AutoCAD drawing units

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I need to change my drawing units from inches to feet.  For example, when I draw a line and type "100" it spits out a line that is 100 inches long.  I need it to be a line that is 100 ft long when I type "100".  Basically I need to go from decimal inches to decimal feet.  Any help would be much appreciated!

[Otto]

Hello bryan.busby and welcome to the Autodesk community!

It looks like you are looking for information related to drawing units. Community members with similar questions found the following article(s) useful:

UNITS (Command)

Difference between -DWGUNITS and INSUNITS

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[Patchy]

Skip the long explanation OTTO

-DWGUNITS, pick the unit you need and choose YES to Scale your drawing.

[Anonymous]

No, that did not help my problem

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

You change the UNITS with the below option, but this will not convert the drawing.  

Command: DDUNITS

[Anonymous]

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for this.  I opened the -DWG dialog box and the units were set to mm but the output was some how converted to inches? I'm migrating from microstation and setting these units is something that I find drastically different. I have fixed my problem through the UNITS dialog box and I'm now able to draw in decimal feet.

[Anonymous]

As a note of caution, most people don't draw in decimal FEET, unless they are surveying or machining.  They draw in FeeT-INches (LUNITS = 3 or 4), where a line 100 units long would be 100 inches or 8'-4" long.  To draw a line 100FT long you'd draw a line 100' (add the ft mark).

Drawing a line 3FEET 10 and 5/8" long in decimal feet (LUNITS = 2) would require some gymnastics.  With LUNITS = 3 or 4, when keying in length simply enter 3'10-5/8 and you get the line precisely that long.

[Anonymous]

I know I'm the oddball with that ! I keep a conversion chart handy for quick reference so  for me it's easier and faster to draw in decimal feet and eliminates the complication of fractions, e.g., instead of typing 3'-10 5/8" I simply type 3.8854' and get the same line with less hassle.  To each his own!

[Anonymous]

That depends on your definition of "hassle".  I didn't have to create and keep track of a cheat sheet, or hunt it down when I needed it, or look through it for the number (if your sheet covers 16ths through 1'-0" that's 192 numbers) and then key it in.  

3.8854' is 6 keystrokes 3'10-5/8 is 8 keystrokes, but I understand that those two keystrokes are SUCH a hassle and 5/8 is SO complicated, so I can see where you might want to avoid them ..............

[scot-65]

I have similar execution.
I memorized each 1/8 inch (three decimal places).
3'10.625

???

[Anonymous]

Actually, rculp, google has plethora of conversion charts already available so I didn't need to create anything. I simply printed it and it's been taped to my cork board next to my monitor for the past 3+ years. As you can imagine I have all the major increments memorized just from using it so much so I only need to glance to my left for that occasional 1/16 or 1/8. Yes, not only am I saving keystrokes by doing this but I'm also not having to type in any special characters. This my seem trivial to you but over the course of a work day it does save time. Lastly, decimals are just overall easier to work with than fractions if you take the time and effort to learn them!

[Anonymous]

Also I forgot to mention that I do a lot of civil work and as I'm sure you already know, all of the stationing and other geographical data is in decimal feet. Just much easier to keep one uniform standard

[patrick.emin]

Hi, the reply to your question depends on what AutoCAD you are using, are you using the vanilla version or a vertical?