Feature: Especially for Inch/Imperial users more choices for measured value (e.g. inch + cm on the same line)

[iOne iTwo]

For dimensions there's a "measured value":

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I would like to be able to set at least two units for that measured value, e.g.:

• Measured value display type one: inch
• Measured value display type two: cm

So a resulting visible label of:

<-------------------- 16" (40.64 cm) +- ----------------->

Regardless of the units of the drawing itself.

What I find myself doing is manually overriding the "measured value" to do the same thing, with the danger that it becomes inaccurate.
A check function for accuracy of the measured value vs. display value seems too fragile to suggest.

[Husky]

What I find myself doing is manually overriding the "measured value" to do the same thing, with the danger that it becomes inaccurate..

Hi, may I ask you for what do you need those imperial/metric dims?

[iOne iTwo]

Hi, may I ask you for what do you need those imperial/metric dims?

I prepare plans and specifications for a product sold internationally. Thus dimensions in both systems are critical,
and need to be correlated and correct. Which means formatting them both for the native audience without making mistakes.

[Husky]

In other words, none of your customers need two different Units, right?
Why not convert the drawing according to the recipient customer? Or provide different sets of the drawing for each unit. Anything else is just confusing and not standard practice!

[HJ Seef]

Imperial is old skool measurement from the dark ages. Since 1975 the NIST recommends for international trade the metric International Standard (System Internationale) in mm.

[Husky]

Yes, I am aware of that. Now imagine if everyone had started phasing out the imperial system 50 years ago and no one had tried to find a way to keep it alive through the back door, then—and only then—would we have succeeded in eradicating this

Imperial is old skool measurement from the dark ages.

.Back to the question: What would you like to see changed in the dimensions?

[CVH]

What would you like to see changed in the dimensions?

I would like to be able to set at least two units for that measured value

QCAD does not support alternative readouts.
Not all common and all possible Dimension features are fully implemented.
Not everything mimics other applications. (e.g. Radial, Diametric)
The list of open requests contains various nice proposals and many are simply supported by the DXF standard.
Another frequent issue with Dimensions are cached Dimension Blocks used by other applications.

I think that 'Keep it simple' is the corner stone here.

It is highly likely that it will not be implemented, not at all on short time notice.
Two drawings in different units is certainly an option and also the most clear.

Converted and rounded it may not be the same.
1/4" (6mm) is not correct in my book.
Good enough for a customer, incorrect for a workshop.
Perhaps a bit too simplistic example. It is the general idea that counts.

Looks easy ... What with (trailing) tolerances?

A custom script could automatically adapt the labels in a post-process.
Note that a longer label also needs more place and this without user interaction.
It may even conflict with the re-render process by QCAD standards.
That can even re-run on any Dimension entity change with a listener.
(e.g.: Centroids, Selection Groups)

The main question here is:

• How big is the demand for this feature?

Regards,
CVH

[iOne iTwo]

My favorite number is 2.54

This is a keep it simple request AFIK.
There's one set of length format tolerance display precision controls for metric.
There's a second set of length format tolerance display precision controls for imperial.
This is just asking to expose and display both controls.

The document's primary measuring would would control which gets displayed first.

---------------------------------
How common is the need? Look at almost any technical data sheet. I will pick one at RANDOM. yep:

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https://www.neutrik.com/en/product/nac3mp-hc

In a global market you are not doing metric or imperial. You are doing BOTH.
For today's bonus question: what units was this part designed for ?

[iOne iTwo]

In other words, none of your customers need two different Units, right?
Why not convert the drawing according to the recipient customer? Or provide different sets of the drawing for each unit. Anything else is just confusing and not standard practice!

As far as I can tell it's standard practice for technical data sheets to have both.
Keeping two documents in sync sounds like the error prone approach.

[HJ Seef]

=> "As far as I can tell it's standard practice for technical data sheets to have both."

Yep, mm is the international trading standard and even the USA manufacturers conforms to it. In the 'switch over time' it is allowed to add imperial dimensions in a smaller cast between brackets. After 50 years you might declare the 'switch over time' now as ended. Mainland Europe switched over in 1820, the UK in 1977. It is time to leave the national nationalists on their own in their dark ages.


=> "Keeping two documents in sync sounds like the error prone approach."

Yep, a practical solution would be to design in metric mm. Add all the dimensions in a layer DimensionsMM . Copy all DimensionsMM-entities to a layer DimensionsImp and explode them all. You can now manualy change all the dimensions-texts in the imperial notation.