Jrose Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to convert a metric drawing to feet. If so please advice. Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Smith Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 The short answer is - it depends. Check Format - Units Your drawing is probably currently set for decimal, change it to Architectural, and make sure that you change your dimstyles as well. BUT. Depending on what 1 unit in your metric drawing was defined as you may need to scale the drawing. If 1 unit was 1mm you need to scale differently than if 1 unit was used for 1 meter or kilometer or ... Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea1307 Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 check out this thread read mbdesigns post [thread=39386]This will link to thread 39386[/thread] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbroada Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 although that thread is about alternate imperial units not changing from metric to imperial. The main point is you have to determine what you want to do. As already stated ALWAYS draw at 1:1. You need to scale everything to make the systems match up. If I gave you a drawing of a box, it would be (say) 100 x 300 x 50. If you measured it you would say it is 4" x 12" x 2". So you need to scale my entire drawing down by the correct amount, which should be 1:25,4 or 1"=25,4mm. You will need to scale by 1/12 to get from inches into feet or follow the other thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdbdesign Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 What I will do is: Copy entire dwg (metric) into imperial template (New-Imperial) scale entire dwg: Command: scale Select objects:all Specify base point: Specify scale factor or [Reference]: 0.03937007874016 Change current dim style from usually ISO to Standard Update dimension Check dwg for any inconsistency ... anything I miss? Hope not. That it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Smith Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 That would imply that your current metric drawing is in cm units. If so then it looks like that should work. I like to draw an object (rectangle or some such) of a known size that I can visually compare to the converted drawing. just to be sure I did the math right. I also often use the DISTance command to be sure what AutoCAD thinks the size of my object is. Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbroada Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Specify scale factor or [Reference]: 0.03937007874016 as I don't like typing in those long numbers I use R 25.4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdbdesign Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 That would imply that your current metric drawing is in cm units. Glen I think smallest unit in metric is mm and inch in imperial so AutoCAD converting with this scale from inch to mm and vice versa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdbdesign Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 as I don't like typing in those long numbers I use R 25.4 1 Learn something new every day. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Smith Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 BAH, you are right, that scale factor goes from mm to inches. This is why I use known objects and the distance command to double check my math. I was thinking cm to feet (since you asked about converting to feet) which would be 1/30.48 sorry for any confusion I may have caused. Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CadJunky Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 I know that this is an old thread but it would be more precise if you just used 10/254 instead of "0.03937007874016". Doing it this way you don't have to mess with the decimal places. Anyway, I thought I would share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana W Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 Well, actually the command DWGUNITS covers any units changing issues and nobody needs to do any math at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CadJunky Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 Very true. For whatever reason, sometimes I get drawings that have items drawn Imperial and metric all in one drawing so I always need to scale just the part that's in metric to imperial so I use the 10/254 which serves my ok. Many ways to skin the cat as always. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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