Metric and imperial dimensions

[PeterJ]

Need to show a drawing with both metric and imperial dims?

Set a dimensions style to your metric version then copy it and rework it with imperial settings but set the dimension position to be below the line and to the right - defaults are left and above.

Place your metric dimension then place an imperial dim in the same location so that the dim lines are coincident and you will appear to have one dimension with both measures.

P

[beegee]

Need to show a drawing with both metric and imperial dims?

Set a dimensions style to your metric version then copy it and rework it with imperial settings but set the dimension position to be below the line and to the right - defaults are left and above.

Place your metric dimension then place an imperial dim in the same location so that the dim lines are coincident and you will appear to have one dimension with both measures.

P

Peter,

Thats very clever, but ah, why would you want to do that ?
We colonials converted to real dimensions ( ie metric ) back in 69, I think.
Reading the many threads ( in other NGs ) on problems with fractions of inches, rounding etc. - metric is the only way fly.

My 2 inches worth :D

beegee

[PeterJ]

The industry generally thinks metrically, but many clients still think imperial. It is changing though.

I sometimes stick imperial dims on a drawing for a lay client as a courtesy.

My 50 mm worth.......

[christopher.zoog51272]

You know, it's kind of sad. Although I "know" the metric system, I just cannot get my brain to think in metric. I was poking around in one of Martin's detail families, and I was taken back by the 4625mm dimension, though part of me knew how long it was, I just couldn't get my brain to envision it, I finally punted and set it to imperial. I just can't gauge spaces in metric. :cry: I guess it just comes with pratice.

BTW, I really don't like the imperial system that much, but sadly, I don't think it will ever change here :(

[PeterJ]

Chris

Of course it won't change. I've been there I know you all have twelve fingers and twelve toes, unlike the rest of the metric world where we have just ten.

P

[Steve_Stafford]

Mine go to eleven....

[PeterJ]

To eleven? Then you are in trouble both with feet and inches and with ozzes and lbs.

[Steve_Stafford]

Exactly, it's one louder...

[Thomas Cummings]

When my son was 3 I used to play the old "count your fingers for you" scam. As you count each finger you say the number 8 after each instance,...........one-eight, two-eight, three-eight. By deftly skipping "eight-eight" he would wind up with eleven fingers. This confounded and amazed him and his daycare pals who would line up for re-counts. :lol:

Ahh, simpler days.

[ajayholland]

Maybe a metric system will take hold if we ever get off-planet. I'm currently re-reading Asimov's Robots of Dawn (1983) where the "spacers" have adopted a metric time-keeping system: 10 hours per day; 100 minutes per hour; 100 seconds per minute.

Now that I think of it, why should there be 360 degrees in a circle? Wouldn't 400 have been just as good? :lol:

-AJH

[Scott D Davis]

in a metric base-10 system, a circle should have 100 degrees.

[Dean Camlin]

Scott Davis said:
in a metric base-10 system, a circle should have 100 degrees.

Is that what gradians are?

So, I'm not sure I like this 10-hour day stuff. I'm lookin' for more time in my day, not less!

[christopher.zoog51272]

So, I'm not sure I like this 10-hour day stuff. I'm lookin' for more time in my day, not less!

Ahhh yes, but remember, each hour has 100 minutes, and each minute has 100 seconds. :wink:

Anybody remember that old SNL skit about the metric day! I was a baby when it was broadcast live, but it's still funny. :D

[ajayholland]

Oh yeah, I forgot: 30 days per month, and TEN days per week.
So a full day's work would be about four hours. There's no equivalent for a weekend, so I'd go for five on and five off.

Also in Asimov's future society, through the elimination of disease and other social ills, the average life expectancy was increased to 350 years. Is that better or worse?

Sorry this thread is now way off the original topic.

-AJH

[aaronrumple]

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/58460.html

Actually there is quite a bit of practicality in the imperial system (...even tho I'm a colonist). Imperial units were designed to be manipulated without complex devices. I can take one whole and make two haves, quarters, eighthes, twelfths with just a simple balance. It is equally practical on the construction site. Dividing things into fifths is hard.

The term "two bits" comes from the collision of the US metric dollar and our imperial measurements. If you wanted a half bushel of corn that cost $0.25, you didn't have a currency that matched. So they just cut a quarter in half and then you had "two bits".

(...of course we all know two bits makes a byte, which is a whole 'nother story.)

[tinkerr]

Actually, two bits comes from the old Spanish money Pieces of Eight which could be brocken into eight bits so two bits was a quarter.