Danz Posted August 4, 2009 Posted August 4, 2009 Hi I am using Autocad 2009 LT, I have been sent a drawing that was imported from another form of CAD different to what I am using, this was fine however the scale in model space was way off. i used the SCALE function and referenced it to a known length which worked fine and converted the drawing into 1 unit = 1mm (have had to do this on a few drawings with no probs). The only problem I have with this drawing that differs to the others i have had to do this to is when i try and insert a block (all my blocks are drawn in mm) it inserts really really small. I have had a look online and it looks like there is a function called INSUNITS, there were also some other longer functions relating to this same command. It says online to change this value to zero. My concern is that i dont fully understand what this command is changing and was hoping someone could explain, not to keen on changing this without knowing if its going to effect anything else. Also, would changing this setting in this drawing alter any of my other drawings? Appreciate any help on this Cheers Danny Quote
dbroada Posted August 4, 2009 Posted August 4, 2009 there are several variables, INSUNITS, INSUNITSDEFSOURCE & INSUNITSDEFTARGET which are said to control the scale of source & destination. They don't always behave as you expect. I have not invested much time in trying to understand them - life is too short! If you set them to 0 all blocks are just UNITS long, and YOU decide what a unit is. Setting them to other values tells AutoCAD that they are... 0 Unspecified (No units)1 Inches 2 Feet 3 Miles 4 Millimeters So in theory you can draw all your blocks in metric and import them into an imperial drawing without having to rescale. I just let the blocks come in then change the scale using the properties palette when I've got everything in. Quote
Shiloh Posted August 4, 2009 Posted August 4, 2009 The value should be set to 0 by default. If you change this value in a drawing, it carries over into any other drawing. I don't know if you're new to AutoCAD, but if you are in case you didn't know, push F1 and the help box comes up. Under the index tab you can type in the name of the command and usually some pretty good information about it comes up. Good luck. Type:IntegerSaved in:DrawingInitial value:1 Specifies a drawing-units value for automatic scaling of blocks, images, or xrefs inserted or attached to a drawing. NoteThe INSUNITS setting is ignored when inserting annotative blocks into a drawing. 0 Unspecified (No units) 1 Inches 2 Feet 3 Miles 4 Millimeters 5 Centimeters 6 Meters 7 Kilometers 8 Microinches 9 Mils 10 Yards 11 Angstroms 12 Nanometers 13 Microns 14 Decimeters 15 Dekameters 16 Hectometers 17 Gigameters 18 Astronomical Units 19 Light Years 20 Parsecs Quote
Danz Posted August 4, 2009 Author Posted August 4, 2009 wow thats quite a few unit choices! So i need mine to be in mm's they were drawn, but it looks like i need to check that what it is currently set to. Having not ever changed that setting before tho they should already be in the default setting 0 as you mentioned. Maybe im not looking at the correct command, is there another reason that i have overlooked that would be causing the blocks to come in small? If i draw a line at 2000 units it gives me a line at 2000mm on the drawing, this is correct so not sure why the blocks are not matching it. Never had this problem before and dont want to alter settings as they all work great for my other drawings. Quote
dbroada Posted August 4, 2009 Posted August 4, 2009 first check what size they are coming in at. If they have been scaled to 25,4:1 or 1:25,4 its because AutoCAD has decided that they are imperial blocks in a metric drawing or visa versa. If they are any other scale the problem is elsewhere. Quote
Shiloh Posted August 4, 2009 Posted August 4, 2009 When you insert into the drawing, the insert block dialog box gives you the option to change the scale. Quote
Danz Posted August 4, 2009 Author Posted August 4, 2009 just checked the drawing and the blocks are coming in at the following A line that should be 1200 is 1.2 A line that should be 924 is 0.924 Could this be a drawing scale issue as opposed to a block scaling issue? Maybe ive been working to late on this and im missing something simple, lol. Quote
dbroada Posted August 4, 2009 Posted August 4, 2009 basically ignore what I had said about metric/imperial! It looks like one of you is working in mm and one in m. Quote
Danz Posted August 4, 2009 Author Posted August 4, 2009 yeah thats what i was thinking, but if i measure a line on the drawing it returns the length in mm and when i draw a line at 2000 it is drawn as a 2000mm line not a 2000m line. Think im confusing myself now. Appreciate all your time with this Quote
dbroada Posted August 4, 2009 Posted August 4, 2009 which leads me to belive the block you are inserting has its units set to 6 (m) whereas yours are either 0 (unitless) or 4 (mm). Quote
Danz Posted August 5, 2009 Author Posted August 5, 2009 thanks guys for all your advice, it did end up being INSUNITS settings after all (they were set to 6) changed that and all good. At least I have an understanding of the feature now as well Thanks again, all working well Quote
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