Units define the measurement system used in your drawings. In ZWCAD Flex, you can set various unit types—such as length, area, or volume—based on your project needs.
Choosing the right units is essential for accuracy, consistency, and clear communication in design projects. Different projects may use different units of measurement, and standards can vary by country. For instance, architects in the United States often work in feet and inches, while civil engineers use decimal feet. In many other countries, both disciplines primarily use the metric system. Changing units ensures your drawings match the standards of each project.
In this guide, we'll walk through setting drawing units, changing dimension units, and converting units (such as from inches to millimeters) to boost your drafting accuracy.
To set units, follow the instructions below:
1.Type UNITS in the command line and press Enter.
2.In the Drawing Units dialog, choose the Length unit (e.g., metric—millimeters; or imperial—inches/feet).
3.(Optional) Set Angle unit and Precision as needed.
4.(Optional) Adjust Insertion scale if you plan to insert/xref other drawings.
5.Click OK to apply.
To ensure your drawing measurements are both accurate and clearly displayed, it’s important to understand how to set the drawing units first, and then adjust the dimension units accordingly.
Units are the measurement system used to create and store your drawing’s actual geometry. For example, when you draw a line, its length is stored as a number in a certain unit system, like millimeters or inches. This affects the size and scale of everything in your drawing behind the scenes.
Dimension units control how the measurements are displayed in the dimension annotations (the numbers and labels that show lengths, angles, or sizes on your drawing). Even if your drawing is created in millimeters, you can display the dimensions in inches, feet, or another unit without changing the actual geometry.
With units and dimension units, you can work with one set of units internally (for example, millimeters) but display dimensions in another unit system (such as inches) to suit project requirements or client preferences.
To change the dimension units without affecting the overall drawing units, you can:
Select a Dimension
· Click on an existing dimension in your drawing to select it.
Open Properties Panel
· Press Ctrl + 1 to open the Properties Panel.
· Find the Dimension Style associated with the selected dimension.
Modify Dimension Style
· Click on Format in the menu bar, then select Dimension Style (or use the DIMSTYLE command). This will open the Dimension Style Manager.
Choose and Modify Style
· In the Dimension Style Manager, select the dimension style you want.
· Click Modify to open the Modify Dimension Style dialog box.
· Navigate to the Primary Units tab.
· Under Unit format, change the unit system to your desired option (e.g., Decimal, Fractional, Architectural).
Apply Changes
· Click OK to apply the changes and close the dialog box.
The UNITS command can set drawing units to imperial or metric. However, for a single drawing, this setting does not automatically scale or convert existing objects. It simply tells the software how to interpret the numbers you enter.
For example, if you draw a line with a length of 1, it will still measure 1 in drawing units regardless of whether the units are set to inches or millimeters—the physical size of the geometry doesn’t change. The unit setting only becomes significant when exchanging data between different drawings, such as inserting one drawing into another as a block or external reference, where unit conversions can be applied.
In the following example, we'll show how to convert a drawing from imperial units to metric. However, the same method can be applied to convert a drawing from any original unit system to the units you need.
Example:
In CAD, geometry is essentially unitless—objects are stored as numeric values without any inherent measurement system.
This means that if you create two drawings—one set to millimeters and the other to inches—and draw a line 100 units long in the millimeter drawing, then copy it into the inch drawing, it will still measure 100. However, in the inch drawing, that same numeric value is now interpreted as 100 inches, not 100 millimeters.
The Units for scaling setting in the Drawing Units dialog works differently. It only takes effect when a drawing is inserted into another as a block or an external reference. In those cases, CAD compares the source and target units and automatically scales the geometry according to their conversion ratio. For example, inserting a millimeter-based drawing into an inch-based one will enlarge the geometry by a factor of 25.4, ensuring the real-world size remains accurate.
Solution:
Method 1: When the Insertion scale unit is set to "inches" or "millimeters"
1.If the source drawing uses imperial units, set the Insertion scale unit to inches.
2.Create a new file with metric (mm) units.
3.Execute the INSERT command, browse for the drawing to convert, and insert it as a block.
Method 2: When the Insertion scale unit is set to "Unitless"
1.If the source drawing uses imperial units, set the Insertion scale unit to Unitless.
2.Create a new file without specifying units (assume it uses millimeters).
3. Open the Options dialog (use the OPTION command) and set the Drag-and-Drop scale under the User Preferences tab.
After this setup, any unitless drawing inserted will be automatically converted from imperial to metric. Although this example demonstrates converting inches to millimeters, the same process works for converting between any units, allowing you to maintain accuracy across different unit systems.
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