Polar Tracking Unit Display

[Anonymous]

I have a drawing that I changed the primary units from Decimal to Architectural, which is fine. However, the polar tracking display is still in decimal and I can't find where to change it.

So when I'm trying to draw a line to a specific point, the readout in the polar tracking box is 150.720 instead of 150'9" and I don't have time to calculate the decimal version of each number I need.

Thanks!
Marilyn

[Anonymous]

Make sure your UNITS change stuck: it would appear you are in a file that overrides any UNITS changes you make. -- Dean Saadallah Add-on products for LT http://www.pendean.com/lt --

[Anonymous]

I have tried it several times. Also I tried it in AutoCad 2002 LT and had the same issue.

Marilyn

[Anonymous]

"Primary units" is a dimension setting. Did you set units in the Dimension Style dialogue? That's not connected with the polar tracking units. THOSE units (also the units you see in the coordinates readout & reported in the Properties palette) you set in the Drawing Units dialogue (Format menu, choose Units). -- Dave Byrnes / Vancouver, BC Autodesk Discussion Group Facilitator "MarilynJD" wrote in message news:24885554.1096402034181.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum1.autodesk.com... > I have tried it several times. Also I tried it in AutoCad 2002 LT and had the same issue. > > Marilyn

[Anonymous]

I've changed the primary units and the drawing units. Now my issue is the primary units have a scale factor of 12 and the drawing units does not give me that option.

Thanks for your help...

[Anonymous]

Change your primary units scale factor to 1. Drawing units do not have, and should not have, a scale factor. -- Dave Byrnes / Vancouver, BC Autodesk Discussion Group Facilitator "MarilynJD" wrote in message news:19519762.1096468266804.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum2.autodesk.com... > I've changed the primary units and the drawing units. Now my issue is the primary units have a scale factor of 12 and the drawing units does not give me that option. > > Thanks for your help...

[Anonymous]

So what you're saying is that the little yellow window that appears when you're drawing a line or dimension is always decimal??

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Marilyn - I hope I wasn't saying that. If you want the little yellow tooltip to show architectural units, then you need to go to Format, Units and set Architectural as your units type. That applies whether you're drawing a line or a dimension or anything else. This will also cause the Properties palette and the LIST command to show architectural units. Setting primary units in the Dimension Style dialogue affects the way the dimension value is displayed and NOTHING ELSE. If you wanted, you could have Format, Units set to decimal, and Dimstyle, Primary Units set to architectural. Then the tooltip would show decimal units, while the values of any dimension objects that you created would show feet and fractional inches. So if, for example, you drew a ten-foot line, the tooltip would show values like 120.0000, and PROPERTIES or LIST would show it as 120.0000 long; if you slapped a dimension on it, the dimension would read 10'-0". Any clearer? -- Dave Byrnes / Vancouver, BC Autodesk Discussion Group Facilitator "MarilynJD" wrote in message news:25514376.1096481957711.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum2.autodesk.com... > So what you're saying is that the little yellow window that appears when you're drawing a line or dimension is always decimal?? > > Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry, I'm self taught and lack skills in some basic functions of AutoCad LT. I'm using a drawing that I created 9 years ago on AutoSketch. I moved it to AutoCad LT in 1997 but only need basic architechtural measurements. Which brings me to the bottom line of my problem. When I changed the primary units to Architectural and set the dimstyle to architectural, I have to use a scale of 12 or all my existing measurements are not correct. So when I measure a 10' line, the dimension says 10' but the tool tip says 10". So if I stop at 10" the dimension could be 9'5" or 10'. I don't have the option of starting a fresh drawing since the convention center's CAD files are not accurate enough.

Thanks for your patience with me. : )

[Anonymous]

Marilyn - it sounds like your original Autosketch drawing was made using feet as a base unit rather than inches. Usually in AutoCAD, your base unit is inches for imperial drawings, and millimetres for metric drawing. If you need only occasional access to this drawing, I'd leave it the way it is, with your dimension scale factor at 12, because - hey! - it sounds like it works. If you DO need to make frequent use of this drawing, then I would fix it. You need to get your base unit changed from feet to inches, and the easiest way to do this is to scale everything up by 12. You could then change your dim scale factor from 12 to 1 which is what it should be. This may mess up some other things though, like the dimensions themselves & maybe text, and most definitely your plot settings. But the AutoCAD standard for "architectural" units is inches, so if the drawing is worth keeping, you should do it. -- Dave Byrnes / Vancouver, BC Autodesk Discussion Group Facilitator "MarilynJD" wrote in message news:7039721.1096495479541.JavaMail.jive@jiveforum2.autodesk.com... > I'm sorry, I'm self taught and lack skills in some basic functions of AutoCad LT. I'm using a drawing that I created 9 years ago on AutoSketch. I moved it to AutoCad LT in 1997 but only need basic architechtural measurements. Which brings me to the bottom line of my problem. When I changed the primary units to Architectural and set the dimstyle to architectural, I have to use a scale of 12 or all my existing measurements are not correct. So when I measure a 10' line, the dimension says 10' but the tool tip says 10". So if I stop at 10" the dimension could be 9'5" or 10'. I don't have the option of starting a fresh drawing since the convention center's CAD files are not accurate enough. > > Thanks for your patience with me. : )

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all your help.

It looks like I really need to fix this drawing as you suggest since starting from scratch is probably next to impossible. I might try when I have a couple extra hours or days to fix it, lol

Thanks again.