We in the USA are waaay behind the curve in the standard units of measurement. In other words, we (or I) need to have our imported data projected using feet instead of meters. Sometimes when I import a new drawing or create a drawing using a Transform function, the original projection data is lost. I can re-apply a projection to that drawing. However, the newly projected drawing will default to meters instead of feet.

Is there a way that I can specify M9 to default to feet?

In the /Tools/Option dialog you can set a default projection. If you create the default projection with feet, then that is what will be used when you create a new Drawing. It won't change imported data. There is probably a way to set them as a batch with a combo script/query.

Thank you! I have already set the default projection to use feet as the metric. M9 appears to ignore that and default back to meters when importing unprojected material, such as AutoCAD layers.

I can re-apply a projection to that drawing. However, the newly projected drawing will default to meters instead of feet.

For US, there are projections in meters and projections in feet. Use the latter. If the projection you are after does not have an equivalent projection in feet, you can change the units to feet in the Metrics readout at the bottom of the Coordinate System dialog.

That appears to be a selection in Manifold 8. Manifold 9 provides projections (I am limited to Washington State Plane North and South), but setting the metrics from meters to feet must be specified at the projection is assigned. The metrics defaults to meters when I import new drawing layers, especially when the layer is coming from an AutoCAD file (there are other instances where this is the case, but I can't recall them at the moment). What I am looking for is to change the system metrics default so that I don't have imported layers coming in at three times too large and located way off the map.

You can specify a projection however you want in 9. Do that directly when setting the system default in Tools - Options, or, if you plan on using that often, add it to Favorites, taking care to specify override metrics if you want to change the metrics, like to feet instead of meters, as illustrated step by step in the Favorite Coordinate Systems topic. It's very easy to do. You can then choose that coordinate system as the system default for new components in Tools - Options.

Use State Plane projections from EPSG. Here are the variants for Washington North:

I marked projections in feet using a red pen.

There is no default for system metrics, there is only a default coordinate system. You might try adjusting the default coordinate system to something like pseudo-Mercator, but in feet, however I am not sure that will provide much value. Because if the data you import does not have any coordinate system attached, you have to assign the coordinate system manually anyway (and then you can simply pick one of the existing EPSG systems).

Attachments:
washington-north-epsg.png

Ah. I see that now. Thank you. I tested using the EPSG tab to set the projection to Washington State Plane North (ftUS) (EPSG:3690) and noted that while the XY metrics default to feet, the Z metric still defaults to meters. Something for me to remember when using data containing height information.

From EPSG:3960, make the metric change to feet (US Survey Foot), when done copy this projection. Then as Dimitri mentioned above, go to the favorites and add (with the metrics confirmed in the bottom edit box.) to favorites. This is the one to then put in the Options for default projection.

Images are still not importing correctly. I have set up a favorite that includes setting the units to feet. However, M9 still defaults the units to meters. I have attached six images showing each step towards getting the projection correct along with the the original untouched image. The process in M8 to assign the correct projection is to select Washington State Plane North (feet).

I am still at a loss why M9 insists on projecting units as meters despite a favorite projection that uses feet.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/verl2av5ql3v0kc/AAAss9o7TsmfEV3yODUFHsHSa?dl=0

I am using Manifold Build 9.0.178.0

I got the image to position the following ways.

Open the image. Push the coordinate system button from the info/component pane.

choose: Repair Initial Coordinate System

choose: More... to bring up the specify coord sys dialog.

edit the Metrics.

from pulldown choose Survey Foot for XY, and also below in Z. (at least I did).

*change nothing else about the options like scale or offset. Click OK, then OK.

Go drop it in the map and see where it landed.

I think you went off track on #4 straight to reproject, when the metric adjustment needed made first.

If it landed correctly you can then reproject it to a EPSG: 2926 (for a canned projection with the metrics correct from the beginning.)

cheers.

In addition to oeaulong's comment, it sounds like when you saved the favorite you might have neglected to specify that you wanted the favorite to override metrics. Whenever you save a favorite you can keep the prior metric or override the metric. When changing units using the metrics button, you want to override metrics so that your new metrics setting will override any prior metric using some other unit of measure.

That's easy to do with a click: See the illustration in the example in the Favorite Coordinates Systems topic.

The problem is in image 4. The favorite projection you are applying is set to 'keep metrics'. This means that applying it will change everything except metrics = scales / shifts / units.

You could change the favorite to 'override metrics'. But in this particular case overriding metrics is not a good idea, because you need to change just units, while keeping scales (0.25) and shifts (1308000, 261000) unchanged.

The solution is to manually edit metrics and change units to US Survey Foot (btw, I note that you are changing units to Foot, that might be slightly wrong).

If you find yourself frequently needing to change units from meters to US Survey feet, this could be done using a query or a script. The code needs to read the original coordinate system from the metadata, adjust local offsets / local scales from old units to new, change the unit name, then print the new coordinate system and write it to the metadata.

Thank you! The missing piece has been filled in.