Scripting to convert inches to feet

[jtcapa1]

Chiefs default when you select a line to report the length of that line always starts with inches.

Not very helpful.

So I called CA and they tried to help me put in the right script, but it was way off.

So I turned to my paid Claude coding agent and put the question to it, and the response was very helpful.

Here is what Claude suggested:

Short version: the snippet you were given is broken Ruby, not a Chief-specific trick that's failing. .2_s isn't a method (it looks like a mangled .to_s), a method name can't start with a digit, and the space between length and the dot also breaks the call. So Chief never gets far enough to do any converting.

Here's what actually works, verified against a ChiefTalk thread from this June on exactly your question (a CAD line/spline length label). A forum regular there suggested %visible_length.to_ft.round(2)%. Chief's length values are Measurement objects, and that class carries unit-conversion methods. Options in order of simplicity: ChiefTalk

Decimal lineal feet (probably what you want for takeoffs):   %length.to_ft.round(2)%

 

Then I tweaked it for showing the length of the Fire Hose I was showing on my site plan:  

FIRE HOSE

%visible_length.to_ft.round% LF

Work perfectly.  Funny enough it quoted Rene Rabbitt for this code.  It is just harder to find Rene's gem's myself, but Claude does this in seconds!

Scary good.

 

[Joe_Carrick]

This is one of the reasons I don't post most of my macros.  AI will violate my copyright without my permission.  I suspect it's also capable of getting data from emails and/or text - but in any event, these forums are not safe from AI.

Edited September 5 by Joe_Carrick