!Restored: Auto rounding toggle

[Paul King]

I would like some dimensions to automatically round off to the nearest 5 or 10 millimetres - for example in plans where wall framing & lining thicknesses are not round numbers (eg 94mm studs with 12.5mm lining) - or for when an existing building is initially modelled in imperial units (feet & inches) because you have original old imperial drawings to work from, but then you want to show remodelling work in modern day metric units (so one foot becomes 304.8mm)

Builders seldom appreciate dimensions like "97mm" - so dimensions that are toggled with rounding set to on should round this to nominal width.("100" mm in this case)

It doesn't matter if overall dimensions do not tally exactly with the sum of the dimensioned parts that have been rounded, so long as the overall discrepancy is within the rounding tolerance set (it should be)

[Dwight]

I guess if i was scared of being beaten by a contractor, I'd fudge things, too.

[Paul King]

Apart from the death threats, my goal is simply to not imply to a builder or anyone else the level of accuracy that a number like "10,236" implies when dimensioning walls of an existing building that you entered into ArchiCAD using imperial drawings - all the while retaining the ability to show "925" for new work within that existing building - using a different dimension string with rounding toggled off.

[Dwight]

Where's the Add-ON ArchiRational for smart measuring system conversion when you need it?

[gpowless]

Of course I haven't seen it mentioned yet where a contractor will pull the first and second layer of skin off the designer because his rounding or fudging of dimensions in one string doesn't add up in another string......

I know that contractors don't appreciate looking at accuracies over 1/2" or nominal numbers in metric but they really hate it when some things are supposed to match up and they don't because of the designer's poor dimensioning conventions (like measuring to hotspots instead of the structure). As designers we can model to 100% accuracy but that doesn't mean that need to dimension with equal accuracy.

Instead I use what is essentially a timber framer's convention that dimensions to one face of the core. Where each face of a stud wall is need I often eliminate the actual dimension of the stud wall and provide a general legend for wall thicknesses. If you think of it no one needs to know the actual and repetitive thickness of studs and so there should be no need to put the dimension on the plans. Where the interior dimension is critical than it is easy to change the dimension slash to an arrow to indicate an inside dimension.

[Thomas Holm]

Paul wrote:
- but doesn't give option to round to nearest 5mm, which is a common compromise

If you use the German standard, set dimensions to Centimeters, zero decimals, but with Extra Accuracy 0.5 selected, that will give precisely the rounding control you describe.

Also doesn't give the case by case rounding control I am looking for (sometimes critical real dimensions and nominal set out dimensions need to coexist on a job)

Since dimension settings are stored with Saved Views, you can get both worlds with clever utilizing of these options and combining the views on your layouts.

[Paul King]

Hi Tomas - very clever!
Unfortunately in New Zealand we pretty much use only millimetres in the building industry - otherwise that would do most of what I need.

Cheers

[Thomas Holm]

Paul wrote:
Unfortunately in New Zealand we pretty much use only millimetres in the building industry - otherwise that would do most of what I need.

Same here.
But the builders don't seem to care what I write anyway, unless they find an excuse to sue me