topic Re: Dimensions rounding? in Documentation

Dimensions rounding?

Anonymous — Mon, 22 May 2023 22:00:07 GMT

Hello,

Is there any possibility (or maybe plug-in?) to set accuracy of dimensions (rounding)?
For example: original is 1881mm and I want 1880mm.

PLEH!! (to be visible in Revit's rear-view mirror)

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Steve Jepson — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:23:22 GMT

There are no plug-ins or anything like that you need to do this. It is simply a matter of configuration.

Click on Options, Project preferences, Dimensions... you will find the setting you need there. Don't forget to set up your Working Units and Calculation Units and Rules too.

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:34:18 GMT

Are you sure Steve? I've always understood that you couldn't get it to round up or down whist keeping the same number of decimal places.

The dimension tool can only report what it measures from the model. If you want it to display 1880mm automatically, then the item to be measured has to be 1880mm exactly.

The workaround would be to set the dimension text to 'Custom', and type in whatever figure you need it to display, but you lose the automatic updating and would have to remember to re-edit the figure if the wall subsequently moved.

I'd be happy to be corrected if this isn't the case!

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Steve Jepson — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 07:37:29 GMT

You are correct. I did not understand what was meant by rounding.
If you want all of the dimensions to the nearest even mm, 2mm, 5mm, what ever, draw using a snap grid set up for that interval.

However, there is one more way to tweak a dimension besides using the Custom Text. You may be able to get what you want from the Secondary Dimension tool. Click Document-Document Extras-Secondary Dimensions.

Notice that dimensions on top are rounded up and down to the nearest unit of measure you set up in Dimension Preferences. It is also a live associative dimension.

And you can display the actual dimension and the rounded dimension at the same time if you like. This can be turned on or off ( kind of) using the Secondary Dimension tool.

Shot at 2011-03-02

Shot at 2011-03-02

.

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:45:48 GMT

Thanks Steve and Peter.
Of course I realize that accuracy during designing would help but in this case it's rather impossible...
"Custom-hand-job-text" doesn't sound funny in this case (conversion of existing office building from '60 to 125 apartments).
It would be nice to see such option in next version of Archicad. Cheers!

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Steve Jepson — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:56:58 GMT

There might be some way to do what you want but I don't understand what your trying to do.

Are you wanting to round each dimension to some specific interval?
Nearest even mm or something? How is 1880mm a more useful dimension than 1881mm ?

Of course this is comming from someone who can't comprehend why people would work in mm anyway. Do you have some sort of tape measure that is marked off in mm even past a meter?

I can't imagine yelling down to Gordy ...I said 4,343.4mm.... LONG POINT you idiot! How many times are you going to keep cutting that off and still be too short!

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:22:55 GMT

Steve wrote:
How is 1880mm a more useful dimension than 1881mm ?

Of course this is comming from someone who can't comprehend why people would work in mm anyway. Do you have some sort of tape measure that is marked off in mm even past a meter?

Well, yes. Apart from long surveyor's tapes (20m, 30m), metal tapes are marked in mm along their full length.

The question remains - why? Here in the UK, it still puzzles me that the building industry opted to use millimetres as the unit of measurement instead of centimetres. A brick measures 102.5mm wide, which gives us constant problems with rounding up brick sizes. And, apart from that 102mm brick (or is it 103mm?), there is a tendency to dimension work to the nearest 10mm - though nobody seems to really know why!

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:32:36 GMT

Hi all,

New member here with my first post. Apologies for dredging up an old topic, but is millimetre dimension rounding still not available in AC15?

I have just upgraded from Vectorworks to ArchiCad and am surprised that my mm dimensions can be shown to a number of decimal places (crazy, unless you are designing jewellery), but cannot be rounded up to the nearest whole 5 or 10mm.

Here in Australia, use of mm is the standard for construction documentation, and it is standard practice to round up or down to the nearest 5 or 10mm, as it would be measured on site.

Providing a dimension of "2431mm", for example, would generally result in a reaction ranging from laughter to disdain from a builder.

I am not about to use cm or metres for dimensioning, as I would have to explain to each builder that I am not following convention - surely a recipe for disaster...

C'mon Graphisoft - surely if this can be done in Vectorworks, it can be done in ArchiCad!!

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:18:13 GMT

You can get fractions of millimeters with AC, but you cannot round up dimensions.

You can only dimension with centimeters which rounds up the extra millimeters.

You can achieve this in Autocad, where everything is relative, but not in AC!

While I understand why you ask for this, I think it has the potential of being used for concealing careless or incompetent work, so I prefer it the way it is now.

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:21:11 GMT

kliment wrote:
While I understand why you ask for this, I think it has the potential of being used for concealing careless or incompetent work, so I prefer it the way it is now.

I'm afraid I have to disagree, kliment - construction is not millimeter perfect, hence the 5mm tolerance level that is quite standard (here, in any case). To expect more precision from a builder is unrealistic. Certainly, if there is a specific material or object that has a specific dimension, this should be allowed to be presented as a "true" dimension if necessary, but more often than not the rounded dimension is more than adequate.

Such a feature might be used by some to conceal incompetent drafting as you suggest, but who cares? That's up to them if they want to be sloppy and risk calling on their PI insurer. I'm not talking about being careless, I am talking about presenting documentation with some inherent flexibility.

You may prefer the exact dimensions as drawn, but I NEED the rounded dimensions so I can document the way that is expected of the architectural profession here (and so I don't have to defend ArchiCad as the laughing stock of cad software for the inability to achieve such a simple task!).

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Rod Jurich — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:07:03 GMT

kliment wrote:
//....... so I prefer it the way it is now.

................. so do I.

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:13:07 GMT

I still think this may create a problem. I usually work in cm and have extra accuracy on, so if I see the small digits behind the main dimension, I know something is wrong. If somebody rounds up the dimensions I could discover the incorrect work weeks later or become a laughing stock of the structural engineers, when I sent them the project. Construction may not be a millimeter perfect, but modelling and drawings are. Just my opinion.

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Barry Kelly — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:47:26 GMT

kliment wrote:
Construction may not be a millimeter perfect, but modelling and drawings are.

I agree.
If I want to round something to 5mm then I model it to the nearest 5mm.

5mm is not a standard unit of measurement but 10mm is (1 centimeter)
It is possible to set your working units to centimeters (with zero decimal accuracy) and still have your dimensions set to millimeters.
This way if you model accurately then all dims will be in 10mm increments.

Barry.

Rod Jurich

Rod Jurich — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:26:56 GMT

..................... well said Barry, totally agree.

When doing renovation work, which was probably built during imperial days,
and you measure as constructed you are faced with odd dimensions all the time.

Re: Dimensions rounding?

KeesW — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:58:20 GMT

The problem with rounding is making up the difference if the sum of rounded dimensions don't equal the total overall dimension. This is a quite normal situation.

When drafting manually, drafters used rounded dimensions and an overall dimension - but deliberately left one dimension string blank. Its value was determined by subtracting the sum of the strings from the overall dimension. If you want to round in Archicad, you could do the same. Otherwise one would have to leave it up to the computer to decide where the difference is made up and this could be problematic.

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Erika Epstein — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:24:50 GMT

A variation on Kees' hand-drafting solution was instead of leaving one dimension in the string blank to put a +/- before one of the dimension.

Re: Dimensions rounding?

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 12:44:38 GMT

You can switch to cm and set it to round,
so you will have 180cm displayed on your dimension lines
even if your model is 1801mm or 180.1 cm!