The Feet And Inches Thing

[Pointdump]

I keep a pocket calculator next to me when I'm calc-ing building points. That way I can convert, say, 1' 3-1/2" to 1.291667' so that I can offset lines. Well, this morning I needed to convert some state plane coords to project coords, and my little calculator had insufficient digits. I thought to myself, I wonder if Civil 3D has a calculator. Well, behold, I found it, and its a great little calculator.

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There's only one problem. QuickCalc hints at its ability to do length conversions, but I don't know how to input, say, 1' 3-1/2" and convert it to decimal feet.

What would be even better than doing conversions in QuickCalc would be if I could directly input feet-and-inches for any distance inputs.

Dave

[mcward27]

I believe you can. When the offset command asks for a distance, enter 1-1/12 for 1'-1" or 1-7/24 for 1'-3.5", etc.

[michael_robertson]

The inability of C3D to work with feet & inches (easily) is the biggest complaint our Bridge guys have trying to work on transportation projects. They are used to MicroStation where they can enter feet, inches, and fractions without having to take their hand off the numeric key pad. For example 10'-3 1/2" inches is entered 1..3 1/2.

[Pointdump]

Thanks MC,

I was looking for something simpler, like inputting 1'3-1/2" or 1f3-1/2i. It looks like I'll keep my pocket calculator nearby. I had high hopes for a second that QuickCalc might accept a feet-and-inch input. Doesn't seem to, and I can't find anything in the Help Section.

Dave

[neilyj666]

We in the metric world just look on smugly...;)

[michael_robertson]

Neilyj, Just rub it in why don't ya!

[Neilw_05]

Unfortunately it doesn't support ft. and in. symbols in the input. You'll have to input math functions instead. So to convert 1' 3-1/2" from inches to feet you could enter 1*12+3+1/2. It's a cumbersome solution.

[wfberry]

In my little world, I recognize 3" as .25 and  1/2" as .04 and just enter 1.29.

Bill

[Pointdump]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Unfortunately it doesn't support ft. and in. symbols in the input. You'll have to input math functions instead. So to convert 1' 3-1/2" from inches to feet you could enter 1*12+3+1/2. It's a cumbersome solution.

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That sure is cumbersome! My $20 pocket calculator is far easier.

It's a shame that Metric never caught on here.

Dave

[Pointdump]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In my little world, I recognize 3" as .25 and  1/2" as .04 and just enter 1.29.

Bill

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Bill,

I've never been good at head math. As long as I can remember, people have been shaking their heads at my inability to add 2 + 2 without a calculator. 🙂

Dave

[Neilw_05]

You do know that when you have units set to inches you can input 1'3.5" don't you?

[Pointdump]

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@Anonymous wrote:

You do know that when you have units set to inches you can input 1'3.5" don't you?

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I sure didn't. But setting drawing units to inches sounds dangerous. My pocket calculator is a safer workaround.

I've been doing some reading in the Help Section. Something about a CAL command, but I don't know how to use it:

Format Feet and Inches (CAL Command)

Enter feet and inches using the following format:
feet'-inches" or feet' inches" or feet'inches"
You can separate feet, inches, and fractional inches with a dash, a space, or nothing. You can use any of the following syntax cases to enter valid feet-inch formatted values:
5' or 60”
5'-9” or 5' 9” or 5'9”
5'-1/2” or 5' 1/2” or 5'1/2”
5'-9-1/2” or 5' 9-1/2” or 5'9-1/2”
5'-9 1/2” or 5' 9 1/2” or 5'9 1/2”
To designate inches for linear calculations, entering double quotes (“) is optional. For example, instead of entering 5'9-1/2”, you could enter 5'9-1/2.

Dave

[troma]

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neilyj wrote:
We in the metric world just look on smugly...;)

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Reminds me of a comment I once made.

[jmayo-EE]

We still get hand drafted arch plans so we have been down the same road. Our solution was to separate the feet/inches work from the deimal feet work.

 Working with Civil 3D as AutoCAD, we scan the paper plans into a acad file with units set as inches. We get the all of the 2d drafing done working with the feet-inch units on the plan and save the file. We then xref or insert the file as a block into C3D to begin the site design (decimal feet) work. I'm thinking it may be tough for you to separate the units with the work in your case and this may not be possible...

If you venture into this and INSUNITS, INSUNITSDEFSOURCE and INSUNITS are set correctly in the acad and c3d profiles the units will automatically convert when you xref or insert.

[Neilw_05]

You can use the CAL command transparently. When prompted for input just type 'cal and you can then enter your math formula. It's still more work than just inputting 1'3.5.

Typically when we do structural or architectural drafting we do it in separate dwgs with units set to architectural and then XREF them into our civil drawings scaled down at 1/12. Of course if there are only a few features that need to be drawn, we'll just draw them in the civil dwg and convert the inputs as you are doing.

[Cadguru42]

I use the 'CAL transparent command quite frequently. When I need something offset, say 7.5 inches, I do OFFSET, then for distance I type 'CAL, then do 7.5/12. That offsets it perfectly without having to deal with rounding errors, also.

[Pointdump]

"You can use the CAL command transparently. When prompted for input just type 'cal and you can then enter your math formula. It's still more work than just inputting 1'3.5."

I can't get either of those to work. No matter what I do, I still get:

"Requires numeric distance, two points, or option keyword."

Dave

[Pointdump]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I use the 'CAL transparent command quite frequently. When I need something offset, say 7.5 inches, I do OFFSET, then for distance I type 'CAL, then do 7.5/12. That offsets it perfectly without having to deal with rounding errors, also.

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That works good for anything under 12 inches, but whenever I try to throw feet in the mix, it doesn't work.

Dave

[Neilw_05]

It seems CAL requires that units be set to architectural before it will recognize the ' and " symbols. I've never used it this way so it's a learning experience for me too.

[Cadguru42]

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@Pointdump wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I use the 'CAL transparent command quite frequently. When I need something offset, say 7.5 inches, I do OFFSET, then for distance I type 'CAL, then do 7.5/12. That offsets it perfectly without having to deal with rounding errors, also.

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That works good for anything under 12 inches, but whenever I try to throw feet in the mix, it doesn't work.

Dave

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In those instances I just offset to the nearest foot, then offset again using 'CAL. I find that's faster than going to the calculator, doing the conversion, then copying and pasting the number back in ACAD.