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Inches or centimeters for USA?


deres

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Hello to all, this is Vangelis from Greece. We took a new project, a bistro at Miami, USA. We must deliver plans, sections, details etc for construction and the problem is that we are not familiar at all with inches, feet etc.

If anyone has some experiance on this, do you think that it would be ok to sent our work in centimeters, or it would be impossible for the contructor to build?

 

Thanks in advance, sorry for my bad English :)

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From my experience with american companies I am inclined to say that you should make your drawings in feet and inches. And you should use fractions instead of decimals: 1'-3 1/8" instead of 15.125". You should probably break your fractions down to at least 1/16", maybe even 1/32", though I doubt that contractors work that fine.

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You definitely want to use Imperial dimensions.

The good news is that you can make the primary units IMPERIAL and create an alternate dimension style which will give all dimensions in metric units.

The sample shown reads FEET & INCHES on the top of the dim line and MMs on the bottom.

Probably not exactly how you should or want to do it, but to give you an idea, that it is quite simple to do.

I started a NEW drawing, for which I chose the ARCHITECTURAL - Imperial template as shown in the attachment.

The alternate dimension display can be turned off when drawings are sent to the client, and you can turn them on when you are working on the drawings.

I would suggest starting on an IMPERIAL based template instead of an ISO based one, as it will be better for the client.

I have attached the .DWG shown in the images, so it is on what I should think would be an appropriate template, and contains that dimstyle.

Definitely show fractional values, and I should think that to 1/32" would be best, depending on what the project is, and what the contractor asks for.

arch alternate on Imperial template.jpg

use an appropriate template.JPG

Alternate Dimstyle on IMPERIAL template.dwg

Edited by Dadgad
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If you use alternate units, then you should use fractional, instead of decimal, units for the alternates. Then you can specify 1/16" for the precision. But be careful, for because of the cumulative rounding errors you may end up with parts that don't fit.

The best way, I think, would be to take your metric design and modify it to work with precise feet and inches. Convert your metric dimensions to imperial, and then clean them up to the nearest 1/16". You wouldn't probably design furniture with dimensions like 22,225 mm, but 7/8" is perfectly legitimate for an american.

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The dimension style which is included in the .dwg file attached in POST #3 shows metric and inches, just use that and build and design it as you usually would. :)

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No one from your firm bothered to pick up the phone and ask the client if metric was acceptable? Miami has a number of people, including contractors, that came to the U.S. from other countries where the metric system is the norm.

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No one from your firm bothered to pick up the phone and ask the client if metric was acceptable? Miami has a number of people, including contractors, that came to the U.S. from other countries where the metric system is the norm.

 

Who is issuing the building permits? Which dimension type do they require?

 

There is no contractor at the moment, we must complete the drawings first. The client is Greek and lives in Greece, we asked him and he had no idea (in fact he didn't care at all). I opened this thread because we want to be prepared and not switch everything last minute.

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Have you read post #6?

Do you understand what was said?

Have you looked at the dimension style shown in the image and included in the .dwg attachment? :|

Work in mms, give it to whomever in whichever format (or both).

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Dadgad (fellow guitar player), of course I understand your post and I thanked you already for your help.

I will follow your advice and I will deliver both metriv and inches. Your dwg helped a lot!

 

Thanks again!

(btw what style you play on guitar?)

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You are very welcome, happy to help.

From your subsequent post it seemed that maybe you hadn't.

Acoustic fingerstyle for more than 50 years, surprised nobody else has ever picked up on it, but yeah absolutely, a great tuning.

I really like Franco Morone, Craig D'Andrea, many of (though not all) of the CANDYRAT lineup, reminiscent of the great acoustic lineup from WINDHAMHILL

Records back in the late 70's and early 80's. :beer:

Good luck with your project, I hope you get the contract and that it all goes aces!

 

Just remember that if you want to you can turn off the ALTERNATE DIMENSION DISPLAY at any time on the alternate units tab, as shown, you can.

In that way if they don't wish to see the metric dimensions they don't need to. :)

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Wow, great music! I play acoustic too, bouzouki and accordion for 30 years now, but I don't use fingers. I play mostly greek folk style, I have been a professional for several years and now that crisis hited our country I think I'll start again, hehe :D

dadgad tuning reminded me of the old-rock days that we played Kashmir - Zeppelins and Stones.

 

Cheers

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surprised nobody else has ever picked up on it, but yeah absolutely, a great tuning.

 

Oh, really? May the Fibonacci be with you.:lol:

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Oh, really? May the Fibonacci be with you.:lol:

 

It's all Greek to me ..... but seriously,

I never leave home without it! :thumbsup:

Please watch it all the way through Dana, made me think of your boxes.

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It's all Greek to me ..... but seriously,

I never leave home without it! :thumbsup:

Please watch it all the way through Dana, made me think of your boxes.

Very interesting tool, but is it imperial or metric?:lol:

Seriously, it is pretty cool. It's a perfect candidate for a shop made tool/jig thingy. I could probably whip one up on my router table in a couple of hours made of a carriage bolt, thumb wheel, and a couple of chunks of UHMW plastic.

 

I wonder if it could help me cut perfect fret slots in a finger board? I've had plans on the board for a Martin D-40 (ish) drednaught for about 6 years. Now that I don't have much to do, I might try and build the thing.

 

I now relenquish control of the thread back to the OP.:shock:

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Not to worry it is empirical. :beer:

 

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for_Fretting/Adjustable_Fret_Slotting_Saw.html

http://www.stewmac.com/shopby/product/1557

A good shop can never have too many good jigs, nor saw blades!

I assume that you have Fenner link drive belts on your tablesaw if you do precision work, which boxes usually are.

Try the nickel test on your saw.

 

Not up for all the inlay work on a -45?

Make a 000 body, it sounds better, remember to shave the struts to pre-war specs!

Edited by Dadgad
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Not to worry it is empirical. :beer:

 

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for_Fretting/Adjustable_Fret_Slotting_Saw.html

http://www.stewmac.com/shopby/product/1557

A good shop can never have too many good jigs, nor saw blades!

I assume that you have Fenner link drive belts on your tablesaw if you do precision work, which boxes usually are.

Try the nickel test on your saw.

 

Not up for all the inlay work on a -45?

Make a 000 body, it sounds better, remember to shave the struts to pre-war specs!

 

Aw man. All that luthier talk gots my tool jones goin' again. I ordered my first StewMac tool over the internet when the internet was only a couple of years old.

 

What table saw? Oh, yeah that thing. It's a 30 year old $160.00 Craftsman portable, direct drive. I only use it for rippin'. I use a router table and Incra miter guage for my precision work.

 

In the interest of staying on topic, all my tools are imperial, even the 1/2" and 7/8" hand made brass planes.

 

We're in danger of being split off to some chat thread by the mods.:o Maybe I'll open a thread where I can explain why a 000 is not gonna suit me for now.:P

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