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What unit system do you model in?

Hey guys, I'm interested to know what unit system people most commonly use in thier 3D modeling app. By unit system I mean 1 unit = 1 CM for instance.

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  • seth.
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    seth. polycounter lvl 14
    Inches
    In 'murica I use inches. In Europe I use centimeters.
  • Joshua Stubbles
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    Joshua Stubbles polycounter lvl 19
    Meters
    In Max, we use 0.01m for system units, and just centimeters in Maya.
  • Francois_K
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    Francois_K interpolator
    Feet
    Hexels

    For reals , usually mm.
  • Quack!
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    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    Centimeters
    CM because it is logical and matches Unreal.
  • Daf57
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    Daf57 polycounter lvl 9
    Inches
    Inches, cause I'm metrically challenged. ;)
  • AtticusMars
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    AtticusMars greentooth
    Centimeters
    cm because Unreal
  • BradleyWascher
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    BradleyWascher polycounter lvl 13
    Cm for Unreal.
    Meters for Unity.
  • BARDLER
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    BARDLER polycounter lvl 12
    Centimeters
    Maya's default units of centimeters.
  • radiancef0rge
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    radiancef0rge ngon master
    Centimeters
    But it should be meters..
  • Makkon
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    Makkon polycounter
    Centimeters
    Centimeters, matches Unity and Unreal, no scale adjustments have to be made in engine or any reimport garbage. I import, it works, I move on.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Centimeters
    Centimeters, because that's what a majority of contexts expect. Some formats also work with generic no-name virtual units, which are then interpreted as centimeters.

    However ...

    A frequent problem is that many 3d programs/model viewers don't offer a solid way to check. So for instance, if TB3 was to adopt centimeters as its main unit it should come with a few models and scenes allowing anyone to check their scale against. For instance there should be a .tbscene with a cube clearly labeled "100 centimeters cube" (with the text engraved in the model) so that even the most careless of users would have no choice but understand the unit system. And maybe a generic human silhouette next to it.

    An example of how to *not* do things would be Quixel. They offer no way to see what kind of units/scale their program is expecting, and when asked about how to solve a scaling issue their usual answer is to "play with the texture scaling slider" which is not acceptable. 

    Sketchup is clever in that regard - every new project starts with a human figure located at 0.0.0 meaning that any mistake in unit setup will be noticed right away by the user.

    In short : whichever unit you end up using, make sure to focus on user error prevention. The user shouldn't have to guess it, it should be instantly apparent. One easy way to do this would be to simply indicate the units on a little 10cm gizmo axis at 0.0.0 which would be less intrusive than a human silhouette but still very self-explanatory.
  • EarthQuake
    Centimeters
    @pior, yeah we're looking at putting in a scale tool of sorts for TB3 that should help with this whole problem. You've guessed the right reason for the poll though, I had assumed CM was the most commonly used unit and we're using M as the default right now, and because some features like the skin shader rely on absolute scale, I think thats causing problems for people out of the box.
  • JedTheKrampus
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    JedTheKrampus polycounter lvl 8
    Meters
    I model in meters for sculpting reasons and set the Blender FBX exporter to scale up by 100 if I'm exporting to UE4 or Unity. But if I were using Maya instead of Blender I'd probably use centimeters.
  • fleity
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    fleity polycounter lvl 6
    Centimeters
    Centimetres, because it's maya default. Although I often have characters which are build to be meter scale (1.8 cubes high) even though that means they are tiny. If the model goes to unity I change the units in the fbx exporter. 
    A clear import / export chain from / to modeling is crucial if you don't want to guess values when sending stuff back and forth. In this regard I really don't like meshes entirely done in zbrush because they lack the sense of units too (if the base is made in another program it's not a problem though) . 

    It's easier to think in metres but cm seems most common and nobody wants their animators to deal with huge transform values
  • Toast
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    Toast polycounter lvl 11
    Centimeters
    I couldn't imagine not working in metric. Feel sorry for the 'muricans here....:)
  • CreativeSheep
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    CreativeSheep polycounter lvl 8
    Centimeters
    Nothing wrong with Imperial.  Problem is if you don't know your unit of measurement as the media loves messing with peoples heads in that regard.
  • Jack M.
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    Jack M. interpolator
    Meters
    I use Max and Unreal so I just use meters or cm since UE4 uses cm. I just make sure to always export as centimeters for the units.
  • ActionDawg
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    ActionDawg greentooth
    Centimeters
    I use Max with Unreal and Unity. For a long time I worked with the System Units set to 1 unit = 1 cm, but displaying generic units. Now I switched over to displaying in cm just cause I like it as a reminder.

    Also it was very embarrassing when I realized years down the road that Max will automatically convert any unit you input to the system units. IE: Set SU to 1 unit = 1 cm and type 2" into any field, it converts to 5.08.
  • Mark Dygert
    Centimeters
    CM.

    It's what everything uses, even if you think of it as "unreal, Maya or Max Units".

    As a person who was taught exclusively standard measurements until high school, it's really not that hard to wrap your head around the metric system and get acclimated to it. I'm glad that most schools (at least in my area) are now teaching the Metric system in the lower grades and mostly sticking to it for Science and Math. Standard is still taught also but it seems like the focus has finally shifted off it. I hope this is a national trend but I doubt it, muricans get all freaky about "traditions".
  • .Wiki
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    .Wiki polycounter lvl 8
    Centimeters
    1 unit = 10 cm. Since all of our rigs are softimage based and the internal physics simulation is based on 10 cm per uni by default.
  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    Centimeters
    1 unit = 16 cm. I think some devs in WB are using this too, though I do not know what the benefit for that is. 
  • musashidan
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    musashidan high dynamic range
    Centimeters
    CM. Both UE and my brain operate on metric.
  • Joopson
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    Joopson quad damage
    Centimeters
    CM, because digital measurements combined with exporter size settings, confuse me beyond belief. So CM = Confuses Me.

    I can never get a consistent object scale in Unity, between modelling, exporting, and importing, but I use meters there. But for all personal work, I use CM, which is default in Maya anyway.

    In practice though, I model things relatively to one another, and to the grid. So I rarely, if ever, actually use the units as centimeters.
  • Bek
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    Bek interpolator
    Centimeters
    .Wiki said:
    1 unit = 10 cm. Since all of our rigs are softimage based and the internal physics simulation is based on 10 cm per uni by default.
    So technically you work in decimetres (or decimeters if you're American). But nobody mentions decimetres ever. Modo doesn't even recognise dm as a unit when using SI or metric.

    Also what's with the rounding this forum uses for votes percentages. Currently the percentages only add up to 97%.
  • Prime8
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    Prime8 interpolator
    Meters
    1 unit = 1 meter, most of the time.
    I don't display the units though, I find that a bit troublesome for input, in Blender.
  • Baddcog
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    Baddcog polycounter lvl 9
    Universal units.

     What units do I export to? depends on programs, most games tend to be centimeters, decimeters or meters.
  • .Wiki
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    .Wiki polycounter lvl 8
    Centimeters
    Bek said:
    .Wiki said:
    1 unit = 10 cm. Since all of our rigs are softimage based and the internal physics simulation is based on 10 cm per uni by default.
    So technically you work in decimetres (or decimeters if you're American). But nobody mentions decimetres ever. Modo doesn't even recognise dm as a unit when using SI or metric.

     Jepp its decimeters, but basically i work in universal units.

    Ahh i somehow broke the quote that is embedded in my post.
  • Dan Powell
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    Dan Powell polycounter lvl 5
    Centimeters
    CM for Unreal Engine. Sometimes flick back to meters though for huge st00f
  • FinalDragon
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    FinalDragon polycounter lvl 8
    Centimeters
    I work in centimeters when I'm doing my own stuff (because of Unreal), and meters at work for Unity. :)
  • Lt_Commander
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    Lt_Commander polycounter lvl 10
    Centimeters
    I started modeling working in inches because of the Source engine, but I've since learned to interchange between centimeters when I'm doing external work and decimeters when I'm doing personal projects. Since it's a decimal place away from unity in one direction and unreal in another, it's an easily interchangeable middleground that feels closer to inches in terms of scale, plus it doesn't make the default 3d grid in max completely useless.

    As long as it's metric, it's pretty effortless to swap between everything.
  • gfelton
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    gfelton polycounter lvl 6
    Meters
    I put the wrong thing I meant to say centimeters. I'm ashamed.
  • Scott Ruggels
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    Scott Ruggels polycounter lvl 18
    Meters
    I use meters when modeling for games, and I use Feet when Modelling for court cases.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    CM for Unreal and M for Unity
  • Beard3D Bandit
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    Beard3D Bandit polycounter lvl 7
    Centimeters
    cm, but I draw scaled architectural stuff in mm. 
    and now I wanna buy some M+M's mmmmm
  • Vailias
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    Vailias polycounter lvl 18
    Centimeters
    cm for anything less than space fantasy capital ship sized items. 
    Also imperial units need to die in a fire.
  • kanga
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    kanga quad damage
    CMs for Unity and Ue4. But as far as 'poor muricans' with their imperial, well just try and divide a meter by a perfect third :)
  • Millenia
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    Millenia polycount sponsor
    Centimeters
    I tend to use cm for personal work and decimetres for work stuff - 1/10th scale seems work work well for capital ship size objects. 800 metres in-engine is excessive, 80 is doable.
  • Dreyzie
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    Dreyzie polycounter lvl 3
    Centimeters
    Centimeters for Unreal. 

    I remember a while I ago I forgot to switch my unit setup from 
    imperial to metric. I didn't realize it until after I imported a modular mesh to Unreal. It was the size of an ant.
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