cad drawings

[rolland]

For those of you that make cad and simular drawings a question. Can the drawings be converted from metric to inch system once finished and not have to go back and re-do every measurement? The reason I ask is I noticed that the small shaper is in metric, and I have never worked in metric system well at least on purpose.

[elf]

Yes, you can work in any measurement system and convert to another.

p.s. Metric is easier to work with

[Rich Carlstedt]

Yes Roland
While some may have the exact capability, even those not speciffic can do it by
multiplying by 2.54 or dividing by 2.54 to give you the dimensions in the other unit of measurement.
This is also known as "Scaling"
Then adjust the decimal places in your update or editting toggle

Rich

[Mcruff]

So long as the drawing you have is a cad translated drawing as in a format of say, acad, dxf, igs, iges, prt and so on, they must be native CAD formats. Most drawings that are in pdf or paint extensions Or such are not always easily done.

[brian Rupnow]

Roland--I can do it to drawings I make on my cad system, but no-one else can, unless they have the same software as I do and also have access to all of the solid models I created. I can choose to have the dimensions in imperial, in metric, or displayed in both, but it has to be done by opening each individual drawing and resetting the dimensional properties. In the case of the shaper, the man who originally designed it in Australia used metric, so I just did the same.---Brian

[RB211]

I wish the USA went metric, but since I am damned to eternity to use imperial, I use both, where appropriate.

[brian Rupnow]

I wish the USA went metric, but since I am damned to eternity to use imperial, I use both, where appropriate.

I wish Canada had never went metric. I can work with it, but it's a giant pain in the arse. When I worked for big international companies, I had to do everything in metric. Now that I'm old and mostly work for myself or small Canadian companies, I still use feet and inches.--and it's not because one system is better or worse than the other. It's just that I'm far more comfortable using what I learned in school.---Brian

[MaxHeadRoom]

It is very simple in Autocad to change the scale of a drawing, normally you draw in full scale in Autocad, you just pick a two points, say a 2ft dimension, then declare the scale as the metric equivalent and if the whole drawing has been selected, then everything is converted.
Max.

[rolland]

Thanks for all the replys I am not familiar with using cad system or programing that's why I had ask. Having never really worked with the metric system haven't any machines that directly work with the system, even tho they were made in a metric country. I guess it might be the next brain scrambler for me.

[garyhlucas]

Cad programs are inherently unitless. Units mean nothing to the way they work. This was maddening with Autocad files because you had to be very careful when you got a file from someone where it wasn't indicated.

[J Tiers]

With my program, I can switch between decimal inches, fractional inches, metric in mm, metric in centimeters, or metric in meters, feet and inches in decimal or feet and inches in fractions.

All I have to do is tell it which one I want, and I can change that at any time. Fractions can be in 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, anything up to 1/256 of an inch increments. Decimal can be displayed at any resolution to 6 places, and angles similar.

It's just a calculation, after all.

[BCRider]

The only way you can convert the PDF files that Brian so generously shared is if your CAD program can import a PDF file and break it back down into vector format and with the dimensions linked to the lines or parts and not just "posted" onto the page.

I don't know about some applications but the CAD I'm using can export to PDF but it can't import FROM PDF. And without being able to do that you're dead in the water unless Brian is nice enough to produce a matching set in Imperial dimensions.

I'd happily have gone 100% metric. I used it enough in labs in high school to learn it well enough to recognize how nice it is to use. But until all my various materials come in PROPER metric it's just a battle of frustration. Just TRY to find metric metal for example. Or at least all the stuff that comes into North America that I've found is Imperial. My 1/4 x 1 flat bar is 1/4 plus a little extra for the mill scale. It's not 6mm. And I'll be damned if I"m going to walk in and ask for a 6.1 meter length of 6.35 x 25.4mm flat bar. And until they figure that out I'll keep my Imperial only rulers and measuring tapes thankyouverymuch.

My model plane hobby is the same way. All the balsa here in Canada comes up from mills and distributors in the US. So it's all imperial. So much for trying to go metric.

Reading house plans with all the oddball sizes on them for what is actually 2x4's and 2x6's is a lark.

But just when we think we got it all nailed down along comes the plywood mills that only turn out metric plywood any more. Or, knowing how this stuff is working, it's more likely brought in from Asia after being made from the prime logs we send them.

[gellfex]

Just to point out "not all", Freecad does NOT make it easy to rescale, I had to redraw a model after I mistakenly thought I could do it in one scale and then rescale it. I had to learn it when Sketchup couldn't output the file type needed.

[brian Rupnow]

I am nice.--just not 69 drawings worth nice!!!

[Norman Bain]

For those of you that make cad and simular drawings a question. Can the drawings be converted from metric to inch system once finished and not have to go back and re-do every measurement? The reason I ask is I noticed that the small shaper is in metric, and I have never worked in metric system well at least on purpose.

As other have said the software can convert the measurements. However the result is an exact conversion; hence the likes of 25mm will come out 0.984251968503937" or rounded to whatever number of decimals has been defined in the CAD model properties.

Lost also is the nice roundness (to commonly used imperial sizes) of nuts bolts screws and shafts.

Essentially the model need to be modelled in Metric or Imperial from the start; or each of the parts in the models reworked (resized) all over to make them work and fit in the alternate style.

Norman