10 Replies Latest reply on Jul 7, 2009 1:23 PM by Eduardo Ortiz

    Measure Tool Decimal Places

    Eduardo Ortiz
    Eduardo Ortiz Jun 26, 2009 6:23 PM
      Hi Everyone!

      This is bugging me, every time I use the measure tool I have to change the decimal places from two to five.

      Is there anyway of setting the default number of decimals you want displayed in the measure tool window to whatever you want?

      Or do I have to set the units under document properties of every document to use five decimal places.

      Thanks!
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        • Measure Tool Decimal Places
          David Anderson
          David Anderson Jun 29, 2009 8:52 PM (in response to Eduardo Ortiz)
          unfortunately, i think its the latter.
          • Measure Tool Decimal Places
            Deepak Gupta
            Deepak Gupta Jun 30, 2009 5:52 AM (in response to Eduardo Ortiz)
            You need to set the units under document properties. A macro might be be useful here which can set the units for you.
            • Measure Tool Decimal Places
              Tom Nicholson
              Tom Nicholson Jun 30, 2009 8:24 AM (in response to Eduardo Ortiz)
              I'll agree with the previous posters, whatever unit precision you have setup in your template, the measure tool will follow.
                • Measure Tool Decimal Places
                  Mike Lydon
                  Mike Lydon Jun 30, 2009 10:16 AM (in response to Tom Nicholson)
                  I do not undersdtand why the Measure tool follows the document precision. I want the Measure precision to be greater than than the unit precision. Most of our dimensioning is .xx, but I want the model to be geometrically accurate, which usually involves more precise measurement/dimensions.

                  Mike Lydon
                    • Measure Tool Decimal Places
                      Jim Wilkinson
                      Jim Wilkinson Employee Jun 30, 2009 11:11 AM (in response to Mike Lydon)

                      Michael Lydon wrote:

                       

                      I do not undersdtand why the Measure tool follows the document precision. I want the Measure precision to be greater than than the unit precision. Most of our dimensioning is .xx, but I want the model to be geometrically accurate, which usually involves more precise measurement/dimensions.

                      Hi Mike,

                      Please see my post to Ed. You should be able to override the units for ALL documents with the "Use custom settings" option.

                      Thanks,
                      Jim
                  • Measure Tool Decimal Places
                    Deepak Gupta
                    Deepak Gupta Jun 30, 2009 10:32 AM (in response to Eduardo Ortiz)
                    Mike,

                    You can set the option in the measure command but I believe you need to do that every time you use measure tool. So I was suggesting to use a macro.
                    • Measure Tool Decimal Places
                      Jim Wilkinson
                      Jim Wilkinson Employee Jun 30, 2009 11:09 AM (in response to Eduardo Ortiz)

                      Eduardo Ortiz wrote:

                       

                      Is there anyway of setting the default number of decimals you want displayed in the measure tool window to whatever you want?

                      Or do I have to set the units under document properties of every document to use five decimal places.

                      Hi Ed,

                      If you go to the Units/Precision dialog within the measure tool (second button from left) and choose "Use custom settings", whatever settings you set there should be used for ALL documents, regardless of the document settings for the document. That setting should then stay on as long as you leave it on (even across sessions of running SolidWorks) and give you whatever units and precision you have set. The only downside is that you can't just set the precision, but you are setting all the unit related settings to be shown in measure for all documents. So, for instance if some of your documents are in inches and some in millimeters, I would suggest turning on dual units in measure so you can see both types in all documents when using measure.

                      Let me know if you are not seeing the behavior I describe. I just retested it to make sure it works that way and verified that it does.

                      Thanks,
                      Jim
                      • Measure Tool Decimal Places
                        Josh Brady
                        Josh Brady Jun 30, 2009 11:25 AM (in response to Eduardo Ortiz)
                        You might also want to try the SmartMeasure macro posted at

                        http://www.eng-tips.com/viewth...cfm?qid=241405&page=1

                        95% of the measuring I need to do works with this macro, so I rarely bring up the measure tool anymore.
                        • Measure Tool Decimal Places
                          Deepak Gupta
                          Deepak Gupta Jun 30, 2009 12:00 PM (in response to Eduardo Ortiz)
                          Josh, thanks for sharing that. A very good tool to use.
                          • Measure Tool Decimal Places
                            Eduardo Ortiz
                            Eduardo Ortiz Jul 7, 2009 1:23 PM (in response to Eduardo Ortiz)
                            Thanks everyone for your suggestions I changed my template files to show 5 decimal places and now everything seems to work as I wanted.

                            I'm not sure if Jim's solution works, since I had to reset the number of decimal places displayed to 5 decimal places every time I used the measure tool. But since I changed the templates the decimal places shown are 5.

                            I wasn't able to use the macro posted by Josh it crashes every time I run it.

                            Thanks again everyone!