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About the Units and Scale Dialog Box

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    The 2D Units and Scale dialog box enables you to control the precision displayed by 2D measurement markups for each 2D sheet in the DWF file. Measurements can be in Imperial (feet and inches) or metric units.

    In Design Review, the units and scale from the original drawing are used by default. However, if the original drawing did not specify units of measurement, only numeric values of the measurement are displayed in the resulting DWF file. You may set the units and scale for all measurements yourself either before or after a measurement markup has been created for each 2D sheet in a DWF file.

    NoteYou can use 2D measurement tools for most georeferenced maps. However, if a map does not contain a published coordinate system and the units are latitude and longitude, the measure-related tools are disabled.

    A drawing has both drawing units and display units. Drawing units are the intended units of measurement of the real-world object. Because a 10-foot by 10-foot room cannot be represented on screen at its full size, each unit in a drawing represents its real-world unit, such as a foot in this case. (If you select inches, it displays 10 inches by 10 inches. If you select centimeters, it displays 10 cm by 10 cm. If you select feet, it displays 10 feet by 10 feet.) If the drawing units are unknown, the measurements display as “10 by 10”.

    Display units are the units displayed in the measurement markups. Unless you change the display units, the display units match the drawing units. A 10-foot by 10-foot room is displayed as 10 feet by 10 feet, but it can also be displayed as 120 inches by 120 inches, 3.048 m by 3.048 m, 304.8 cm by 304.8 cm, and so on. Display units cannot be applied until the drawing units are known.

    Drawing Units

    Units of the Drawing from which This Sheet Was Published

    Select Unknown (disables remaining options), Inches, Feet, Feet and Inches, Yards, Miles, Millimeters, Centimeters, Meters, Kilometers, Points , or Twips .

    Make This the Default for DWF Files That Don’t Have 2D Units

    Apply the selected drawing units to all 2D sheets in DWF files opened after the setting has been applied.

    Display Units

    Units to which Drawing Units Will Be Converted When Displaying Measurements

    Select Unknown (disables remaining options), Inches, Feet, Feet and Decimal Inches, Feet and Fractional Inches, Yards, Miles, Millimeters, Centimeters, Meters, Kilometers, Points, or Twips.

    Decimal

    Control display precision by selecting Automatic or up to eight decimal places to be displayed in a 2D measurement markup. Automatic uses the level of precision included in the DWF file when it was published.

    Fractional

    When Feet and Fractional Inches is the display units selection, control display precision by selecting Automatic or up to 1/256th of an inch to be displayed in a 2D measurement markup. Automatic uses the level of precision included in the DWF file when it was published.

    Make This the Default for DWF Files That Don’t Have 2D Units

    Apply the selected drawing units to all 2D sheets in DWF files opened after the setting has been applied.

    Scale

    Scale

    If a scale was set when the DWF file was published, that scale is reflected in the measurements displayed in Design Review. A 1-to-1 scale is displayed for the open drawing. It shows 1" = 1" (1 inch equals 1 inch) for Feet and Inches or 1:1 for metric scale, depending on whether the drawing was set in Imperial (feet and inches) or metric.

    If the published scale is incorrect or you prefer a different scale, you can change the published scale for the 2D sheet.

    Important Changing the published scale has these consequences.
    • Published scales are overwritten. Once modified, you cannot revert back to the original, published scale value.
    • Viewport scales are overwritten. If the sheet contains one or more viewports, the new scale is applied to the sheet and all viewports in the sheet. If the viewports had different scales, those scales are overwritten by the sheet's new scale.
    • Viewport measurement values are changed. If the sheet contains one or more viewports with measurements, the new scale is applied to the sheet, all viewports in the sheet, and all measurements in the viewports. The value of these re-scaled viewport measurements viewed in Autodesk Design Review 2012 may be different if the same DWF file is viewed in previous versions of Design Review

    Custom Scale enables you to enter a custom scale using the On Page and Actual options. For example, a 1" = 10' (1 inch equals 10 feet) custom scale designates that each inch displayed in the drawing represents 10 feet in the real world.

    On Page

    Enter the value for measurements in the drawing.

    Actual

    Enter the value you want measurements to represent in the real world.