AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Setting Units and Zone In AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawings

AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Units and Zone Settings
AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Units and Zone Settings

Last week I wrote an article outlining the 5 AutoCAD Civil 3D Settings Professional Land Surveyors Need To Know.

Because these are important settings I’ll write an AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks article weekly about each of those five settings.

The first of the five AutoCAD Civil 3D settings Professional Land Surveyors need to know was, “Units and Zone AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Settings“, which is explained in today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks.

Please note that the images in this AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks represent the Units and Zone appropriate for my work area and project requirements. You will, of course, select the appropriate Units and Zone for your circumstances.

Also, if you are not using and/or selecting a Zone, then you should at least select the correct Imperial to Metric conversion.

Now on to the AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks for Setting Units and Zone In AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawings:

  1. Switch to the Settings Tab of the Toolspace and right click on your AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing name. This will bring up a drop-down list of menu items. Select the first option, “Edit Drawing Settings …“.
  2. Select Edit Drawing Settings
  3. With the Drawing Settings screen now open, switch to the “Units and Zone” tab.
  4. Select Drawing Settings Units and Zone Tab
    Select Drawing Settings Units and Zone Tab
  5. Now, depending on your needs, select the correct “Imperial to Metric conversion” and/or “Zone“, scrolling down the list of available zones to find the proper Zone for your project. In my case, I selected “USA, Rhode Island“. You will select the correct zone for your land surveying project.
  6. AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Units and Zone Settings
    AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Units and Zone Settings
  7. Then, once you’ve selected your Zone, you must select from one of the “Available Coordinate Systems” (see image above). In my case, I chose “NAD83 Rhode island State Plane, US Foot“. It is important to select the appropriate coordinate system and distance format (foot vs. meter) for the Zone you have selected.

You can also watch this AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Video for Land Surveyors: Coordinate Systems, which also shows you how to set the Units and Zone In AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawings, and more!

This AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks is brought to you by the Professional Land Surveyor Source, showing you how to set the Units and Zone in your AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 drawing.

Comments

3 responses to “AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: Setting Units and Zone In AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawings”

  1. […] Units and Zone AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Settings. AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Units and Zone Settings […]

  2. Nikhil Avatar
    Nikhil

    Hi,

    I try to change my zone and co-ordinate system, but i get empty menus!
    any suggestions why?

    Thanks!

    1.  Avatar

      What version of AutoCAD Civil 3D are you using? I think this issue might have been addressed in one of the many C3D updates…maybe. I do know that some users with this problem I’ve spoken with claimed to resolve this issue in one of two ways.

      1. They’ve made sure that they have full administrative rights to their machine and have disabled the UAC.
      2. They’ve performed a complete re-install of AutoCAD Civil 3D. I hate to suggest this option, as it’s ridiculous that you should need to do this, but some have said it solved their problems. Additionally, some claim better results if they remove all prior instances/versions of AutoCAD Civil 3D first (again, seems to me to be a heavy-handed and undesirable action – particularly if you want to keep older versions on your computer).

      I’ll look into this some more today, and please let me know if you find a solution.