Revit 2021: Project Units & Overrides

by John Flanagan

Introduction  

Project Units by default are under the Manage tab>Settings Panel>Project Units. Open the rac_advanced_sample project and in the Project Browser double click on the level 2 floor plan view to open it. Now zoom in on the top left corner of the floor plan and run a dimension string between grid lines 1, 1.1 and 2 as shown. The dimensions are showing in millimetres because the project units are at millimetres. Click on the length label to open the Unit Format dialogue box.   

Fig 1: Dimension String Showing Millimetres

In the Project Unit Format Dialogue box, click the drop down on Millimetres and change it to Metres. Next change the Rounding to 2 decimal places and the Unit symbol to m. On screen the dimensions will update to reflect this input.

Fig 2: Dimension String Showing Metres

Select the dimension string and type CS (create similar) on your keyboard, click Edit Type, click Duplicate and rename: Diagonal-2.5mm-Arial-Imperial. Still in the Type Properties dialogue box, scroll down and click Units Format. Uncheck use project settings, change units to feet and fractional inches, change Rounding to the nearest ¼”, tick suppress 0 feet. Now run another dimension string underneath the original as illustrated. The dimensions now show as imperial.

Fig 3: Dimension String Showing Imperial

Conclusion

Just because the project is set to be metric doesn’t mean the dimensions have to be metric or my area has to be metric. I can have a metric project with imperial dimension and visa versa. You can therefore work in imperial and metric simultaneously in the same project.