why is my measurement in imperial units when the template is metric, shouldn't it display this as 39.370-meter?

Last, 'on-the-fly' conversion will be nice in the future since the Civil subcontractor's field crews can view their plans on their tablet viewers in the unit of measure they are accustomed to. The electrical subs may think in metric while the earthwork guys think in Imperial, or to them 'normal' units. And, from region toregion the project units change, if the design team likes metric and the construction crew likes Imperial, should not there be a toggle button to view the units (it is just numbers, the object geometry does not change, it is slightly more source code changes than the current solution of almost zero). Picking a unit and sticking with it is a convenient answer but not so easy when the world cannot accomplish this. Your time answering this is appreciated and in your way you have clarified the answer, thank you.

[#4]

In that drawing your units were Metric, but the AutoCAD units were set to "Engineering" which is an Imperial type. What you were seeing is a metric value displayed as if it were feet and inches. In Civil 3D, the only AutoCAD unit that we use is "Decimal", and the only units we use are the foot (two types) and the meter.

As far as on the fly conversion. There are ways to label the project in different units based on style, but typically a project is designed in a unit. For the US the typical lane is 12' and we use a set of design speeds and radius that are all based on imperial units. In other places, the typically lane width is 3.5 or 4 meters and the design speeds are based on km.

As far as mixed units within a project, while we could spend more time on making it work even better, this work flow would only be used by a very small group of customers and I'd rather focus development and testing in other areas.

Cheers,

Peter Funk

Autodesk, Inc.

[#5]

Valid points.

If the units are metric and I set the AutoCAD units to "Engineering" with the command UNITS, and therefore the metric value is displayed as if it were feet and inches (in decimal units it displays 39.370), then how do I change it to display the value as the correct metric value?

[#6]

I compiled this thread and a couple other threads with several tests, the results are posted here

http://civil3d.wikia.com/wiki/Civil_3D_Modelspace_Units
http://cife.stanford.edu/wiki/doku.php?id=granite:3dmodelling:modelspaceunits