inserting fractional dimensions

Hello;

I'm new to learning Solidworks and after spending time with Inventor, it's still a big learning curve.

Unfortunately I'm stuck here in North America and struggling to input fractional dimensions like 5 3/16 inch

Can someone tell me if it's possible to import or if I should just draw in metric and make life easier?

...

Can someone tell me if it's possible to import or if I should just draw in metric and make life easier?

Import? Import from where?

You can enter 5 3/16 exactly like Inventor - there is no difference?

How would setting your units to metric units make this any easier?

If you are used to using fractional inch units - that is what I would continue to do unless you need to design metric unit parts.

I use Fractional dimensions and I find it easier to use the decimal format for the fraction when inputing dimensions. In order to display fractional dimensions you have to go to the Unit System On the bottom right of your screen (next to the green question mark). Click on Edit Document Units and select the Fractions box in the Length Row. I also select the ... button and select round to nearest fraction as my drafting only has to be presice to the 1/16 of an inch.

You can change the number in the fractions box to what ever you want it to be accurate to (1/8, 1/16, 1/32 etc).

IPS will only display unit in inches. If you want to display in feet and inches you have to select CUSTOM and in the UNIT colum select the Lenght and a drop down will appear to select how you want your dimension to display.

Two things you can do to insert fractional dimensions:

1. Learn the decimal value of each fraction and enter it that way.
   
2. When you enter a dimension like 1-1/2" remember to leave the hyphen out and enter 1 1/2. If you put the hyphen in, SW will treat is as a subtraction in a formula and you'll end up with some weird values. It really sucks because you can't enter the dimension by using the number pad only since you have to hit the space bar.