Fractional inches

[debenriver]

Hi Eric

Is it possible when dimensioning in Fractional Inches to be able to select for at least the common fractions 1/8", 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 5/8", 3/4" and 7/8" to be rendered ⅛", ¼", ⅜", ½", ⅝", ¾" and ⅞".

Thirds, fifths and sixths, though not much used have symbols also, so could be included. Sadly sixteenths, thirty-seconds and sixty-fourths don't have symbols though they can be constructed.

So a dimension like 76 3/4" would be rendered as 76¾" (no space). It's less cumbersome looking and takes up less space on a drawing.

Not a big deal, and only really relevant in the US of course as the rest of the world uses sensible units

Cheers -- George

[Eric Pousse]

Bonjour George,

... as the rest of the world uses sensible units

Yes we do that but even the British?

I don't know how do ⅛", ¼", ⅜", ½", ⅝", ¾" and ⅞.
Do this special characters exist in all fonts?

Cordialement.

[debenriver]

debenriver wrote: ↑30 May 2022, 07:05
... as the rest of the world uses sensible units

Yes we do that but even the British?

Oh - well – Britain is going down the pan anyway so what it does or doesn't do is of very little importance. But theoretically it is metric and has been since (I think) 1971. The idiot in charge at the moment is muttering about returning to Imperial measurements to try to rescue his partygate disaster. We shouldn't even take this into consideration. IMHO he's a total waste of space. But then I'm just a old socialist ranting away ...

Fractions from n/2 to n/8 seem to be common to all fonts as far as I know. Certainly you can select them from the 'Emoji and Symbols' menu. And you can set System Preferences >> Keyboard >> Text to render them automatically.

RealCADD recognises System Preferences when entering ordinary text – so if I type 76 1/4" I get 76¼" OK. Or if I type 76^2 I get 76² automatically because I have set that in the Text preferences.

So RealCADD is already seeing System Preferences – just dimensioning doesn't seem to at the moment.

Cheers -- George

[Mikerosen]

Eric,

Not all fonts have the fractions, but many do. Here’s a link that I found showing what’s in the more commonly used fonts:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/simpleuseful/fr ... fonts.html

[Eric Pousse]

Thank you Mike !

[debenriver]

All I'm suggesting really is that Dimensions and the Measuring Tool respect the settings under System Preferences >> Text in the same way as entering ordinary text does.

This is for Mac – don't know what the equivalent Windows settings are.

For the few fonts that don't support fractions a question mark symbol will likely be shown – but honestly are they fonts likely to be used in a professional drawing??

Cheers -- George

Edit: In fact RealCADD Text quite rightly supports all System Preferences >> Text replacements like ³⁄₁₆", ⁵⁄₁₆", ⁷⁄₁₆" ... through to ¹⁵⁄₁₆" .

[Eric Pousse]

Bonjour George and Mike,

I made some research and it seems that it is not possible to know this preferences into an app.
The only way is to propose new options in RealCADD to do that.

Cordialement.

[debenriver]

Good morning!

That seems odd to me. I regularly use fractions, raise to powers etc. in text in RealCADD as set up in my system preferences. Like this:

text.jpg (22.05 KiB) Viewed 6318 times

RealCadd doesn't have any bother with that. There is an option not to use the System Preferences setting:

text2.jpg (11.77 KiB) Viewed 6318 times

But if you just type on (rather than hit the 'x') you get the fractions etc.

The text in Dimensions and the Measuring tools is just text, so I was wondering why it can't see System Preferences like ordinary text does??

Cheers -- George

[Eric Pousse]

Yes George, it is strange but it is that.
The system -> prefs -> text are applied on the text when the user types it.
But it is not possible to apply this rules on texts created by code.

[debenriver]

Hi Eric

That is strange! But if that's how it is, there's not much to be done about it!

And I doubt it's worth trying to do anything special within RealCADD as the program will very adequately render dimensions in fractional inches. And if you are really fussed, you can go over the drawing and change them to the fraction symbols, because once they're drawn they are straightforward text.

I tried using Text Find/Replace (to change all, say, 5/8" to ⅝" in a dimension) but it wouldn't work - and it caused an error. In fact I don't think Find/Replace is working properly in 5.20 – I checked it with ordinary text and it either didn't do it or produced an error.

I went back to v.5.0 and Text Find/Replace works fine and will indeed change the fractional element of a dimension to the fraction symbols – so if that could work in 5.20, then it is an easy way for picky people like me to get what they want

Mind you I normally draw everything in metric – the exception being for house plans in the US where we still use those funny irrational measurements ...

Cheers -- George