Soft metric dimension problem

Paul Moon

I am trying to dimension with both metric and Imperial.  I read the instructions below and it mostly works for me.  I have a stubborn issue where all imperial dimensions have a 3/4" after  and  metric have a 7/8" after it and I can't eliminate with settings.  Anyone know how to eliminate this?

They look like this:11'-5 1/2" 3/4  3492 7/8, it should read 11- 5 1/2"  3492

Thanks,
Paul

"To draw the building using the Imperial System (feet and inches), using architectural units, with the main unit of measurement being inches. Turn variable DIMALT on, set DIMALTF at 25.4, and set DIMALTD to 0. You will automatically get the dimension in feet and inches, followed by the calculated metric dimension in millimeters, rounded off to the nearest whole millimeter."

     

Jason Bourhill

Hi Paul,

try setting DIMALT to 2, which is for decimal units. DIMALT  = 0  I think defaults to whatever you have set in windows control panel.

for your 3/4" issue try checking:

• DIMPOST , for prefix suffixes
  
• DIMRND , for rounding dimensions
• DIMZIN , to suppress leading/trailing zeros
• DIMDEC , for precision.

Would double check your drawing too. You may find things haven't been drawn as accurately as you expected. You may want to set LUPREC quite high (to 8), so you can see what is going on.

Note if you use the SETTINGS dialogue when setting any of the above, you will get a brief explanation as to what they are for, and how to set. It can be a bit cryptic otherwise :-).

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

Paul Moon

Jason,

Thank you for the reply.  I have looked at all of the things below and to no avail.  I think the issue relates to both the primary and alternate dimensions on the strings.  I have attached a screen shot with the properties box open to a specific dimension.  Perhaps you can see something?  I have tried adjusting about every setting and nothing seems to rid me of the fractions.

Thank you again,
Paul

soft metric.jpg

Roy Klein Gebbinck

I think the problem is caused by the shx font that you use.
The alternate dimension should appear between square brackets:
11'-5 1/2" [3492]
In your shx the ascii positions for the square brackets are apparently used for "3/4" and "7/8".
The only solution is to change the font of the textstyle.

Paul Moon

Thank you.  That was it.

Jason Bourhill

@Roy,
Nice one, not sure I would of spotted that myself. General stick to the basic shx fonts myself, so of course works for me.

Did a internet search to see whether their are any options, and came across this forum post: Dimension in alternate units problem
This makes use of MTEXT codes to remove the brackets from alternate dimensions. Bricscad doesn't provide MTEXT options with dimensions as yet, but the facility to do so seems to be there underneath. Using this method provides a few options:

Change the font of alternate dim
The font used would obviously need to be one that supports [ ] . to do this, set dim suffix to \fArial; In this case the alternate dim is shown using Arial.
 
Place the Alternate dim below the dimension line & change its font
to do this, set dim suffix to \X\fArial; Note that X is a capital

Place the Alternate dim below the dimension line & remove [ ]
Per the forum post do this set:
dim suffix = \X\f
alt prefix = ;
alt suffix = \f

Note these variables don't seem to be available from the command line as DIMVARs, you have to access via DIMSTYLE. I found it easier to create a dimension, then play with its properties using the property bar.

attach some screen grabs to illustrate the options above.

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

AltUnitFont.png

AltUnitFontStacked.png

AltUnitStackedNoBracket.png

Roy Klein Gebbinck

@Jason:
That's an interesting, but sort of "dirty", approach. But good to know it exists.

About the dim variables:

To my knowledge all dim variables can be changed through the command line or the SETTINGS command.
The ones you are looking for are:
DIMPOST (Dim prefix/suffix)
DIMAPOST (Alt units prefix/suffix)

On the other hand I know of 2 variables that do not show up in either the Dimension Styles panel of the Drawing explorer, or in the Properties Bar:
DIMBLK (Arrow, will override DIMBLK1 and DIMBLK2)
DIMTVP (Text offset vert)

But of course there are far too many dim variables!

Jason Bourhill

@Roy

You are of course right. Third example I gave could be achieved by setting:

DIMPOST = \X\f
DIMAPOST = ;[]\f

Don't know whether this is dirty, certainly is a rather obtuse way of having to do something. AutoCAD introduced \X for the very purpose of placing text/dims below the dimension line, and provides an option to do so in their Dimstyle settings, which when selected changes DIMPOST to \X. Highlights how confusing playing with dimvars can be! Yes way too many.

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

Roy Klein Gebbinck

@Jason:
I call the method you are suggesting "dirty" because it "abuses" the mtext font sequence:

1. To hide the first square bracket it creates this font sequence:
\f[;
This instructs BC to look for a font "[" which BC can't find and so it substitutes the default font.

2. To hide the second square bracket it creates this incomplete font sequence:
\f]