Design your model

Measurements and units

Store physical quantities so the platform knows what the number means, can convert it, and can display it per market.

A measurement family defines a standard unit and the units convertible to it. Using one instead of a plain number stops conversion bugs before they start.

Why not a plain number

Storing 10 in a length number attribute and putting "mm" in the label works right up until:

  • A customer in the US needs inches.
  • Somebody enters 1.0 meaning centimetres.
  • You want to filter "up to 50 mm" across products where some were entered in cm.
  • An export has to declare the unit, and there is nothing to declare.

A measurement attribute stores the value and its unit, and the family it belongs to knows how to convert between the units.

Create a measurement family

  1. Go to PIM › Data model › Measurements.
  2. Select New measurement family.
  3. Enter a Code and the Labels (i18n), for example length.
  4. Set the Standard unit. Every other unit in the family is defined relative to it, so choose the one you want as the canonical base: millimetres for length, grams or kilograms for weight.
  5. Add the Units you accept. Each has a Code, a Symbol and a Convert factor, the multiplier to the standard unit. With mm as the standard unit, cm has the factor 10 and m the factor 1000.

Typical families for a technical catalog: length (mm, cm, m, inch), weight (g, kg, t, lb), pressure (bar, psi, kPa), volume (ml, l, m³), temperature, torque (Nm, lbf·ft), power (W, kW, HP).

Use it on an attribute

Create the attribute with type Measurement (metric), set its Metric family to the family and its Unit to the unit that is entered by default, and decide whether Decimals allowed applies. When somebody edits the product they enter a number and pick a unit; both are stored together.

What it buys you

  • Filters that work across units. "Up to 50 mm" catches products entered in centimetres.
  • Per-market display. The same product shows mm in Germany and inches in the US, without a second attribute.
  • Correct exports. BMEcat and punchout formats require a unit of measure; with a measurement attribute there is one to emit.
  • Comparison. Two products entered in different units still sort correctly.
Changing the Standard unit of a family that already holds data changes what every Convert factor in the family means, and with it every conversion of every stored value. This is a migration. Choose the standard unit when you create the family and leave it alone.

Units of measure vs. packaging units

These are different things and get confused.

  • A measurement describes a physical property of the article: it is 10 mm long.
  • A packaging unit describes how you sell it: singly, in a box of 100, on a pallet of 48 boxes.

Packaging and order units belong with pricing and logistics, not here. See Pricing for price-per-unit and minimum order quantities.

Next

You have a data model. Now fill the catalog.

Assets

Manage images, datasheets and drawings as structured records rather than files attached to one product at a time.

Bring data in

Get product data in — once by hand to learn the model, then in bulk at the scale B2B actually operates at.