Tipster Perry Pattiz shares a tip on scaling objects in AutoCAD that are drawn in different units.

“I frequently have to use other people’s drawings to copy and paste items from one facility layout to another. Many of the drawings are drawn full size to different unit standards (inches, feet, millimeters, or meters). I used to have a problem figuring out which was the appropriate scaling factor, until I thought of this solution: Before copying the items you want to insert into a different drawing, draw a known-length line, such as one meter long, in the drawing next to the items to copy. After the copied items are pasted in the new drawing, draw a one-meter-long line and use the Align command to scale the pasted objects to the appropriate size without having to determine which scale factor to use.

"This saves me a lot of time and trouble, and it works every time.”

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Reviewer Brian Benton: This method works. Also keep in mind that the insertion scale in the Units dialog box will control how inserted or referenced objects (or files) are scaled when inserted. If your file is set to feet and the file you want to insert objects into is in meters, make sure the insertion scale is set properly for both files. If so, then AutoCAD will automatically scale the objects as required, with no effort on your part. Type Units on the Command line to get to these settings.