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How to I change the units for density?
kuro_mizu
Member Posts: 2 ✭
Hello,
Under "My Accounts > Preferences > Units," there's no option to change the default unit for density, even though there are options for many other parameters that could be derived from the basic units (length, mass, time, etc.). Originally, I had mass set to pounds (lb), and I reset it (and saved) to grams and later to kilograms. My volume unit is set to mm³. I updated the values, saved them, logged out and back in, refreshed the browser, and waited, but the system continues to display density in lb/mm³. This doesn’t make sense ??? (Why are American and international units mixed together? Shouldn’t it be lb/in³ in the first place?).
Other libraries and even custom settings are also showing density in lb/mm³, and I can’t find any option to change it to g/mm³ or kg/mm³.
Is this a bug, or am I missing something? Thanks!
Best Answer
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Matt_Shields
Member, Onshape Employees Posts: 585 
You need to set your workspace units. The three horizontal lines at the top left of your document.
1
Answers
You need to set your workspace units. The three horizontal lines at the top left of your document.
Agree with Kuro.
No standard I'm familiar with would accept mixing metric with imperial in this way & no eng tables would have density listed as such.
Additionally, users cannot chg density units as Matt suggests.
Has Onshape addressed this yet?
Fun fact: when I worked as a contractor for the US military, all us engineers used millimeters, but the top brass wanted weights in pounds. So, all of our designs used lb/mm^3 for density.
As far as I can tell, Onshape has nothing to address. All units (length, acceleration, angle, mass, force, moment, pressure, and energy) are controlled under workspace units. Any compound units, like density, will follow the units set under workspace units.