A measurement system is a set of units, such as meters, kilograms, and seconds, that are associated with the standard base measures. In addition to user-defined measurement systems, Windchill supports the following standard measurement systems:

In Windchill applications, you can define custom measurement systems to meet your specific business needs. This is useful if you are working with parts on a microscopic scale or a scale larger than normally used in the standard measurement systems listed previously. In scenarios like this, a new measurement system can be created to define the display units of a very specific scale.

The Windchill application's automatic conversion among measurement systems is useful when you are working with parts from various suppliers. For example, parts are often specified in U.S. Customary units (such as inches, pounds, and seconds) if they are made in the United States, but a metric system, such as CGS, is more widely used in other countries. For example, while looking at a specific part, you can easily switch between the measurement systems for automatic conversion from one unit of measure to the next (for example, inches to nanometers).

To access the Manage Measurement Systems window, click Manage Measurement Systems in the navigation pane on the left of the Type and Attribute Management utility.