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How the measurement units, measurement scale, grid spacing, ruler units, and magnification relate?

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The default unit of measure used by Essential Diagram is the pixel, where one unit in the diagram model translates to one pixel on the display device. This is most suited for applications that do not require interpretation of the diagram model in terms of real world measurement units and can tolerate a certain amount of variation depending on the resolution of the display device. The device independent units that you can avail of are Inches, Millimeters, Document and the Point. Besides the device independence that the real world units offer, the choice of unit is purely tied to that which can most easily be interpreted by the application and is also meaningful to your end-user. Most applications should be well served by staying with the default Pixel units. The application will simply have to come up with a logical mapping for transferring the real world units from it's data model to Pixel values for use in your diagram. For instance, a diagram that attempts to model a 100 square mile topographical map, may utilize a logical scale that maps each square mile to a 100 X 100 pixel section of the diagram. The diagram model would then be set up with bounds that equal to a width and height of 10000 Pixel units. You could then design your symbols and other diagram objects to conform to this logical scale. The diagram Rulers, Grid spacing and Magnification are attributes tied to the diagram's View component and are purely visual aspects of the diagram. The Grid spacing uses the same units as that used by the Model and the default grid will remain the same irrespective of the measurement unit chosen for your model. Rulers however use a separate unit of measure, as set by the Diagram.View.RulerUnits property, and you can adopt a ruler gradation that is best suited for your diagram's scale. Magnification is simply a question of mapping the diagram's model on to the view, and the model units do not affect this in any way.

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