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AutoCAD Productivity

Dual Dimensions in a Dimension Style

by Michael Beall

From: AutoCAD Productivity Articles #147
Originally published: August 2016

Alternate Units‘Alternate Units’ doesn't always mean Metric.

To follow along, set the current Dimension style to one you like. The following exercise begins with a Dimension Style with the Unit format set to Architectural on the Primary Units tab.

How to Display Ft′-In″ as well as Inches

  1. Launch the Dimension Style dialog box [Alias: D], click New and enter a name, then click Continue.

  2. Click the Alternate Units tab.

  3. In the upper left corner, put a check in the box for Display Alternate Units.

  4. Set the Unit Format to Fractional.

    Note: I would suggest you set the values for the Precision and the Round off to the same values as those on the Primary Units tab.

  5. Set the Multiplier for Alt Units to 1.00.

  6. In the Suffix edit box, put the inch marks ( ″ ).

    Dimension settings

  7. The last setting you may want to make is to set the Placement feature radio button (under the preview) to Below Primary Value.

    Primary location

  8. Click OK, Close the Dimension Style dialog box, then check out your new dimension!

See all the articles published in August 2016

Michael's Corner

Between 2003 and 2016, Michael Beall (and one or two guests) wrote almost 600 articles for CADTutor. The focus of these articles is AutoCAD productivity, and although some of them are now more than a few years old, most remain relevant to current versions of AutoCAD. The article above is just one example. Check out Michael's Corner for a full listing.

Tip of the Day

Command line in a window (F2)

The command line can be very useful, especially for beginners because AutoCAD often gives useful prompts which helps when learning how to use some of the more complicated commands. The command line is also used by AutoCAD to report information back to the user, but sometimes that information may run to several lines of text, and disappear from view. A good example of this is the Distance command (you can run this from the keyboard by typing DIST). The problem is that by default, the command line is only two lines high and so if you use the Distance command, you don't even see the distance reported to the command line.

One way round this problem is to increase the depth of the command line to show more lines but this takes up valuable drawing area. A better solution is to display the command window using the F2 key on the keyboard.

Command Line

As you can see above, the command window also allows you to scroll back through the command line so that you can review your recent drawing history.

Today's tip is by David Watson

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