Overview
A new Standard Unit Conversion Table is now available in SAP Analytics Cloud. Modelers and planners now have the ability to create, edit, and delete units and unit groups directly within the Standard Unit Table, giving them greater flexibility and control over unit management. This capability is also available to users working within SAP Datasphere workspaces, ensuring a consistent experience across both platforms. These enhancements simplify unit maintenance and streamline planning workflows by reducing reliance on technical administrators.
This new feature supports both standard and custom unit conversions, allowing business users to analyse and report data in their preferred units without manual recalculations.
Unit conversion in SAC serves several critical business needs:
- Financial reporting in multiple currencies
- Operational metrics in local measurement systems (metric vs imperial)
- Industry-specific unit requirements (energy, manufacturing, etc.)
Enabling and Configuring Unit Translation
To begin working with unit conversions, navigate to your model’s configuration:
- Open the desired model in the SAC Modeler
- Select Model Preferences from the toolbar
- Choose the Conversion tab to check the Enable Unit Translation checkbox. This controls how units appear throughout the application.
- When Enabled (Default):
- Unit IDs automatically convert to their corresponding symbols
- Display uses the user’s preferred language setting
- Provides a more intuitive user experience (e.g., shows ‘kg’ instead of ‘KGM’)
- When Disabled:
- System displays raw unit IDs
- Useful for technical users who need to see the underlying values
- May be preferred in multi-language environments where symbol consistency is critical
Creating a Unit-Based Measure & Conversion Measure
Before creating unit conversions, verify:
- You’re working in a Cloud Foundry environment (not supported in Classic Account models)
- Your user role has appropriate modelling permissions
- The Standard Unit Table contains required conversion factors
Step 1: Define Unit Sources
Units can be sourced in two ways:
- Fixed Units (Standard Unit Table)
- Predefined units accessed via the Data Export API
- Ideal for common, standardized conversions (currencies, metric units)
- Dimension-Based Units
- Custom units defined through dimension properties
- Allows different units for specific dimension members
- Example: Defining “miles” for US locations and ‘kilometres’ for European locations
Step 2: Configuring Unit-Enabled Measures
To prepare a measure for unit conversion:
- Select the source measure in your model
- Open the “Properties” panel
- Navigate to the “Unit & Currencies” section
- Choose your unit configuration method:
- Fixed Unit: Select from dropdown (e.g., “km”).
- From Dimension: Link to a unit property.
Creating Conversion Measures
Step 3: Building Unit Conversion Measures
- Open the Calculations Workspace for your model
- Create a new “Unit Conversion Measure”
- Configure the conversion parameters:
- Source Measure: Select your unit-enabled measure
- Target Unit: Choose between fixed or dimension-based options
Understanding Conversion Logic
The system applies these rules during conversion:
Unit Group Validation:
- Conversion only occurs between units in the same group
- Example: “minutes” can be converted to “seconds” (time group)
- Example: “miles” cannot be converted to “kilograms” (different groups)
Custom Unit Handling:
- Custom units not in the Standard Unit Table are ignored
- The system maintains original values for unconvertible units
Creating Optimized Design Stories with Unit Conversion Measures
Create an Optimized Design Experience story by choosing Stories from the SAP Analytics Cloud side panel.
Drag a chart or table onto the dashboard and add the model containing the unit conversion measures.
For a table, add a dimension to rows and the units of measure and conversion measures to columns.
The cells are editable to allow for planning activities to be applied.
