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Dimension display precision to whole inches only?


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I have been working on a project with 3-1/2" walls but now that I have gotten past the modeling stage and have now started the construction drawings I noticed that all my dimensions are showing 3-1/2". No contractor is ever going to be this accurate. IN Autocad I was able to make the precision whole inches only. Does VW have that ability?. The lowest precision I see is 1/2".

I understand that next time I will have to start my model with 4" walls to avert this if there is no other solution.

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Edward Koenig

Carmelhill Architects

184 Grant Avenue

Islip, NY 11751-2601

631-224-1014

www.CARMELHILL.com

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Ahh. Yes, a very good question. We've debated this for a long time.

The best solution seems to come from the ol' hand draft tradition of dimensioning to the *same* face of stud throughout the plans. Very seldom will you truly need to dimension to the centerline of a stud wall. Therefore, just follow a line along one face of stud (F.O.S.) on every floor. Don't show a single dimension to the other face.

By doing this, you can actually reduce (or eliminate entirely) the 1/2" value from showing up anywhere. Simply *move* any 3 1/2" wall a half inch in any direction and adjust its dimension.

This is the balanced attack that I've found helpful for commercial wood-stud framing where precise wall thickness is important for the 1/2" add-up may have an affect on furnishings. On residential and low-cost commercial, however, drawing in VW with 3 1/2" walls is just overkill and a pain in the butt. I draw with 4" walls whenever I can.

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Kenneth

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I'm not sure if this will help, but..................

In Australia we use the Metric system. This meant that when I (only recently!) started using VW, all the existing wall styles were effectively useless so I had to make a new set that matched the construction materials and methods used here. In addition, I've had to do measured Drgs of the existing building (e.g. from interior plaster to plaster face on 100mm rough-saw timber) and accomodate new construction (90mm dressed, kiln dried timber).

As you're undoubtedly aware, dimensioning to the centre of a framing member is a pain (at least) when it comes to actually setting out the job; timber (specially modern machined timber) and masonry come "factory supplied" with edges, but not centre marks. By far the most convenient dimensioning system for construction purposes is cumulative "running" dimensions to the edges of the wall framing so that the tape measure can just be run out once and the increments marked straight down.

Anyway, to FINALLY get to the point; what I did was to make a set of walls, each of which consist of all of the relevant layers e.g. 10mm plaster, 90mm timber, 10mm plaster; plaster, timber, cavity, brick, etc. the advantage of this is that VW draws the wall in toto, it's (fairly) easy to place existing walls from the inside plaster faces, and when you come to dimension the Drg, you can choose which element you want to measure to and from.

This way any reasonable trades person should be able to place the walls on a domestic sized building within +/_ 2 mm easily.

All this may not help your current problem, but good luck!

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I'm not sure if this will help, but..................

In Australia we use the Metric system. This meant that when I (only recently!) started using VW, all the existing wall styles were effectively useless so I had to make a new set that matched the construction materials and methods used here. In addition, I've had to do measured Drgs of the existing building (e.g. from interior plaster to plaster face on 100mm rough-saw timber) and accomodate new construction (90mm dressed, kiln dried timber).

As you're undoubtedly aware, dimensioning to the centre of a framing member is a pain (at least) when it comes to actually setting out the job; timber (specially modern machined timber) and masonry come "factory supplied" with edges, but not centre marks. By far the most convenient dimensioning system for construction purposes is cumulative "running" dimensions to the edges of the wall framing so that the tape measure can just be run out once and the increments marked straight down.

Anyway, to FINALLY get to the point; what I did was to make a set of walls, each of which consist of all of the relevant layers e.g. 10mm plaster, 90mm timber, 10mm plaster; plaster, timber, cavity, brick, etc. the advantage of this is that VW draws the wall in toto, it's (fairly) easy to place existing walls from the inside plaster faces, and when you come to dimension the Drg, you can choose which element you want to measure to and from.

This way any reasonable trades person should be able to place the walls on a domestic sized building within +/_ 2 mm easily.

All this may not help your current problem, but good luck!

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Maybe I am misunderstanding the question... but if you select the dimension, in the object info pallette there is a field labeled "Prec." which you can set to whatever precision you like. This will override the setting you have in Page/Units. Depending on how you have your units set, you may also need to put a double quote in the "Trailer:" field to get it to display 4".

hth--

Barb Nelson

RLK Hydro, Inc.

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Barb,

You are correct about the info pallette. But they lowest prescision option that offers you is 1/2" I want a full inch precision as in 4'-0" and not 4'-0 1/2".

quote:

Originally posted by RLKHydro:

Maybe I am misunderstanding the question... but if you select the dimension, in the object info pallette there is a field labeled "Prec." which you can set to whatever precision you like. This will override the setting you have in Page/Units. Depending on how you have your units set, you may also need to put a double quote in the "Trailer:" field to get it to display 4".

hth--

Barb Nelson

RLK Hydro, Inc.


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quote:

Originally posted by CARMELHILL2:

I have been working on a project with 3-1/2" walls but now that I have gotten past the modeling stage and have now started the construction drawings I noticed that all my dimensions are showing 3-1/2". No contractor is ever going to be this accurate. IN Autocad I was able to make the precision whole inches only. Does VW have that ability?. The lowest precision I see is 1/2".


The Units... command under the Page menu lets you set both Display Precision and Dimension Precision. Setting Dimension Precision to 0 will round dimensions to the nearest unit, which seems to be what you're looking for.

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Caleb,

This works fine as a software feature. However, when the framer is laying out his chalk line in the field according to the dimensions shown on the drawings, there may be a 1/2" gap somewhere if the draftsman is not careful about dimensioning to the same face of stud. This is due to the fact that dimensional lumber is nowadays milled very close to a "half inch" size like 3 1/2", 5 1/2", 7 1/2", etc. Perhaps I'm being irrelevant?

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Kenneth

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Kenneth-

I agree completely... besides, it's not all that often that people ask how to *reduce* accuracy!

Nevertheless, I believe Carmelhill2 was in fact looking for a way to get dimensions that say 4" when the walls were actually drawn

as 3 1/2". If what you want is whole unit precision in dimensions, the Units dialog is the way to get it. Dealing with discrepancies that arise due to that is up to you! Consistantly dimensioning to the same face of a wall sounds like a good solution.

Caleb Strockbine

caleb@mac.com

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That's why we need those thought-controlled commands, Caleb! Only then can we really confuse the heck out of the program by thinking we want to do away with fractional inches, but we totally want high accuracy, too; we want actual material sizes, obvious dimensioning, and easy implementation; we also want the program to create good drafting, award-winning architecture, and absolutely error-free permitting, of course. Did I leave anything out? Probably. I think I speak for everybody. Happy holidays!

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Kenneth

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry to reopen an old topic, I've been out of the office.

It's news to me that the precision only goes to 1/2", since we use this feature all the time. I think the difference is that we use decimal dimensions almost exclusively (i.e., "Feet" instead of "Feet & Inches"), and if your units are set to "Feet", the precision does indeed go to 0. I'm not sure why there would be a difference between the two types of units. This may not be a viable workaround for CarmelHill2, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

Barb Nelson

RLK Hydro, Inc.

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