Units in Geo-referenced designing - Units in 'm', insert distances in 'mm'

[sven.proesmans]

Hi,

We have a problem with units in combination with geo-referenced design.

We are a utility company and design underground pipelines over large distances in combination with production buildings with associated mechanical detailed design. To easily and correctly locate different drawings (Xrefs) from a surveyor or other disciplines, we add a coordinate system to all those drawings, so that they are geo-referenced.
We use the following coordinate system: Belgium - Lambert72 (EPSG 31370)

For pipeline design, we use some belgian database files that are loaded by WMS connections.

If our units are in meters (m), this database file will be in the exact same location. This because these databases have been developed to following this EPSG coding (also in meters). A perfect match!

However, our colleagues in mechanical design are used to design in millimetres (mm).

Is it possible to enter distances in millimetres, but that the units remain in meters? If we set the units in mm, the coordinate system and WMS-files will no longer be correct (factor 1000x). I not see a way to change the scale of the wms connections.

We also design sometimes in the same drawings with different disciplines, and use 1 template.

Some disciplines want to type '1' for a line of 1 meter. Mechanical design wants to type '1000' for a line of 1 meter.

Is this possible in 1 template/drawing or is there a simple workaround?

A few years ago, we used Microstation, this was made possible by 'Masterunits' and 'Workingunits'

thank you in advance

Sven P

[Pointdump · Accepted solution]

Sven,
"Some disciplines want to type '1' for a line of 1 meter. Mechanical design wants to type '1000' for a line of 1 meter. Is this possible in 1 template/drawing or is there a simple workaround?"
Possible? Yes. Simple? No.
Your mm users can enter everything with the 'Cal Command.
A distance of 5000mm would be 'cal <enter> 5000/1000 <enter>. I bet they could do the math in their head faster.
So, to answer your question, no, not really. Or at least nothing I can think of. Xref's, scaled to 0.001 are probably the best way to bring in mm linework.
Dave

[lynn_zhang]

Hello @sven.proesmans ,

Just checking to see if your problem has been solved. Did the response from @Pointdump help answer your question? If yes, please click on the "Accept as Solution" button in his reply so this helps other users in the community find the solution too. Thanks!