Customizable dimension format?


CElder
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This shows Arial Narrow and changing the text style to Arial Narrow with a width of 0.8

In CAD you can control the font width in the text style not in the Dimension Style.

 

All this and I still choose to use Chief to create House Plans.

Chief excels in the 3D Home Design and lacks in the CAD tools, if we keep requesting them they may get around to it.

Dim Styles.JPG

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2 hours ago, ACADuser said:

When the lead carpenter reads the plan & calls out the dimension to the worker like 15 feet 5 inches & 3 of the little ones.

Do you think more training will solve the issue. Or do you stop putting eights on the plans?

True story by the way.

 

 

Again Alan I feel your pain. If we don't demand better we will only get worse. Gene has restarted the request for control over dimensions. Still not an excuse for crapsmenship

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On 6/16/2021 at 11:05 AM, CElder said:

Am I missing something in settings or this a huge ask that just can't be managed?

 

You're not missing anything.  It's just not something we can currently do using Chief settings.  We can however use a custom font to switch the space and dash characters....

22254755_Customfont.thumb.gif.a18973eba85cf212065b0ba0eef55ae0.gif

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On 6/19/2021 at 6:46 PM, Alaskan_Son said:

 

You're not missing anything.  It's just not something we can currently do using Chief settings.  We can however use a custom font to switch the space and dash characters....

22254755_Customfont.thumb.gif.a18973eba85cf212065b0ba0eef55ae0.gif

@Alaskan_Son - THIS!!!!  How did you do that!?!?!?!?!

 

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HI Rene,

 

I've experimented with both fonts.  Is it possible to make the Arial Narrow use a wider "space" (maybe a double space)?  I really don't know much about custom font capabilities.

It would look a little better to have a wider space between the feet and inches.

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Rene -

 

That is EVERYTHING!!!  Thank you!  Showed it to my boss in both 1/4" and 1/8" scale and he is pleased.  Would still prefer a stacked fraction but maybe someday... This is a HUGE improvement!

 

Thanks again!

 

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3 minutes ago, ACADuser said:

Export / Import Default Sets

 Just deleted my question because I figured it out myself!  Should have tried to problem solve before asking the question!  Thanks though!

 

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9 minutes ago, CElder said:

 Just deleted my question because I figured it out myself!  Should have tried to problem solve before asking the question!  Thanks though!

 

Glad you figured it out and wanted to add a small detail. Dimensions and text can be set up in 3 different ways. Use Layer for Text Style - Use Text Style - Use custom Text Style. I've become a fan of Use Layer for Text Style as shown in the second pic below. Hope that helps a little.

 

 

 

TEXT STYLE 1.png

TEXT STYLE 2.png

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Also, you can avoid fractions altogether by setting the Primary Format to 1/1 for the fractions.  This will make everything full inches.

I tend to do this just to make things simpler for the framers, etc.

 

For some things (large scale defaults) that's not appropriate - but I like it for general plan, elevations & sections.

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18 minutes ago, Joe_Carrick said:

Also, you can avoid fractions altogether by setting the Primary Format to 1/1 for the fractions.  This will make everything full inches.

I tend to do this just to make things simpler for the framers, etc.

 

For some things (large scale defaults) that's not appropriate - but I like it for general plan, elevations & sections.

Bending that way myself Joe.

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2 hours ago, HumbleChief said:

Glad you figured it out and wanted to add a small detail. Dimensions and text can be set up in 3 different ways. Use Layer for Text Style - Use Text Style - Use custom Text Style. I've become a fan of Use Layer for Text Style as shown in the second pic below. Hope that helps a little.

 

 

 

TEXT STYLE 1.png

TEXT STYLE 2.png

I'll have to spend a little time playing with that.  Thanks for the suggestion!

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4 hours ago, Joe_Carrick said:

HI Rene,

 

I've experimented with both fonts.  Is it possible to make the Arial Narrow use a wider "space" (maybe a double space)?  I really don't know much about custom font capabilities.

It would look a little better to have a wider space between the feet and inches.

Re-download...I uploaded new versions to the previous post.

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On 6/21/2021 at 5:40 AM, CElder said:

@Alaskan_Son - THIS!!!!  How did you do that!?!?!?!?!

 

 

Sorry, I've been been out of town.  Like I mentioned in that post, I just customized a font to switch the space and dash characters.  I've even customized fonts to provide the stacked fractions you're looking for.  Unfortunately, the stacked fractions require custom macros as well and so they can only be used with polylines or other objects with labels. 

 

Anyway, I see that Rene stepped in and offered some modified fonts free of charge to use along with my idea so I'm guessing you're good to go but I do offer font modification as one of my support service, so if you need any assistance with that type of thing in the future, please feel free to shoot me over an email to alaskansons@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do. 

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On 6/17/2021 at 4:09 PM, jasonn1234 said:

but you have to memorize and or remember more numbers as most standards were written in imperial.

 

Personally I hate metric because you have to memorize all the conversions. 4' setback, 1.2m, 27" appliance width. is it 0.69m or is it 0.686 or 0.6858. 2x4 is it 38x80 or 38.1x88.9. I can never figure out who decides the number of decimal places. 

 

If I have to do metric, such as surveys, I do it in both

 

If we were using metric then there would be no memorizing as zoning setbacks from the city would already be in metres, and usually to 2 decimal places.

 

Metres for surveys as you mentioned, 1.2m for your 4 foot lateral setback.

 

Millimetres for the rest of your plans, example 1584mm for 5'-2 3/8", it makes arithmetic a lot easier and more accurate.

 

Isn't that cleaner looking to you?  Can you not appreciate the accuracy as well without the need for fractions or even decimal places for all of your plans?...

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/30/2021 at 12:36 PM, Michael_Gia said:

 

If we were using metric then there would be no memorizing as zoning setbacks from the city would already be in metres, and usually to 2 decimal places.

 

Metres for surveys as you mentioned, 1.2m for your 4 foot lateral setback.

 

Millimetres for the rest of your plans, example 1584mm for 5'-2 3/8", it makes arithmetic a lot easier and more accurate.

 

Isn't that cleaner looking to you?  Can you not appreciate the accuracy as well without the need for fractions or even decimal places for all of your plans?...

 

 

But... I don't think any of us here on the Chief Forum have the clout to change the way the entire construction industry of the United States chooses it's system of measure.  At least I don't... so the metric conversation is a bit of a moot point.

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On 6/30/2021 at 11:36 AM, Michael_Gia said:

Isn't that cleaner looking to you?  Can you not appreciate the accuracy as well without the need for fractions or even decimal places for all of your plans?..

 

yes I would agree it is cleaner looking, but only if most things were to whole numbers. 8' is cleaner than  244mm, IMHO, or certainly easier to remember

 

If all building materials and regulations were metric and to 2 significant digits, then yes, it would be very pretty in my opinion, 1.20M 3M 0.6M etc, 400mm spacing

 

I find it interesting that some things get rounded, such as 16" and 24" spacing get rounded to 400 and 600mm, even though it should be 406 and 610.

 

And that is what I find hard to remember, who decides when to round. If there were consistent rounding rules, say to two significant digits, shouldn't the above be 410 and 610?

 

It's like "someone" said, for these cases here, we can get close to whole numbers, so lets go to whole numbers, but these cases over here, lets not. It just seems random. But I suppose if you started with metric and the regulations were all metric, you would never see that inconsistency

 

I will say, the survey plan in metric is very clean looking, everything to 2 digits in meters, granted typically there are only about 10-15 measurements

 

 

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