Question 1) At the end of a paragraph that explains a term, I tell readers to see other related terms such as: ....... Also see Concrete, Masonry, Glass, Reinforcing Steel. I make them italics and capitalize them. Should I not capitalize them? Question 2) Also, are units such as Coulomb, Ampere, Newton capitalized in anywhere in a text? Question 3) Finally, when I explain the term CMU, is it capitalized such as Acronym for Concrete Masonry Unit.
This feels like a style guide question--I wouldn't have italicized them, either. Is there any particular guide that led you to italicize? I'm not remotely saying that "a style guide question" is bad, just that if you're following one on the italics, it will probably have an opinion about capitalization as well.
If your reference is referring to a certain chapter or glossary listing elsewhere, then you should capitalize, if it's just a general list of things then capitalization isn't needed. Units of measure aren't capitalized except at the start of a sentence with the exception of Celsius. Acronyms are always capitalized and their long forms are generally capitalized as a proper title, but even if not a proper title, it can be capitalized as a method of explanation. It is a style question and most style rules are there to avoid confusion, so if you're using capitals and italics to lessen confusion, as long as you us them in the same manner throughout your writing, it shouldn't be a problem. That is unless you're supposed to be writing in a specific style guide (like MLA , APA or Chicago), then you'll have to figure out what that style guide says because they're all weird and different.
I like the caps and italics for the first one; it's a style decision, as the others have said, but I think it makes your meaning very clear. For No. 2, I'd look them up in the dictionary and follow that. I think they all begin lowercase, but you should make sure. For the third, yes, CMU as an acronym is capitalized. But writing it out, I'd go with lower case. It's not a brand name, and you wouldn't write "Common Brick" or "Ashlar Stone" or "Structural Clay Tile," would you? Similarly, you'd abbreviate a certain kind of plastic pipe as "PVC," but write out "polyvinyl chloride." I'm trying to remember how we handled this when I was actually in architectural practice. But the kind of jobs that came through our office were small and the specifications were all hand-lettered on the drawings or typed up on clear sticky-back mylar and pasted on. Either way, we did everything in all-caps. I.e., not relevant to what you're trying to accomplish.
