For those who attempt to access my previous post on this subject I do apologize. I had links to a URL which got lost in the ether.
The current barscale does not work well in metric I have Carlson 2009 (081121) and still the units come up with ' sign. I have modified this without too much of a problem. I plot drawings on sheets A4-A0 and the barscale is really only suitable for a an A1 or A0 drawing. The barscale needs to be reduced in size for the smaller drawings.
I have samples of drawings in A4,A2 & A1 at
http://www.surveyor.net.au/Carlson/bar_A4.pdf
http://www.surveyor.net.au/Carlson/bar_A2.pdf
http://www.surveyor.net.au/Carlson/bar_A1.pdf
My example shows the barscale at 1:1000 in each drawing (my version is the one on top without the ' sign)