Measure tool: "All Decimals" bug

[DRoam]

Does anyone else experience this bug? After using Inventor for a while I notice my measurements never show more than 3 decimal places even though the little calipers are displayed indicating the precision is set to "All Decimals." I manually re-set the precision to All Decimals, and sure enough my measurents display more decimal places.

Apparently after a while Inventor forgets it's set to "All Decimals". This can definitely lead to problems when using those measurements to clean up gaps in parts.

Here is a screencast of the bug:

[DRoam]

I should have mentioned I'm using Inventor 2016 SP1 on Windows 7.

[karthur1]

Havent noticed that, but then again I only roll with 4plcs shown. There is a 2016 SP2 released.  You might try that and see if it helps.

Kirk

[blair]

Not really sure if I would call it a bug, within the Tools>Documents>Units>Linear Dim Display Precision: sets the number of units that Inventor displays, this controls the Measure Tool as well as what is displays in the Parameters.

Changing this value will solve your problem. Not really sure why you would need more than four decimal places for most manufacturing, as this already gets you to 1/1,000th for accuracy.

[shiyong.lin]

@DRoamhow, what was your workflow to have the "All Decimals" caliper showed up but the precision context menu is not checked?

Did you set the precision to "All Decimals" first then it went back to show only 3 decimals?

We are currently taking a look at improving Inventor Measure Tool in the near future release. Your feedback would be extremely valuable to us.

Shiyong Lin

Software Engineer

Inventor

[DRoam]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Not really sure if I would call it a bug, within the Tools>Documents>Units>Linear Dim Display Precision: sets the number of units that Inventor displays, this controls the Measure Tool as well as what is displays in the Parameters.

Changing this value will solve your problem.

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Thanks for the tip, blair, I wasn't aware of that. Unfortunately, it doesn't solve my problem because, in my opinion, once I've set the measure tool to "all decimals", that should persist across all documents for the rest of that session. Especially since the caliper indicator stays visible for subsequent measurements. This gives the impression that "all decimals" is still being used, even if it's not because I've switched to a different document.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Not really sure why you would need more than four decimal places for most manufacturing, as this already gets you to 1/1,000th for accuracy.

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You're correct, of course, that four decimals is plenty for manufacturing purposes. But sometimes I'm taking measurements for modeling diagnostics purposes. Maybe I'm trying to see if a gap is a round number as it should be. Or I might be doing a quick clean up of a model, removing gaps for a finite element analysis. In these cases I need to know if a measurement really is "2.3125", or if it's actually "2.312476".

[DRoam]

@shiyong.lin, thanks for the reply.

I think Blair identified my problem. I'm in one document and I set the precision to "All Decimals". Then I continue working for several minutes and I might be switching between documents. Then I go to take a measurement, and because the little calipers are visible, I assume when I take a measurement that it's displaying to full precision. But actually, I've switched to a document where I haven't explicitly applied the "All decimals" setting. So even though I think I'm taking measurements with full precision, I'm actually not.

The ideal solution would be for the measurement tool's precision setting to persist across all documents for the entire session. Or, even better, to be a global Application option which persists even between sessions. Some may not want this, but many of us I think do, so adding this as an Application option would be a great complement to the upcoming measurement tool improvements.

Thank you for hearing my feedback!

[shiyong.lin · Accepted solution]

Thanks a lot for your reply!

We are currently working on improving Inventor measure tool. The issue you brought up will be handled properly.

Thanks again for choosing Inventor.

Shiyong

[ChrisMitchell01]

As Shiyong eludes to, this is indeed something we are working on.

If you're "chomping at the bit" to try it then you can apply for the Inventor Beta project using this one-time application link:

https://bit.ly/InventorBeta (Don't use it if you already have access though).

Thanks

Chris

[DRoam]

Glad to hear it's being worked on. Thanks for the information, @shiyong.lin and @ChrisMitchell01!

[DRoam · Accepted solution]

Fortunately, this functionality has been slightly improved in R2 of Inventor 2017. According to this article, we can now set the measurement precision once-for-all for each document individually. In other words, each document has its own measurement precision which persists when you close and open the file and even from session to session.

However, I personally would prefer a global application option that persists across all documents, rather than a document-specific setting that I have to set for each document.

If you have any feedback regarding this, rather than commenting on this thread, please comment on the following IdeaStation post: set precision for measure command.

That's currently the top-voted request in the IdeaStation for a global measurement precision option. If you'd like to have that option, please vote for the Idea and comment. Or even if for some reason you don't want that option, comment and say why.

Either way, please do so on the IdeaStation thread so all the feedback regarding this is in the same place. Thanks.

[SteveMDennis]

DRoam,

IMHO you don't need a global setting, simply change it in your template and resave your template!

[Curtis_Waguespack]

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@SteveMDennis wrote:

DRoam,

IMHO you don't need a global setting, simply change it in your template and resave your template!

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Hi steven.dennis,

But then how to we cope with the issue that exists with all of our past (thousands) files where the setting isn't set?

So often it is these files that we're pulling measurements from.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[DRoam]

Exactly my thought, @Curtis_Waguespack. I love the suggestion that you made on the Idea thread! (here) Goes right in line with the scheme used for the document Appearances, would result in some really nice consistency.

There's that word again.... lol.

[engilic]

Any solution?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! As of 2021, the above discussion is still valid. The Measure tool precision control has gone a few iteration. It was originally command specific, meaning the tool remember the last used setting. We got complaints about it. Then we persist based on Document Settings (unit and display precision). Then some users don't like the change because of dirtying a file.

As of 2022, the Measure tool has its own Preset. So you can set up your own pre-defined settings and leverage it accordingly. However, any change in precision or dual unit setting still dirties the active document. It is considered undesirable. The behavior has been reported as INVGEN-50064 and the fix is targeting 2022.1 update (not the immediate 2022.0.1 update).

Many thanks!

[SBix26]

@johnsonshiue  I don't see any Preset functionality in the Measure property panel in 2022 initial release... perhaps this is planned for 2022.1?

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Sam B
Inventor Pro 2022 | Windows 10 Home 2004
LinkedIn

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Sam,

I am sorry I was mistaken. I thought it was taken care by utilizing the new property panel Presets. But, presets are not available in the Measure panel.

Regarding precision change not dirtying the files, indeed the fix is implemented in the internal build targeting 2022.1 update (not 2022.0.1 update). Sorry for the confusion!

Many thanks!

[engilic]

Thank you @johnsonshiue ,

That's good news.

Our company plans to skip 2022 and to go to 2023 when it comes out, so will be on 2021 for a year or more.

Is there any change to do it in the future 2021.x updates?

Have a lovely day

[Bert_Bimmel]

For my own part I would even be pleased, if the tool would actually do what it tells me what it does: It is set to "all decimals", and the caliper is shown, but anyway, I do only get the first 3 decimals:

in order to really get all decimals, i have to switch to some other precision...

... and then back to "all decimals":

et voilà, there is an inexplicable error of 3e-9 mm (17 cm can be represented by a 64Bit-Float without rounding error)
And by the way: "All decimals" would be three more digits here according to IEEE 754
And another thing I would like to mention: For two and a half decades, I have been conditioned to mark thinks first, before copying them to the windows clipboard. Why do I have to change this habit here??