mike m oz Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 (edited) The point that Petri makes about the demo version only being in feet and inches is a valid one. What is frustrating is it would be very easy to fix. All NNA would need to do is produce two demo CD's - one Imperial and one metric. Even a metric A3 template file included on the Demo CD would be a great improvement. The Imperial system is now only used in the US, and partly in the UK where they still have both systems running. (Even so there are still differences in things like gallons and tons.) The UK construction system is metricated though and has been since the 70's. For the rest of us in the world the Imperial system is a foreign language. For us in Australia it is a relic of the past. I grew up with the Imperial system and went through the change process whilst at Uni. It wasn't hard and the benefits were enormous. Dimensioning for one thing is a sight easier. I just find it perplexing why a country that is so good at embracing new technology and ideas is so insistant on hanging onto an archaic measurement system. Lumbering the Americans with their useless Imperial measurement system is England's revenge for losing the American War of independence. Edited November 7, 2006 by mike m oz Quote Link to comment
Petri Posted November 7, 2006 Author Share Posted November 7, 2006 I'm paying for equally "useless crap" as well, we're subsidizing each other I guess. Do your maths. By pure guesswork, the "content" is 70% US-focused and useful only there, by the 30% user base. Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 Nicholas, There are a number of distributors that DO ship a metric default version of VW. Quote Link to comment
mike m oz Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 (edited) Katie - you miss the point. The demo version is Imperial only. Any one evaluating the program is faced with feet and inches every time they start the program and there is nothing they can do about it. That is fine if you know what feet and inches are. 90% of the world's population don't know. It could be fixed very easily by providing a metric version. If that is too difficult then the least NNA should do is include a standard metric template file in the demo version so that after starting the program a user can choose to open a new metric file. The documentation that ships with the demo version would need to tell the rest of the world to do this in very big letters so it doesn't get missed. NNA need to be mindful that new users evaluating the program are starting with zero knowledge of the program. If the first thing they are confronted with is a unit system they know nothing about it doesn't create a good first impression. For this reason alone NNA should produce a metric demo version for the 95% of the world who are metric. Only 4.57% of the world's population use the Imperial system - that is about 1 person in 22. The other 21 of us use the metric system. Edited November 7, 2006 by mike m oz Quote Link to comment
propstuff Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 (edited) Katie and Mike, you are both missing the point. ;-) (although the thing about the Demo is certainly valid) It shouldn't be up to distributors to produce Metric "versions" even if they have the resources and skills to be able to do it. The entire, raw, base product "straight out of the factory" including all it's libraries and features should be metric by default. It's a Metric world and the considerable (and increasing) majority of users are metric users. The programme should respect that by default Then, if a local distributor wants to make a specialised Imperial version for their own limited market, they can do that. Other local distributors could then make versions that are in fact local, and not waste their resources on just bringing the product up to international standards. cheers Edited November 7, 2006 by propstuff Quote Link to comment
gScott Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 katie, i am in south africa, which has been metric since the late 60's, but we get the vanilla imperial american version... is there anyway that we could get metric libraries like the british version? Quote Link to comment
LarryAZ Posted November 7, 2006 Share Posted November 7, 2006 I'm mad because they don't have Klingon version. =-) Quote Link to comment
propstuff Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 (edited) I'm mad because they don't have Klingon version. =-) But you have the Klingon version Larry! It's the same one we Earth people can't read. :-D Edited November 8, 2006 by propstuff Quote Link to comment
mike m oz Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 From what I have seen in a browse of the various country distributor's websites it appears that there are only a handfull of distributors that actually customise VW for their market over and above language - Japan, Germany, Belgium/Holland, Australia/New Zealand, UK(?). (There may be more, but they are not obvious.) This doesn't appear to extend to the Fundamentals and Demo versions however. The rest appear to just ship all versions of the product as it comes. ie. the Imperial version. What is the sense in doing that when 95%+ of the world uses the metric system, and most of the world's population don't even know what a foot and an inch are? Surely it would be more sensible to recognise this reality and provide a metric default version of the program for the rest of the world. Keep the libraries as they are with a mixture of Imperial and metric library files, as this provides a fuller and more comprehensive libray, but please make the shipped version of the program for the rest of us metric. Quote Link to comment
Fredrik Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 Please don't miss the point on this. There is an International committee that has made the decision on what system is going to be set as a standard. Whether the US is going to take part of this is only a matter to the US people. This is a political question! Take it where it belongs. International Standards are made to make us all co-operate better. This long discussion shows the importance on this matter. Quote Link to comment
Christiaan Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 NASA sees the light: http://www.space.com/news/070108_moon_metric.html Quote Link to comment
mike m oz Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 (edited) The US might get there eventually. ie become metric. Some links which show they have been trying (for a very long time): - http://ts.nist.gov/WeightsAndMeasure...ic/lc1136a.cfm - http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/usmetric.html - http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/m...ric/metric.htm - http://www.metric4us.com/ - http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/ What the US needs is a President with enough leadership to say we are going to do it. Edited January 10, 2007 by mike m oz Quote Link to comment
Amy L Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 Yeah, but??. The Indy 500 would be the Indy 804.67 There would also be the Daytona 804.67 A football field would be 91.44 meters long Jules Verne would never have written 96561 kilometers under the sea Peter Piper would have had to pick 7570.8 cubic centimeters of pickled peppers 14515 kilograms and what do your get? Another day older and a deeper in debt. Give him 2.54 centimeters, he'll take 1.6093 Kilometers You'd have to order 236.58 milliliters of coffee Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 Something I just found out:: If a user has their computer set to a country that?s known to use metric, VectorWorks will default to metric when launched. Quote Link to comment
Christiaan Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 Is that Mac OS X or Windows, or both, Katie? Quote Link to comment
russh Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 Doesn't seem to apply to the UK when running Windows. I had to create a new metric default template. Quote Link to comment
Petri Posted January 10, 2007 Author Share Posted January 10, 2007 Not with MacOS in Finland, either. Metric system explicitly set in system controls. Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 I can't get it to work either - I'm in the process of researching this. Quote Link to comment
Christiaan Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 Isn't it all dependent on the "Default" template? So for it to launch in metric it would have to change the Default template. Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 (edited) Delete the default.sta file (or just move it to another location outside of the Templates folder) and launch VW. The units will default to the OS specified units. Edited January 10, 2007 by Katie Quote Link to comment
Christiaan Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 Interesting. So essentially the default install is imperial because the "Default.sta" template provided with VW is imperial. Quote Link to comment
Petri Posted January 11, 2007 Author Share Posted January 11, 2007 Fascinating... Opened "blank document", got feet and inches. Quit, moved Default.sta elsewhere, started again. Blank document was metric. Quit, put default back, restarted - and still a blank document was metric. It seems that if no Default.sta would be created in the installation, things would be OK in this respect. Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 We are investigating why this is happening. Apparently, in older versions, the default file did not need to be deleted. It looks like something might have been changed along the way and will be examined. Quote Link to comment
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