topic Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits in AutoCAD Forum

What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

tuanutc2 — Fri, 06 May 2022 03:28:13 GMT

Hi everyone,

This is first time I know the command "Units, Dwgunits, Insunits"

But I don't understand why difference between them. Why is the difference in same file?

Could you please help to explain to me these command?

Thank you in advance.

Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

tramber — Fri, 06 May 2022 05:55:01 GMT

Dwgunits is a command that goes beyond Units.

Units is also a command, dealing with Insunits, Lunits, Aunits, Luprec and so on..., that are variables.

There you choose the unit of your drawing. Theoriticaly, it has no importance to know your unit.

But if you exchange your drawings and use block insertions, the INSUNITS of yours drawings become strategic !

An only variable to remember : the INSUNITS of each DWG.

0, 1 and 4 are usual and recommended in Imperial and ISO but yuo can be a scientist, an astrophysician !?

Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

tuanutc2 — Fri, 06 May 2022 06:57:08 GMT

Thank you, tramber. 🙂

Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

Kent1Cooper — Fri, 06 May 2022 11:40:17 GMT

Have you read about them in Help? INSUNITS is a System Variable, not a command, and there are a couple of longer-named others that start that way that you should also read about -- see >here<. UNITS and -DWGUNITS are commands, sort of the dialog-box and command-line versions of the same thing, which you can read about in the >Command Reference<.

Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

dbroad — Fri, 06 May 2022 11:57:54 GMT

-dwgunits is the most powerful and will offer to scale both paper and model spaces if the units are changed. It also sets the insunits.

Inside the block editor, you can define the units with the properties palette.

AutoCAD Architecture also has a powerful alternative to the units command.

Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

tuanutc2 — Sat, 07 May 2022 03:43:38 GMT

Thank you, @dbroad @Kent1Cooper @tramber .

I got it.

Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

cocopinkhot — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 03:06:24 GMT

I cannot bring up the -dwgunits command on my computer at all

Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

dbroad — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 12:37:57 GMT

@cocopinkhot Do you have AutoCAD LT or full AutoCAD? I can't find any mention of -dwgunits in the AutoCAD LT help. It does work with full AutoCAD and with the AEC verticals.

The main benefit of -dwgunits is that it automatically offers to scale drawings relative to the INSUNITS type changes. It does have some drawbacks wrt blocks in the drawing. The block definitions of blocks other than layout blocks aren't changed to reflect the new units types and that can complicate things.

Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

cadffm — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 13:06:18 GMT

Hi,

>>"Do you have AutoCAD LT or full AutoCAD?"

Doesn't matter (for standard installations)

>>"I can't find any mention of -dwgunits in the AutoCAD LT help"

Doesn't matter, or do you can find it in AutoCAD product documentation? No,

it's an undocumented command to handle AEC DWG setups, nothing for plain AutoCAD dwg drawings.

>>". It does work with full AutoCAD and with the AEC verticals."

and LT

I guess @cocopinkhot is in the wrong board and he uses AutoCAD FOR MAC

>>"The main benefit of -dwgunits is that it automatically offers to scale drawings relative to the INSUNITS type changes."

Right

>>"It does have some drawbacks wrt blocks in the drawing."

>>"The block definitions of blocks other than layout blocks aren't changed to reflect the new units types "

And this is good&correct, another result would be a nightmare

>>"and that can complicate things."

What, or Why?

- - -

With starting this undocumented command, you add an AEC DWG Setup into the file (if not already there), so from know

you have aec content inside and products will handle accordingly, including Autocad unusual behavior or problems.

But as always: You should know as much as possible about what you are doing, then everything will be fine.

Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

dbroad — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 13:52:21 GMT

Instead of converting everything, it leaves the block definitions in their old insbase forms and makes all of the insertions have scale factors that apply the translation. The conversion looks OK until you start adding information or editing (at least not for me). This doesn't work well once you start inserting more blocks of those types and doesn't work well when you want to edit blocks in the unit system you've chosen the drawing to be at. This should be obvious.

I end up having to manually convert each block definition insbase when editing the blocks, scaling them, and then changing the scale factors of the block references. For those who want to work continually in 2 unit systems in the same drawing, it might be fine.

Re: What is the difference between Units, Dwgunits, Insunits

pendean — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 14:03:12 GMT

@cocopinkhot wrote:
I cannot bring up the -dwgunits command on my computer at all

While in your AutoCAD program, start ABOUT command then share with us a screenshot of that pop-up please.