When you create a drawing from a template, the drawing setup options are predefined. You can use these settings or customize them as needed. For example, you may want to use different drawing scales for different drawings.
When you create a drawing without a template, settings such as layer standards and layer key styles are imported into the drawing.
You can specify the drawing units, drawing scale, and layer options as the default settings for any drawing that you start, with or without a template. If you save the settings specified as the default, they override settings in the template.