Multiple Unit Entry

[danfunk]

Can we get multiple unit entry? Revit does this and automatically converts metric to imperial and back again. 

[Karl Ottenstein]

Can you clarify?  You can switch your working units as often as you like.  Are you saying with the same working units settings that you'd like to enter metric or imperial rather than switching working units?  If so, I agree... we should be able to use units to over-ride the default working units.  E.g., if I am working in Imperial, I should be able to specify 20mm, 5.3m, 3cm in any length field and have it converted to imperial (not that I could verify my input without switching units or doing dual unit dimensioning).  Similarly, if I'm in metric working units, I should be able to enter 3'-4" and have that accepted.

It seems odd that with Imperial, set to FFI, for example, I can enter 5 and it is 5 feet... but I can also enter 5' (with the unit), or 5-3 for 5 feet and 3 inches or 5'-3" ... so the interface understands units... but won't accept those units when I'm in metric mode (or vice versa).

If I'm using a European product in a US project, it would be nice to be able to immediately enter the dimensions in metric rather than either convert manually, or switch working units just for that object's parameters.  Etc.

[Karl Ottenstein]

The multi-unit dimensioning is another issue... and should be a separate wish.  I'll start a new wish for this.  Archicad has had an add-on that allows for secondary, converted dimension text for projects that require both Imperial and Metric dimensioning:

https://help.graphisoft.com/AC/27/INT/index.htm?rhcsh=1&rhnewwnd=0&rhmapid=#t=_AC27_Help%2F070_Docum...

But, ridiculously, this simply places a text block.. and is not live, so changing the project will not change the secondary dimension value.  This is obviously so not-BIM.

Vote for this related wish here:

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishes/Multiple-Unit-Secondary-Dimensions-must-be-LIVE-to-be-BIM...

[danfunk]

Hey Karl,

Your example is what I'm asking for. We deal primarily in imperial units for our plans but surveyors and some consultants use metric. I want to be able to enter a metric value like 5m in as a distance and have ArchiCad automatically understand that because I have my project working units set to imperial it should convert that value to 16'-4 1/8".

Dan

[danfunk]

Thanks, that's another good one to have. I've voted for that wish as well. Municipalities here want to have both metric and imperial on site plans. Have a text block is definitely not BIM at all. This feature is a definite must.

[Patrick M]

yeah, I could see this as useful in a few instances. Mostly when Im working on cut sheets from a non-US manuf. I usually just switch my working units, but if we could just have inputs that understood mm/cm/in/ft, that would be awesome. Not sure how that would work with tracker/measure which is tied to the working units, but I don't hate the idea of this kind of feature.

[Space_Agency]

Exactly this! This is a very common real world user case in the U.S. And not only surveyor's and engineers, but also product spec measurements for items such as plumbing fixtures, mechanical systems, etc. typically will use metric as default. All of us would probably love to throw imperial units in the trash, but we all know that is unlikely to change.