topic Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X. in Collaboration with other software

Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

alexliz24 — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 21:21:10 GMT

For some weird reason, in the middle of a running project, the decimal point for dimensions I enter as well as for the co-ordinates box has switched to the comma (",") as opposed to the period (".") which it had been until now.

Apart from the fact that my dimensions look funny (especially since most of them now already had been entered in the drawings and included the period), it confuses me when I have to enter manual co-ordinates, since my fingers are used to hitting the period instead of the comma. For example, when I want to enter 1.35 for X, I end up typing 135 (since the period "." is not recognised anymore).

I have played around with all the International preferences in System Preferences, and the number formats in the Format tab shows the proper syntax (i.e. €1,350.00). Why then does it not work within ArchiCAD 9 and Plotmaker 9?

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

Aussie John — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 02:45:42 GMT

You used to be able to have no period or comma for the thousands but you dont seem to be able to stop that now. I think it is an OSX thing.

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

alexliz24 — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 07:48:06 GMT

Hi John. Have no doubt it's an OS thing. Any ideas how to fix it? My ArchiCAD dealer here in Athens is shut until Monday, Jan 9.

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

alexliz24 — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 12:36:16 GMT

Just to add that I was able to rectify this in NeoOffice/J by tweaking its set of Preferences/Locale.

Still can't figure what to do for ArchiCAD and PlotMaker 9.
I just know that it's funny for me to have to type the comma instead of period for the decimal point in the co-ordinates boxes, and totally unacceptable for the printed documents to have half their dimensions (i.e. those which I have already entered so far) with the period as decimal, and the other half (those entered after the problem manifested itself) with comma instead.

Please, help!

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

Ralph Wessel — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 17:49:20 GMT

alexliz wrote:
I just know that it's funny for me to have to type the comma instead of period for the decimal point in the co-ordinates boxes... Please, help!

Might you have changed the input settings (i.e. keyboard type) or selected language in the International settings? This can have the effect of swapping keys around, although it doesn't explain the change in existing drawings.

Is this problem evident with different fonts? Does it occur with other applications too?

Ralph.

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

alexliz24 — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:39:12 GMT

Might you have changed the input settings (i.e. keyboard type) or selected language in the International settings?

Language is set to Greek, then English (if I set it the other way around, then ArchiCAD and PlotMaker don't use the fonts properly and I can't type in Greek; what's more, if I try and edit an already entered greek text block, the moment I exit the text window, the text turns into gibberish). This has always been the case and it has worked fine.

Input layouts (i.e. the little flags on the top bar) has always been set to US english/Greek. No problems there.

No other problems are experienced in any other software suite. As I state in my previous post, the NeoOffice/J 1.2 beta problem (with the decimal point, I mean) has now been fixed by changing the Locale setting in the NeoOffice/J options.

So, it remains a mystery to me what exactly changed in my ArchiCAD 9 and PlotMaker 9 to cause this shift from period to comma as the decimal point.

The problem affects the co-ordinate boxes and dimensions in the project. Once again, dimensions which were already entered still display the period, but if I select a linear dimension, and then add a few nodes on it (by means of CMD-clicking on various points on the project) then the newly added sections of the pre-existing dimension line will employ the comma instead of the period. The resulting dimension will thus contain a few segments with the period (correct) and a few with the comma (wrong).

I'm bummed...

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

Ralph Wessel — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 10:33:45 GMT

alexliz wrote:
No other problems are experienced in any other software suite. As I state in my previous post, the NeoOffice/J 1.2 beta problem (with the decimal point, I mean) has now been fixed by changing the Locale setting in the NeoOffice/J options.

Did the appearance of this problem coincide with the installation of the NeoOffice/J beta?

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

alexliz24 — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 10:57:02 GMT

Hi Ralph. I wish it did. The problem had nothing to do with NeoOffice/J 1.2 Beta whatsoever. Have had the problem since my new Tiger installation (Erase & Install, not Archive). Installed Tiger, ran the 10.4.3 Combo, installed apps, ran ArchiCAD, bam! ','s instead of '.'s.

I am pretty sure that the reason why I hadn't seen this problem before my Erase & Install (which, by the way, I did to get rid of a few minor problems with other software, not with ArchiCAD!) is that my powerbook had been just bought brand new, and I used the Account Migration Assistant from my older TiBook running Panther 10.3.9. In Panther, the International settings are slightly different to Tiger's: you can interfere with number, curency etc. formatting much more than Tiger will allow. So, I guess that my Panther settings translated nicely when I first set up my account in Tiger. When I Erased and Installed, however, I just copied my documents from backed up DVDs, setting a brand new, Tiger-only account on the powerbook.

That's the only reasonable explanation I can think of right now. I've bumped into a couple of threads in the Apple Discussion Area, and they all seem to agree that Tiger has taken out some of the customization in the International Preference Pane, compared to what Panther allowed. Some even suggest a way to modify the .xml .plist file, using Property List Editor from the XCode Tools Installation of Tiger, which I did, to no avail.

I have put the problem to the ArchiCAD dealers in Athens, and they seem to be working on it, although I am not too hopeful. First reply I got was to check/fiddle with my Currency formatting (there is no leeway with Currency Formatting in Tiger-you can only select which Region's preset you want to use, as well as the unit, but that's about it).

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

Eduardo Rolon — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:24:48 GMT

FWIW have you already tried setting up another user account to see if it has the same problems?

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

alexliz24 — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 13:38:37 GMT

I just did. Same problem in the new account.

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

Eduardo Rolon — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:04:08 GMT

Ok that means that is a OS problem and not a particular accounts pref's problem. Next question is if you have cleared the caches, repair permissions and run all the cron utilities to see if that helps (using Onyx or YASU)?
Also you can try to see what happens if with the other acount you play around with the international settings to see if one works.

Dumb question... Is your keyboard the one that came with your Mac?

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

alexliz24 — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:07:59 GMT

Erm... I think it came with my mac... I've got a Powerbook (!) 😉

I'll repair permissions and clean the caches, like you suggest, and then post back here.

Thanks for the tips.
Alex.

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 00:37:18 GMT

Alex,

I have the same problem from when I upgraded to 10.4 from 10.3. I had a space as a thousands separator as a custom setting in the International Preference Pane. When I selected that custom setting and set it to something else I couldn't get it back and the space as a thousands separator was lost. It now puts a comma as the separator which is confusing and looks terrible.

There is no ability to customise the numbers as we could do previously in 10.3. This is a big oversight by Apple and needs to be fixed. I have sent Apple feedback but every 'dot' increase of 10.4 nothing changes. It is very annoying.

Please post the link to the Apple discussion so we can keep this issue in the spotlight.

Sam

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

alexliz24 — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 08:13:24 GMT

Hi Sam,

The link to the Apple Discussion Area thread on this issue is:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=299349

I hope they (i.e. Apple) *do* give us back that functionality, or, alternatively, that Graphisoft (are you guys reading these threads?) allow us to intervene from within ArchiCAD, much like I was able to do within NeoOffice 1.2 which initially suffered the same woes. It should be easy enough, in the form of a preference for number formats.

Alex Zachopoulos.

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:00:57 GMT

Finally after over three years, with Snow Leopard, you can again customise numbers and put a space instead of a comma as a thousands separator.

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:17:59 GMT

Hello, I know it is a very old topic but I have the same problem on windows7.
On my home computer archicad doesn't recognize "." when I type dimensions I always have tu use "," instead and it is verry verry anoying because I work very fast and once every 5 or so times I still press "." and I end up with crazy dimensions instead of 1.3 i get 13... Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

Re: Decimal point has changed from '.' to ',' on MacOS X.

Laszlo Nagy — Sat, 02 Aug 2014 11:47:28 GMT

On Windows 7, here is the system setting where you can change the Decimal point.
After changing it, I think you will have to restart ArchiCAD for it to read the new setting.