topic Re: how can i convert meters into millimeters in AutoCAD Forum

how can i convert meters into millimeters

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 12:37:32 GMT

How do i change a drawing which is in meters into millimeters.

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 12:43:59 GMT

You will first need to SCALE all objects by the scale factor of 1000.

There is no direct 'convert' option within AutoCAD, as it is basically a 'unitless' application.

Patchy — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 12:52:55 GMT

-DWGUNITS command and pick the mm option, answer Yes to have the drawing scaled up.

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 12:57:59 GMT

Agreed, be sure to change DDUNITS to MILLIMETERS.

However this does not convert drawings, this only controls the units of the drawing when inserted into another drawing.

Patchy — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 13:01:14 GMT

I see that option to convert all in the drawing here:

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 13:05:38 GMT

Dear John,

Thank you for your answer,i managed to change the drawing from meters to millimeters.

Do i leave the units as unitless/generic or change them to mm/international.

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 13:06:15 GMT

Yes, that is controlled by the DDUNITS variable. When a MM drawing is inserted into a INCHES drawing, AutoCAD will automatically scale the objects.

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 13:07:09 GMT

Change the DDUNITS to Millimeters. Best practice is to NEVER leave that as 'Unitless'.

Patchy — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 13:10:53 GMT

Please do this to a new drawing and let see what you'll get.

-DWGUNITS and make sure it's meter, draw a line 1 unit.

-DWGUNITS again. change to mm and go thru all the options and choose to have objects in the drawing scaled up,

Check to see if that single line is now 1,000 units.

JDMather — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 14:24:19 GMT

@jclaidler wrote:

....There is no direct 'convert' option within AutoCAD, as it is basically a 'unitless' application.

Run a few experiments.

Create cubes of known size.

Run the -dwgunits command and set the units.

Save the file in DWG and in neutral format like STEP and then open in other CAD software (like Inventor, Fusion 360, SolidWorks...)

Are the units set with -dwgunits recognized by these other programs?

Is AutoCAD "unitless"?