Working Units

[cfee]

I am doing some LARGE Equipment layouts. How do I set my working units to display Feet-Inches/Fractions, with (ALT-UNITS: INCHES-DECIMAL) ? Also, I want the PRIMARY units to appear above the driving/driven dimension line, and the secondary units to appear below the dimension line.

Thanks-
C. Fee

 

[fredericmenage]

Hi,

In the draft, you can go to format/style and create a new style based on ANSI.

In Units, choose ft-in in 'Unit' and choose 1/32 (for example, 1/32 being the highest precision you will get) in 'Round-off'.

In secondary units, click the option on the right to display the secondary unit. Then in unit, choose 'in' and choose the round-off that you want (.1234 for 4 decimals for example).

In the text tab, choose orientation 'parallel' and position 'embedded'. I believe this should give you the result you want.

Save the style. Use next time you start a dimension or use the smart select tool to select all dimensions to change them to that style.

HTH

Fred

 

[cfee]

Fred-
Thanks for your post-
I'm sure I'll use it later on when I'm finally generating detail drawings of individual components of the equipment I'm laying out, but I'm FAR more interested right now in how to do meaningful 3D layouts of the equipment itself. The site is large enough that the "inches" will run into the THOUSANDS (!) and so standard decimal-inches are COMPLETELY inappropriate for this kind of layout.

As S-E has now included the ability to lay out structural beam frames, they must anticipate use of their product in larger applications, where such structures are common, and as this functionality has been out now for 2+ releases, I'm SURE by now, they would have anticipated this need.

I could go back to AutoCAD to achieve the desired results (especially with full control over such things, and 2D Group Modeling & 3D Solid Modeling..., too, available for years), but I'd have to sneak into this approach, as the boss is expecting the layout to be done in S-E.

Any suggestions?

Sincerely- Thanks for your input,
C. Fee

 

[fwc]

cfee

It's possible to set the Length Readout unit to Miles, if you like.
In the Assembly file, click File > File Properties and Units tab in the Properties dialog box.

To format the dimension in Assembly file, click Format > Style....
(I noticed that there is no setting for dual units.)

HTH

 

[cfee]

HTH-
Miles, eh? You must be doing some really HUGE systems!! Whew!

No, I'm talking about unit-type not system of measurement. I DON'T need to switch systems, I'm using the US Imperial standard: Feet' inches-Fractions/inch" with Inches.Decimal" as an alternate unit withinn the US-Imperial system. Yes Iknow how furlongs... fit in. Stuff like that's for a different thread...

Many aren't aware that there's a differnce between units and system, but that's not surprising- even the S-E designers missed it. The ability to switch between units of measure within a system is something us ACAD'ers have gotten used to, and sorely miss on "Higher-End" (mid-level Mechanical) modeling systems, as we are more used to the idea that in the end, a production drawing will be needed to produce that part, assembly, or subdivision development. With that end in mind, we've grown used to the ability to "model" that part drawing into existence, and access to such things as units of measure withn a given system wold be a HUGE help - and in my case dual-access Architectural/Decimal units would be great! Even ACAD will allow you to show Architectural feet and inches with Metric millimeters on the same line in every operating mode, from sketching to modeling to drafting...
Oh well.
Thanks anyway. Maybe someday S-E will catch up! ;-)
C. Fee

 

[beachcomber]

Hi cfee,
Try this - see if it's what you require.
In your part/assembly file go to file>file properties>units
Then under Length Readout set Unit to ft-in or '-" and the precision to 1/2 or 1/4 or as required.
Now use format>dimension>units to set your dimenson style to show ft-in. with the ROUNDOFF set to 1/2 or 1/4 etc.


You should now be able to model using ft and inch/fractions and to create dimensions with ft and inch/ fractions.

If you create a sketch and place a line you will see the length readout box shows 'ft inch fractions' eg. 2 6 1/2.
There is a space between the feet and inch values and between the inch and fractions values. If you want to input lengths you must remember to include the spaces.
You can't use dual dimensioning in part or assembly, only in draft.
Incidentally, (in draft)if you want your main dimension above the dimension line and your secondary dimension below, format the dimension style so that the line spacing is -1.25. You can also use the line spacing setting to put a dimension sub-fix below the line.
You can format the main dimension and secdary dimension to show whatever type of readout you want.

Hope this helps.
bc

 

[cfee]

BC-
TOP-NOTCH ! That's EXACTLY what I was looking for.
C.Fee