SETTING TOLERANCE FOR DRAWING / DIMS

[Anonymous]

have a few issues that i believe all stem from drawing and setting tolerances. for example.

start with file at 1/16" tolerance and attempt to draw / design elements to 1/2". well that never works out and we end up with alot of 1/32"s and 1/4"s. now the powers that be prefer the CDs to read at a minimum of a 1/2"

the procedure is no to nudge and move things until they line out to 1/2" tolerances minimum. time consuming and a pain.

it si possible to set up snaps at 1/8" in the beginning and run with it?

-i tried overriding the tolerances to 1/2" there by making the dims read min 1/2" but it seems this has caused problems in long strings out in the field.

thanks in advance

[Steve Jepson]

It may be a little late for advise but if I were you I would always work to the highest level of accuracy possible. In ArchiCAD this is 1/64th inch

You can display these dimensions to whatever lower level of accuracy you need in the Layout sheets independently of how your floor plan dimensions read.

For example you can show dimensions to the nearest 1/4" in one drawing and to the nearest 1/2" in another and to the 64th in another.

You can set the snap grid to 1/64" if you want.

I always hate it when the dimension chain has no fractions and the over all dimension does. Or the other way arround.

Whenever this is the case, you may need to move some things by locating them from the reference point. Even if the dimension says it is exactly some dimension, if you locate it using the coordinates system off of a reference point you can almost always get the unwanted fraction to go away.

I have had some times where there was nothing I could do to make the dimension chain match the overall dimension. In this very rare case, we do have the option to use the custom text feature.

[David Maudlin]

Steve wrote:
It may be a little late for advise but if I were you I would always work to the highest level of accuracy possible. In ArchiCAD this is 1/64th inch

Or 1/1000 of an inch if you set your Project Preferences > Working Units to Feet & Decimal Inches, 3 decimals. I have found that this will readily expose inaccuracies.

David

[Anonymous]

well ,i would love to leave everything at 1/16 or 1/8 and be done with it.

the guys framing wont build to a 1/16" anyway.

but, for over al appearance of the drawings i am required to have a min dim of 1/2 in the con set.

i am trying to find the middle ground.


-thanks by the way

[Steve Jepson]

knosaj wrote:
well ,i would love to leave everything at 1/16 or 1/8 and be done with it.

the guys framing wont build to a 1/16" anyway.

but, for over al appearance of the drawings i am required to have a min dim of 1/2 in the con set.

i am trying to find the middle ground.


-thanks by the way

The level of accuracy that you display in the dimensions does not need to be the same level of accuracy you work with constructing the model/making the plans.

However, I always like to keep it the same. I have my dimensions set to dispay to the 64th. The idea is to make the model as accurate as possible and have things placed where they will not generate unwanted fractional dimensions.
Using a dimension display that is rounded off to the nearest 1/2" or whatever can not compensate entirely for a poorly made drawing/model. If you try to use a less accurate dimension display to compensate for that you will generate dimension chains that don't add up to the overall dimension.
Floor Plans very seldom have any need to display fractions less than ¼”. It is not unusual for me to place all of the necessary and useful dimensions on the floor plan without any fractions at all. On the other hand, all the ticks on my tape are the same distance apart. It takes no more effort to mark a 1/16" than it does 16” or 1", 1' or 1 yard. I would have no problem working with plans with dimensions that display to the 1/16" of an inch. The thing is though, even if the plans can display dimensions to this level, walls should not be placed to that kind of increment. Walls should be placed where they will not generate a fraction.
What they are telling you when they don’t want to see any fractions less than ½” is not that they don’t want to work that close, it’s that they don’t want you placing things where they will generate smaller fractions. They are still going to mark to within a 1/16” with a sharp pencil and work to the ¼”, they just don’t want your work to be so sloppy that it generates small fractions and dimensions that don’t add up.