Expert: Shauna Anderson - 12/6/2011

Question
Hi, Shauna Anderson
I have been teaching Autocad since 10 years. But I have a problem in converting a drawing made in Architectural units to Decimal and vice-verse. I don't get the actual measurement after changing the scale. Please let me know the actual conversion scale.
Thankyou

Answer
Thank you for your question Jai,

There are a couple of possibilities and it depends on the drawing. Normally, such as in a building plan, a door that is 3'-0" is 36.00 in decimal (with two unit precision.)
  
If it is a larger plan, (we have a big site plan) it could be in Architectural feet. So to just change the units makes a 3'-0" door read as 3.0. Because it is understood to be architectural feet, the 3.0 is read as three feet. If you could get a ruler it would actually be 3 inches. If I add a block that has a 3' width it will come in huge next to the 3.0 door.

To fix this, I have to scale the entire drawing (be careful of the basepoint) by 12. This 12 is the one foot that equals each inch. So now the 3.0 door is 36.00. Also make sure your units are in inches - not unitless.

If this does not solve your problem, please feel free to write back with a bit more detail and I would be happy to give it another try!

Best Wishes,
Shauna