Have you actually started the drawing?  Can you upload a copy of the drawing to a file sharing website like DropBox and leave a link to it in a subsequent post?  If you can then someone here can take a look at it and instruct you as to what to do next.

What is the rough size of the building you are drawing? 

Something you said above about architectural units changing the size of elements kind of nagged at me so I quickly fired up AutoCAD, set my units to Engineering and drew a building that was 38'-0" x 24'-6".  Double-checked my dims just to be sure.  Then I changed my units from Engineering to Architectural.  The size of my building did not change.  I'm left wondering what you did differently that you saw a change in size.  Can you explain?

Oh, and one more thing, the least precise setting for architectural units is 0'-0".  Even if you were to intentionally draw a line 120 inches long which can be done with command line input when you did a LIST on it the length would be displayed in feet and inches not in inches alone.  If you click on the line and checked Properties the line length would say 10' not 10'-0".


Edited by John Connor - 02.Oct.2015 at 22:01

One other question comes to mind re: changing size.  Could it be that you are working with a layout and viewing your building through a viewport?  As one changes the scale of the viewport say, for example, from an engineering scale of 1"=40' to an architectural scale of 1/4"=1'-0", there would be a noticeable change in size of the objects in the viewport.

That's about the only other thing I can think of.  Without a copy of your drawing I'm basically guessing at this point.

Sorry to be a pest but I do have yet another question.  You used engineering units to draw your building but you want to use architectural units to dimension it? 


Edited by John Connor - 03.Oct.2015 at 16:17

Here is the link.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9azxe1rm2bzzmfu/AADGoA4UybP4en5sFQg7j-ppa?dl=0

The drawing is called Siteplan and it has one xref, Basemap.  The preferred layout is Layout 2.  See if my efforts to share a link without an email address have worked.  THANK YOU so much for your time and effort!

I downloaded and opened both drawings and the first thing I did was check what you had Units set to.  Guess what?  Both are set to use the default of decimal inches.  So, the reason why your dimensions are being displayed in inches is because that is what you are drawing in.

I measured the front of the house using the Distance command and got a value of 26.46 inches.  I suspect that the true distance was supposed to be something closer to 26.46 feet (decimal feet and inches typically used in civil engineering).  This would be expressed as 26'-5 1/2" in architectural units.  As I said in my last post it is entirely possible to draw in engineering units yet dimension a drawing using architectural units.

This is what I would recommend.

1. Scale all the geometry in model space by a factor of 12.
2. Invoke the Units command and set the Type to Engineering and the Precision to 0'-0.0".
3. Create a new layer called VPort and assign a color other than white.  Use this layer for your viewport in Layout1.  Also, set this layer, to "no print" in the Layer Properties Manager.  A red diagonal line will appear through the printer icon.  The viewport will be visible on screen but it won't print.

Now I have a question.  What scale do you want to use?  Would you prefer an engineering scale like 1"=10' or an architectural scale like 1/8"=1'-0"?  I see your siteplan has a scale of 1:8.  This is actually a ratio not a commonly recognized or used scale, as far as I know, by architects or civil engineers.

4. Invoke the DimStyle command and set your Primary units to Architectural and Precision to 0'-0".  Disable Zero Suppression for Inches and/or for Feet depending on your preferences.
5. Put your dimensions in your layout and not in model space.
6. Lock your viewport display so that you do not inadvertently change it.

Any questions?


Edited by John Connor - 04.Oct.2015 at 12:24

This is so odd.  My files have the decimal units set to feet - I checked that because I thought it might be an issue.  But when you receive them they are in inches!  If they were in inches it would explain everything.  I am stymied by what you say.  When I bring up the Units dialogue box