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Smart Client CAD

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Converting Drawings between Metric and Imperial Projects

When you use ARCHIBUS Smart Client Extension for AutoCAD or the DWG Editor to create a new drawing, you specify the Units for the drawing as Imperial or Metric. The drawing's units determine how the drawing is displayed in AutoCAD. A drawing’s units can be either inches, millimeters, centimeters, or meters. A drawing’s units are independent of the project's Base Units, the units used to store area and length values in the database. This means that drawings with different units can exist in the same project. For example, if you have a drawing with Imperial units, and the project uses Metric units, the drawings’ areas will always be stored in square meters (the project’s units), but the drawing will be shown in AutoCAD in inches (the drawing's unit - Imperial).

If you receive a drawing created using a drawing unit that is different than the units you prefer to work with, you can add the drawing to the project and change its units to your preferred drawing units. The following procedure describes how to do this.

Procedure

To add a drawing to the project and change its drawing unit:

1. From the ARCHIBUS Smart Client Extension for AutoCAD or the DWG Editor, from the Navigator pane, select the Drawings tab.
2. Click Add at the top of the pane.

   The Drawing Properties dialog appears.

3. Click the ellipsis button to the right of the File Name field to locate the drawing file.
4. Browse to the file, select it, and click Open.

   The Drawing Properties dialog now shows the File Name of the selected drawing.

5. In the Title field, enter a description that identifies the drawing.
6. In the Default space hierarchy values section, use the ellipsis buttons to select the Building and the Floor that the drawing represents.
7. In the Units section, select one of the following:
   • Imperial: To work with the drawing in inches.
   • Metric: To with the drawing in either millimeters, centimeters, or meters. Select the specific metric unit from the list.
8. Click OK.

   The drawing is now part of the project.

9. Scale the drawing for which you changed the drawing units. Use the table at the end of this topic to determine the scale factor to use.

   Note: If you change a drawing's Units after you have already cataloged its assets, you must scale the drawing accordingly and recatalog the assets. See Catalog Command.

Conversion Table

Use the following table to determine the appropriate scale factor.