Drawing conversion metric to impereal in AutoCAD

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In the last video, we learned about block, write block, and design center.

In today’s video, we will learn about converting the drawing which means how to convert drawing from metric to imperial and imperial to metric.

As we all know, we prepare our drawings with a specific unit. This means as civil engineers we mostly use MM, centimeters, meters, and kilometers which are metric units. Or we work in feet or inches which are the imperial units. So if I need to convert the units or to convert the whole drawing, for example, you have prepared a drawing and that drawing is prepared with the metric unit but the requirement of the client is that the drawing must be in the imperial unit which means you have to convert the whole drawing.

So today we will learn the conversion of units in Autocad. First of all, I will check what is the current unit here, so I will type UN and press enter. Here you can see that right now I am working in decimal. Okay….. Suppose I am working In architectural type right now, so first we will learn how to convert from imperial to metric, and later we will look at the conversion from metric to imperial. Okay.

So I will click ok here. And I will also check the dimensions. I already explained to you in the previous videos of dimension that we have 2 options there which means that we work in 2 dimensions.

 First is the one that we input to prepare our drawing or a layout and the other dimension is the one that is shown in the display.

To check that dimension, we have a shortcut key which is D and enter. D enter. As I am pressing D enter. Here we have a window where I can modify it. So I will click on modify and then select primary units. So here I will select the primary unit as engineering, then I want 1 decimal, then I can change the size of the symbols according to the size of my drawing and change the text size too. I can easily fill all that here. For now, I will not change any settings and let it be as default only, because we don’t know the default settings yet.

Now we will prepare a drawing. Before that, I will click on set current and close. Then we will select the line command and turn the ortho mode on so that the lines are exactly horizontal or vertical. You can notice here that the working unit for this line is in inches and feet right now. Suppose I want to draw 5 feet or a 10 feet line. I will type 10.. and here we also have to show the symbol, so the symbol of the feet is right beside the enter key on your keyboard and then press enter.

So you can see here that the line is outside the working space right now which means that my working space is less than 10. For that, I have to set the limit first. To set the limit, I will type LIMIT and enter, here I will specify the first corner as 0 comma 0 and press enter. Then I will specify, 50 feet comma 50 feet and enter. Then I will type Z and press enter and then type A and enter again. Okay.

So now the line is visible to us. I have set the limit of my working space as 50 by 50 feet. Okay.

So now we will see in dimension…, but it is not visible right now as you can see here. To make it visible, I will type D and enter and click on modify. Here I will increase the text size to 0.5 feet and the arrow size also to 0.5 feet. Then I will fix the lines and click on ok, then set current and close. As you can see, I have a 10 feet line here and the dimension is also visible. Okay. I can also move down the dimension if I want to. Okay.

One more thing, here I will not only draw a line but a whole rectangle, and the size here will be 10 feet and enter. Then on this side too 10 feet and enter. You only have to provide the direction and the size of the dimension. So 10 feet and enter. So my box is ready here with a dimension of 10 feet by 10 feet. (10 seconds gap)

Now suppose I want to convert this rectangle into MM. For conversion, as you all know, 1 foot is equal to 300 MM. ok? Similarly 3.028, which means we have many figures after the decimal point. but we will take the approximate value as 300.

So to convert into MM, we have an option here which is scale, which means if I want to convert any drawing I will use the scale command. So come let us see how we can convert this drawing with scale command? So pay attention. I will explain this again too. Let's look at the whole process once and then I will explain all the points again.

Now I will click on the scale and I will specify a point. Here you can see I have 2 options: copy and reference, so here I will select reference or type R and press enter. Then here I have to specify the unit or the line that I want to convert, so here I want to convert from feet to MM, and if I want to convert from feet to mm, then I will type 1 feet and as you all know 1 feet is equal to 12 inches, so you can also direct input 12 here. But I will input 1 feet and enter. Then I have to again specify a new length which means I want it in MM and 1 feet is equal to 300 MM, so here I will input 300 and enter.

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Now we will check the dimension again, so right now the dimension is 250 here, but I want the dimension in MM, so I will type D and enter and modify in primary units. I want it in decimal, so click ok, set current, and close. As you can see, 1 foot is equal to 300 MM and our drawing or line was 10 feet, so according to that the dimension shows 3000 MM. in this way we can easily convert our drawing from decimal to engineering, that is imperial to metric or metric to imperial.

There is one more thing here. How can we convert the drawing from MM to inches or feet?

Right now our working unit that we can see with the UN and enter, is architectural. The working unit that I want is decimal and right now I am working into millimeters. Then I will click on ok. And we will use the scale command again. So will click on scale and then select the object and press enter. Then I have to specify a point and select a reference again. So now 300 millimeters is equal to 1 feet. I will type three zero zero (300) and enter. Then I have to specify a new length which is the new unit that we want in feet. Here we are working in decimal, so when we use the feet symbol here with 1, it will not work. So what we will do is enter 12 inches here which means as i will write here 12, the inch will get converted to feet on its own, so 12 inches will be converted to 1 feet. Okay. Because when we work in inches, we are not required to add the symbol of an inch, and due to this reason, I will enter 12 here. So 12 and press enter. Here it shows 120 but I will again click D and enter which is dimension style, then I will click on modify and change the primary unit to architectural. Then click ok, set current, and close. As you can see the conversion is done from millimeter to feet. In this way, you can convert any drawing from inches or feet to meter, millimeter, centimeter, or kilometer, and the same way you can convert from meter, centimeter, or kilometer to inches or feet.

Okay. So in the future when I work in AutoCAD and the client requires that the drawing should be in a specific unit or scaling, I can easily modify it with the scale command or conversion command that we use with a reference.

We will see in further videos, how to convert if we want a drawing with a specific scale like 1 jam 100, 1 jam 200 or 1 jam 10, or centimeter to meter, kilometer to meter centimeter to millimeter. 

If i want to work in this way in unit conversion or if i want the output in this way then how can we do that, we will see in next videos. ok?

In today’s video, we learned about converting the drawing which means from metric to imperial and imperial to metric.

In the next video, we will learn about layers and working with layers.

I hope you all will practice whatever we learned today. During your practice, If you have any queries or comments, click the discussion button below the video and post there. This way, you will be able to connect to fellow learners and discuss the course. Also, Our Team will try to solve your query.

Thank you.