Version 1.24+ of GlassCalc supports unit conversions through the open source “units” program. You will need to install units yourself though. There are at least two ways to install units, and I will describe two here. If you already have installed Cygwin, look at the second one. Otherwise, I suggest the first method.
Install Units for Windows
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Download the Complete package, except sources installer for Units for Windows from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/units.htm.
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Run the installer. This guide will assume you use the default install location.
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Find the path to units.exe. This should be C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin\units.exe (or C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin\units.exe on a 64 bit OS).
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Open GlassCalc and open the Options->More Settings window. Find the textbox labeled Path to units.exe and type the path you found in the last step there. Make sure Enable unit conversion is checked.
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Click Ok and evaluate the equation 1 in to cm. If GlassCalc complains about not being able to find units, check to make sure the path you entered in the last step is exactly the location of units.exe. If you see 2.54, it worked! GlassCalc can now do unit conversions!
Install Units through Cygwin
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Download Cygwin from www.cygwin.com.
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Run setup.exe, hit next and choose Install from Internet. Hit next some more.
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Set your install settings. This guide will assume you are using the default install location: C:\Cygwin.
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Keep hitting next until you get a screen that looks like this:
Pick something from the list—it doesn’t matter which. If one doesn’t work, try another one.
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You should now see a screen that looks something like this, only with more stuff:
Type units into the search box and everything should be narrowed down to just math and utils. Expand math and you should see a single line with the package name units. Click on the little circly-arrow thingy under the New column until it says Install. (Mine says Keep because it’s already installed.)
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Click next. Wait. I hope you have a decent internet connection. If not, this part will probably take quite a while. Once it’s done installing, you’ll need to do a little more setup to get it to work in GlassCalc.
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Open the environment variables editor. On XP, you can find this by right-clicking My Computer, clicking Properties, and going to the Advanced tab. On Vista and 7, open the start menu and type environment. You’ll see two choices under Control Panel. Pick one. For our purposes, they both do the same thing, but if you pick the one that says Edit environment variables for your account, you get to skip the next step.
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Now, you should see a window that looks like this. Click Environment Variables.
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There should be two boxes in the window that pops up. The top one holds environment variables for your user profile. Find the variable named Path and double click it. If it doesn’t exist, click the New and name the variable path. (Case does not matter) You should now get a window that looks like this:
Leave any text that is already in the value box, but add this to the end: ;C:\Cygwin\bin
(If there was no text already in the box, you should omit the semicolon at the beginning) -
Open GlassCalc and open the Options->More Settings window. Find the textbox labeled Path to units.exe and set it to units.exe. Make sure Enable unit conversion is checked.
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Click Ok on all the windows you just opened. Now, try running GlassCalc and evaluating the equation 1 in to cm (without the quotes). If GlassCalc complains about not being able to find units, try logging off, logging back in, and evaluating the equation again. If you see 2.54, it worked! GlassCalc can now do unit conversions!
