Changing how units are entered

When entering distances, I would type in for instance, 2'6 and CAD interprets that as being 2 feet and 6 inches by default. My question is, is there a way to set it so I can so I can enter 2-6 and get 2 feet 6 inches instead of using the ' tick mark sign? it's a lot easier and faster to do it with the dash since I am drawing a ton of drawings and the dash is included on the right number pad on the keyboard?

You cannot enter 2-6 and expect AutoCAD to know what you mean. Switch to decimal units and enter everything as inches and it will go faster.

You cannot enter 2-6 and expect AutoCAD to know what you mean. Switch to decimal units and enter everything as inches and it will go faster.

That sort of reads like you're suggesting using Decimal UNITS, I think it's intended to suggest inputting as the decimal equivalent

@ kizaerf. If you're working with feet and inches you have several choices: AutoCAD will recognize all of the following formats as the same measurement 2'6 or 2.5' or 30 Obviously, 30 is the easiest/fastest, but you have to do the conversion in your head to be an efficient method. Ditto for fractional inches.... you can enter either 4-1/2 or 4.5

2'3 = 2.25' = 27

Even if I am using architectural units. I can still impot 42 and get 42 inches, or enter 3'6 and get 42 inches. So converging to decimal is not really the thing. its just that the person on the field wrote the units in feet and inches like so, 3-6 for example, so I have to convert all to inches, or type in the tick mark. for my specific purposes it would just be easier to replace the tick mark with a dash on my keyboard based on keyboard placement since I am doing so many housing units and would like to get them done as efficiently as possible. He really ought to have just did the total inches instead of doing feet and inches. Makes no sense why he did it that way knowing how Autocad works. And of course, I don't expect Autocad to know what I mean when I type it in as a dash, that's why I asked if there was a specific setting I could change.

I agree that it would be nice to be able to customize the "operator" for feet/inches, but alas that's not an option in AutoCAD.

For me it doesn't much matter if the measurement is written down as feet/inches or just inches because I automatically convert feet/inches under 10feet to inches in my head faster than I can key them in anyway. Ditto for fractions down to 1/16th.

I agree that it would be nice to be able to customize the "operator" for feet/inches, but alas that's not an option in AutoCAD.

 

For me it doesn't much matter if the measurement is written down as feet/inches or just inches because I automatically convert feet/inches under 10feet to inches in my head faster than I can key them in anyway. Ditto for fractions down to 1/16th.

thank you, that is untimately the answer I was looking for; whether it was possible or not.

Take a look at remapping the key there are freeware programs out there, that will let you change keys on the keyboard, but be aware if you do it, it is a windows thing so the key will be remapped for all programs.

Take a look at remapping the key there are freeware programs out there, that will let you change keys on the keyboard, but be aware if you do it, it is a windows thing so the key will be remapped for all programs.

Oh that's what it's called. thank you! that's more what I was thinking. thank you

Just keep in mind that you may need both the hyphen, and the apostrophe keys to input measurements containing fractional inches. ie 9'-2 7/8" which is entered as 9'2-7/8.

Did something for this method say 9.2.7.8 would give 9'-2 7/8 it works by converting to decimal feet but display can be in feet inches, same as surveyors bearings 101 10' 23" = 101.1023 much easier to enter. It uses the search function to find the "." so pulls apart a string. See the comment below about version 2.

;; String to List  -  Lee Mac
;; Separates a string using a given delimiter
;; str - [str] String to process
;; del - [str] Delimiter by which to separate the string
;; Returns: [lst] List of strings

(defun LM:str->lst ( str del / pos )
   (if (setq pos (vl-string-search del str))
       (cons (substr str 1 pos) (LM:str->lst (substr str (+ pos 1 (strlen del))) del))
       (list str)
   )
)

; input feet then inches then fractions as many as required.
; 123.11.5 is 123 feet 11 inches + 0.5 of a inch 3/8 is 0.375
; 3/8 can be redone using the defun to work out fraction maybe ver 2

(setq retstr (LM:str->lst (getstring "\nEnter Feet.inch.part inch ") "."))

(setq feets (atof (nth 0 retstr)))

(if (setq inches (atof (nth 1 retstr))) ; if check if exists inches
(princ)
(setq inches 0.0)
)

(if (setq partinches (/ (atof (nth 2 retstr))10.0)) ; if check if exists part inches
(princ)
(setq partinches 0.0)
)

(setq footlen (+ feets (/ (+ inches partinches) 12.0)))

(princ footlen)