The options available in the Formats window control the default formats associated with various data types in the application database. Some examples of data types with units of measure include electrical current, electric potential, power, length, angular velocity, integer and string.
Data formats associated with data types can control the length and type of specific kinds of information for this project, such as text strings and numbers. Data formats also control the units associated with particular properties and their display and accuracy in the Properties window, property dialogs, Tabular Editor, and reports.
The formats assigned to these data types can change for different plants. You can use the default data type formats, supplied with sets of properties, or you can create new formats with the Format Manager.
If you select a meter format as the default format for lengths, properties defined with the Length category of units appear in meter format units by default. If you selected feet or inches as the default units for length, lengths appear in inches by default.
For each data type, the rows in the Format column contain a list of values. These
values correspond to the available formats created in the Format Manager per data
type.