Newbie question: Units

I've searched the help and some older manuals to no avail. This seems like
it ought to be REALLY simple:

I've created a drawing to save in dxf format, for translation into code to
drive an e-beam system. I need to specify in the .dxf that the units are in
millimeters, not the abstract 'units' autocad uses.


Can this be done?

Thanks
-mike

 

The unit of measurement in AutoCAD drawings is whatever you want it to
be. Parsec, millimeter, inch, yard, mile, light-year, etc.

 

I understand that. ut I need to specifically designte it as mm, if at all
possible. Surely there is a way to set this in an output file so it can be
read by other softwre?

 

Mike -

Since the DXF file format does not contain any code that indicates what
its unit of measurement is, your only control is to be sure that its
units do indeed represent millimeters. If you been designing in mm, just
write the DXF file. If you have been designing in cm, scale the whole
drawing up by 10, and then write the DXF file. If you have been
designing in inches, scale up by a factor of 25.4.

As with most CAD-to-other-program conversions, a test run is a really
really good idea before you start production.

- Bill