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Thread: Imperial and Metric Dimensions

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    Member Meical ap Gwaredd's Avatar
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    Question Imperial and Metric Dimensions

    We have a project that spans a national border, and so need to make the dimensions in both Imperial and Metric. Is there a way to configure dimstyle to reflect Imperial as the primary unit, and Metric as the secondary?

    Thanks!

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    Certifiable AUGI Addict tedg's Avatar
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    Default Re: Imperial and Metric Dimensions

    Quote Originally Posted by mike.91238 View Post
    We have a project that spans a national border, and so need to make the dimensions in both Imperial and Metric. Is there a way to configure dimstyle to reflect Imperial as the primary unit, and Metric as the secondary?

    Thanks!
    Absolutely.
    Just set up your dimstyle with your desired Imperial units and under "alternate units"; select display alternate units and set the unit format to decimal and the multiplier to 25.4, that is usually the default in this situation.

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    Default Re: Imperial and Metric Dimensions

    Are you required to a do a "Hard" or a "Soft" metric conversion?

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    Default Re: Imperial and Metric Dimensions

    If your project is in Canada the normal convension is to supply the details in the format of the design drawings. If they have both then we ask the fabrication shop which one they prefer and submit all drawings accordingly.

    It can save little problems of rounding up and dimensions that don't match perfectly. I have run into some people who want drawings resubmitted over a half millimeter on a couple of occasions.

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    Default Re: Imperial and Metric Dimensions

    It depends on the industry - half a millimetre can be almost nothing or one heck of a big mismatch.

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    Default Re: Imperial and Metric Dimensions

    Quote Originally Posted by jaberwok View Post
    It depends on the industry - half a millimetre can be almost nothing or one heck of a big mismatch.
    Yep! 0.5mm is nothing when you're dimensioning a wall, but could cause a machine to malfunction (if it can even be fitted together)!

    That said it's not nice seeing drawings converted from inches into mm and getting non-round values. For building work it's generally strange to see metric dims with values not on 10mm. So you might want to round-off as well, though that can cause some calc issues if you have overall dims.

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    Certifiable AUGI Addict tedg's Avatar
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    Default Re: Imperial and Metric Dimensions

    Quote Originally Posted by irneb View Post
    Yep! 0.5mm is nothing when you're dimensioning a wall, but could cause a machine to malfunction (if it can even be fitted together)!

    That said it's not nice seeing drawings converted from inches into mm and getting non-round values. For building work it's generally strange to see metric dims with values not on 10mm. So you might want to round-off as well, though that can cause some calc issues if you have overall dims.
    It will be interesting to see the OP report back.
    I'm curious of his industry, I assumed buildings but it could be wigits.
    If it were buildings, I would assume he would be using Imperial units; architectural format rounding to 1/16" and [metric rounded to 1 mm]. I've actually worked on projects where they wanted milimeters rounded to 5mm so the dimensions would end with a "0" or a "5", but I can't remember why.

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    Default Re: Imperial and Metric Dimensions

    Quote Originally Posted by tedg View Post
    I've actually worked on projects where they wanted milimeters rounded to 5mm so the dimensions would end with a "0" or a "5", but I can't remember why.
    That's actually the usual idea. Very few measuring tapes in excess of 10m (32'-9 11/16") lengths are even marked in smaller increments than 5mm. Usually in arch we use 5mm (3/16") or 10mm (3/8") increments for all wetworks. Only getting into 1mm (1/16") increments with finicky finishes, joinery, etc.

    You even get some places where the required dimensions are in cm (centi-meters): 1cm = 0.01m = 10mm ... and then they don't use fractions at all.

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    Certified AUGI Addict jaberwok's Avatar
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    Default Re: Imperial and Metric Dimensions

    Quote Originally Posted by irneb View Post
    That's actually the usual idea. Very few measuring tapes in excess of 10m (32'-9 11/16") lengths are even marked in smaller increments than 5mm. Usually in arch we use 5mm (3/16") or 10mm (3/8") increments for all wetworks. Only getting into 1mm (1/16") increments with finicky finishes, joinery, etc.

    You even get some places where the required dimensions are in cm (centi-meters): 1cm = 0.01m = 10mm ... and then they don't use fractions at all.
    You won't often see "0.001 mm" on your drawings then.

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    Default Re: Imperial and Metric Dimensions

    Quote Originally Posted by jaberwok View Post
    You won't often see "0.001 mm" on your drawings then.
    Not as much as you might think!

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