Incompatible Unit Setting Detected, or Units Showing Up as Unknown (Using Our Scale Tool)
Issue
You tried to use our Scale tool and the dialog box popped up along with the following error message:
Incompatible unit setting detected.
In the Plot Scale dialog box, the problem setting is highlighted in red, and the drop-down menu of scales is not accessible. A common unit combination to trigger this issue is Decimal Inches.
You might also, or otherwise, see a red Unknown button in the place of the top center button in the Plot Scale dialog box when the Insertion Scale: Units to scale inserted content menu in the Drawing Units dialog box is set to Unitless.
Some offices have a standard of setting their drawings to Unitless, which presents a problem for Land F/X because it cannot function properly without knowing the drawing units.
In the past, when setting the scale in a unitless drawing, the system actually assigned a unit setting to the drawing. With our updated, more transparent Plot Scale, you're asked to set that unit yourself. You're welcome to change the units back to Unitless in the Drawing Units dialog box, if required by your office.
Note that we've seen the standard of unitless drawings arise from a need to work around an AutoCAD bug that scales files when you insert them. However, if you're using our fxREF tool to attach drawings as Xrefs, it does so for you.
Cause
Your drawing likely has a combination of units settings that Land F/X doesn't recognize as being used in construction drawing documentation (Decimal Inches, for example). This unrecognized combination is triggering the error message. See our scale and units theory documentation.
Solution
1. Verify the units that have actually been used in drafting the elements in the drawing. Do not just choose different units settings.
2. Follow our steps to correct your drawing units and scale.
3. Run our Scale tool again to access the scale list for your chosen units.
4. If you discover you need to change the units of the drawing, follow steps to troubleshoot and correct scale and units in a drawing with Xrefs.
Contact
- Land F/X
Our software tailors AutoCAD®, Revit®, SketchUp®, and Rhino® to the needs of landscape architects, irrigation designers, and other professionals. We automate your most tedious tasks and ensure accuracy, giving you more time to design.