Units

EazyDraw drawing scale paramter palette.

Related Topics

Rulers

Graphic Details

Page Setup

Fine Scale

Units Button

Drawing Units

Each document has a common set of "Units" used for all digital representations of size and location of graphic elements. The choice of units does not impact the size of objects as they are drawn on paper. The choice of units only affects numeric reporting of information and numeric data entry.

The Units parameter applies to a drawing (document). Several drawings may be shown on the desk top with different units. The units parameter shown on the panel applies to the drawing shown in EazyDraw’s top window.

The Units parameter is found on the Scale palette that is accessed from the Format main menu. The Attributes Toolbar has a popup menu that shows the current drawing units and provides a shortcut manner for changing the units.

Each parameter palette, such as the dashes palette, has a defined measuring units. These measuring units are used for entering and inspecting attributes such as line width or dash length and are independent of the drawing units or drawing scale. There is a small Units Button provided on each parameter palette. This icon is found in the upper right corner of the palette, just to the left of the window shade control. Control clicking this icon provides a contextual menu for convenient change the choice of fine scale units for an individual palette.

Drawing measurement Units are defined by the popup menu shown circled. The popup menu shows the current units of the top EazyDraw window on the desk top. The units may be changed by making a new selection with the menu.

The Units available and their conversion factor to 1 inch are shown in the following table to the right.

Drawing units are used for the drawing ruler and for readings found in the Graphic Details Inspector. The units are defined here, they may or may not be shown with numeric readings. The Graphic Details Inspector’s setting for Lengths-Units inclusion or exclusion of unit names or abbreviations with numeric displays.

Pixels: A common question is "how do I set my units to be pixels." The issue with pixels is that they are not a defined unit of measure. The actual dimension of a pixel depends on a specific display devise, and in the case of hard copy printing there is no concept of a pixel. To be more precise, a pixel may have a different width and height. However often one needs to design to sizes specified as pixels. In this case choose Points as the units. Points are defined as 72 per inch, and the most common display resolution is 72 dots per inch. If Points are used as the units and 72 DPI is selected for the export resolution to a bitmap (TIFF, JPG, PNG, ...) format, measurements will correspond exactly to "dots" in the image and these dots typically will correspond to pixels on the destination display.

Foot	12 inches
Inch	2.54 centimeters
Yard	36 inches
Rod	5.5 yards
Mile	5280 feet
Kilometer	1000 meters
Meter	100 cm
Centimeter	2.54 per inch
Millimeter	25.4 per inch
Micron	million per meter
Nanometer	billion per meter
Mil	1000 per inch
Point	72 per inch
Pica	6 per inch
Kyu	40 per cm

The units may be changed at any time. The choice of units does not impact the size of a graphic. If a 1 inch square is drawn and the units are changed to millimeters, the square will remain the same size (in all respects) but the reported size in the Graphic Details Inspector will become 25.4.

When working with the scale parameters it may be useful to show Rulers on the drawing. The rulers are drawn in accordance with the specified scale and units. They can provide valuable feedback concerning a drawing’s size and the result of scale changes. In the example above, after the units change the square remains the same size, but the Ruler will change to reflect the new dimension of 25.4.