drawing unit

[Anonymous]

I use DWGUNIT command to set my current drawing  unit to feet

and I use Unit to set the insertion unit to feet. I think all  the units are feet in my current drawing.

However, when I use offset function and offset a line for 5 feet, it just offset 5 inch. whats going on
?

[leothebuilder]

If you set the drawing units to feet, how can you tell the line has been offset by 5 inches?

If you really set the drawing units to feet you should not get an inch reading because by setting the units to feet autocad will

only output by decimal or scientific units.

[Anonymous]

may be

if u put offset only 5 it will be only inch

for feet 5'

if this one also you doing than I don't know.

[leeminardi]

The concept of drawing units were not well thought out in the original implementation of AutoCAD.  As a result drawings unit are a messy concept with AutoCAD.

I find it useful to think that the primary unit for an AutoCAD drawing or model is an AutoCAD unit.  Whether that AutoCAD unit represents an inch, foot, mm, meter, or even a parsec is, to a great extent,  in the mind of the user (the units of the paper used for plotting can also be a factor when printing).  Let's assume you are starting a new drawing and you are thinking "inches".  You draw a line 1 (unit) long.  You then give the DWGUNITS command and change to feet.  The drawing is scaled and the line become shorter with a length of -.0833 units (1/12 as long).  Now, an AutoCAD unit represents a foot not an inch.  DWGUNITS is not so much setting the current units but scaling what's in your drawing. If you give the DWGUNITS command and do not change the drawing unit but change some other parameter (e.g., displayed precision), no scaling is done.

Lee

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

Can you share your file so I can see what you are experiencing?

As @leeminardi mentioned, units can sometimes be a bit "messy".

[JDMather]

I just ran a quick test and worked as expected here.

As suggested, attach the file here that exhibits the unexpected behavior.