Feet vs Inches

[CADMama]

OK - in case you have not heard - I've gone over to the Revit side.
Get ready for a TON of beginner questions.

For starters - do I have to live with the input going in feet by default? It is driving me crazy to have to put in the " (inch mark) every time I need it. This is especially difficult since I have a cast on my right hand!

[Tom Dorner]

Welcome to the bright side!

Try this thread for an answer:

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=2870&highlight=inch+worm

Tom

[CADMama]

Welcome to the bright side!

Try this thread for an answer:

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=2870&highlight=inch+worm

Tom
From what I see it may not be a good thing for me - laptop only here.
(Or did I miss something when I read about it?)

[aaronrumple]

I've found it faster.

You can use:

7"
0 7
1'-1 3/4"
1 1 3/4
1 1.75

Basically anthing that even kind of sort of looks like a dimension.

What I would like to see is a zoom level switch. When zoomed in to a detail it would be nice if Revit automatically switched to inches.

[CADMama]

I've found it faster.

You can use:

7"
0 7
1'-1 3/4"
1 1 3/4
1 1.75

Basically anthing that even kind of sort of looks like a dimension.

What I would like to see is a zoom level switch. When zoomed in to a detail it would be nice if Revit automatically switched to inches.
~bangs head - repeats mantra "it ain't my daddy's autocad, it ain't my daddy's autocad....."~
OK, thanks for the insight.
~repeats new mantra "revit good, revit good, revit good,.....~

[Scott D Davis]

i like:

0 <space> 7

0-7

0 <space > 68 will input 68 inches (or 5'-8")

if you need to input 7 and 7/8 of an inch, type in:

0 <space> 7.875

When I use the keyboard on my laptop, use the <space> in between numbers. When I'm on the docking station with a full keyboard, I use the 10-key number pad, and use the Minus sign in between numbers.

HTH! And welcome to Revit...."You've got questions? We've got answers."

[Wes Macaulay]

if you need to input 7 and 7/8 of an inch, type in:

0 <space> 7.875I think you can also input this as

0 <space> 7 <space> 7/8 <enter>

If that's any help

[Kroke]

OK - in case you have not heard - I've gone over to the Revit side.
Get ready for a TON of beginner questions.

For starters - do I have to live with the input going in feet by default? It is driving me crazy to have to put in the " (inch mark) every time I need it. This is especially difficult since I have a cast on my right hand!

So you guys are trying Revit again? Cool!

Show me some of your stuff when you get some elevations done ;)

[Rachel Ritchie]

We don't do this in our office, but I think it would work.
You could always go to Settings, and then set up your Project Units to be "fractional inches". Then go to Settings, then your annotation, and dimensions, and change your linear dimensional units format to be "feet and inches".
But like I said, we don't do this in our office.

[Wes Macaulay]

That's a good tip, Rachel: possibly someone might just roll with that. Besides, that's what AutoCAD does and what everyone who initially moves to Revit is used to...

[blads]

~bangs head - repeats mantra "it ain't my daddy's autocad, it ain't my daddy's autocad....."~
OK, thanks for the insight.
~repeats new mantra "revit good, revit good, revit good,.....~Welcome to the right side, CADMama
...sorry I can't help you with those funny non-metric measurements... :wink:

[CADMama]

So you guys are trying Revit again? Cool!

Show me some of your stuff when you get some elevations done ;)
Hey Kroke - you must not have heard - I am not working with MossCreek any more. I am working with the local dealer as their AE for Building systems - ADT and Revit. Now all I have to do is to learn Revit and then I will go do some training.

[Melarch]

Donna,

You do know that you could configure or Set the units to accept inches by default just like in AutoCAD.

Go to Settings pull-down menu, select Project Units and in the Project Units dialog box select the button in the column next to the Length row. In the Format dialog box for Length drop down the list for Units: and set the Units to Fractional inches. This will let you work in inches and fractions of inches by default. You can still enter feet, inches and fractions or decimals.

Mel Persin, AIA

[david.kingham]

But it changes everything to inches, temp dims, levels etc...would be much easier to just unlearn what you have learned in evil acad ;)

[patricks]

Fortunately for me I never got the AutoCAD way ingrained into my head before starting in Revit. Now it's just second nature to enter *feet* *hyphen* *inches*

If I just need inches, it's 0-whatever, and it all happens pretty fast on the 10-key number pad.

If I need fractions of an inch, I either do it in decimals (if I only want to use one hand) or hit the space bar and do the fraction.

Also, if you all didn't know, if you just need a fraction of an inch (less than one whole inch), you can enter just 0-1/2 or 0-.5 and it automatically knows you mean half an inch, i.e. you don't have to enter a zero for inches after the hyphen. If a fraction or decimal comes directly after the hyphen, it knows you mean a fraction of one inch.

But I have seen a utility called Revit Inchworm that makes distance entry behave more like AutoCAD. I've never used it myself, though.

[Kroke]

Hey Kroke - you must not have heard - I am not working with MossCreek any more. I am working with the local dealer as their AE for Building systems - ADT and Revit. Now all I have to do is to learn Revit and then I will go do some training.

Wow, no, I didn't hear that. Well good for you! Send some training my way eh? :D

[gibson.tim91884]

For starters - do I have to live with the input going in feet by default?

When I'm working imperial, I set the project units to feet&inches at the beginning, since most work at the start of a project is big-picture, so feet govern. When I start getting to a more detailed level and I'm moving things a few inches at a time, I set the units to fractional inches. I'll switch back and forth, too, if I'm doing a bunch of different stuff in a day. I set my dimensions so they are always feet&inches (as well as a metric style to satisfy Canadian authorities), so I don't have to worry about project units for plotting. I still have to be careful to do exports for consultants in the correct units, but this is minor (and I hear about it if I forget, so no biggie). This works pretty good for me.

[Justin Marchiel]

here is a question, can you move an imperial project into metric? In canada we do public project in metric, but when starting record drawings, lots of old buildings where done in imperial. it would be nice to draw in imperial that switch to metric. is this easily accomplished in revit?

Justin

[barathd]

Canada - just imput your dimensions in whichever unit you wish does not matter if your drawing is in imperial or metric. Works wonderful i.e. 4' or 1220mm - same.

[Justin Marchiel]

so basically you can switch back an forth between metric an imperial without worrying about the unit? you simply change the unit output and everything is ok? it is not like acad where you have an imperial content and insert into in metric drawings wher you have to scale it?

So my next question would be why is there metric and imperial templates? if i can draw a family in metric, and use it in imperial, there is no realy reason for me to create imperial content?

How are other multi unit firm handeling the creation of families?

Justin

[gibson.tim91884]

In canada we do public project in metric, but when starting record drawings, lots of old buildings where done in imperial. it would be nice to draw in imperial that switch to metric. is this easily accomplished in revit?

Yep. Just do it.


it is not like acad where you have an imperial content and insert into in metric drawings wher you have to scale it?

Revit is real-world. If you draw in inches then change to milimetres, it just works. It's not that Revit knows that an inch is 25.4 mm, Revit actually understands what an inch "is", and it just happens that it's also 25.4 (ish) mm.


So my next question would be why is there metric and imperial templates? if i can draw a family in metric, and use it in imperial, there is no realy reason for me to create imperial content?

There are other differences between the metric and imperial templates than just units. I think the differences are to address differences between North American and European markets (it seems like Autodesk thinks there's not much difference between Canada and the US, which is almost accurate).

When I create families, I create them in the units that make sense. Furniture systems, millwork, and appliances are typically designed in feet and inches, so I use that. When I bring them into a metric project, they are sized correctly (i.e. hard conversion, but it's not really a conversion), so no more soft conversion errors (like counters too small for sinks)! Sure, you can get some weird dimensions (1219 instead of 1220), but I've decided to stop caring so much about that.

The other nice thing is the ability to tell a dimension string to use feet and inches in a metric project. We do a lot of design based on an imperial grid, but we have to have some metric dimensions to satisfy planning departments. No problem! Dimension to your heart's content in imperial (the contractor will love you, plus it communicates your true intent), and add the required metric dimensions to keep the officials happy.

As I was writing this, it occured to me that it would be nice to change the units in a particular view... hmm.

[ctdrafting]

There should be two enter buttons - one for feet one for inches. I have said this on a previous post that the right mouse button should be enter for feet and the left mouse button should be enter for inches. type 3 and the left mouse button and you automatically get 3 inches. type 3 and the right mouse button and you get 3 feet. very fast and simple.

[luigi]

There should be two enter buttons - one for feet one for inches. I have said this on a previous post that the right mouse button should be enter for feet and the left mouse button should be enter for inches. type 3 and the left mouse button and you automatically get 3 inches. type 3 and the right mouse button and you get 3 feet. very fast and simple.What happens to the left button selects, and the right button brings up the menu of options?

[ctdrafting]

this system would only apply when you have selected a dimension string or number and it has become editable (meaning you have to type in a number); otherwise, the right button would still offer a dialog menu. even better would be to have the right become command repeat and maybe the left be the dialog menu.