Dimensions in Detail - A TKE MicroTool


 

Version 3.1.0

Precision is a basic condition of architectural planning. Sometimes precision to feet of distance is enough; sometimes it must be finer than that, say to an inch. Sometimes it must be even better. When building a house, precision to an inch is usually fine, but some things in a house may require precision down to a 32nd of an inch.

Dimensions in Detail is a Punch! PowerTool which affords the user a way to increase the display of measurements in the plans they create. Numerical quantities and distances in Punch! are stored in a way such that at least six digits of accuracy are available. This means that in a measurement that extends across the entire width of the largest plan that Punch! can handle (500 feet) the accuracy is capable of resolution down to better than a hundredth of an inch. This is far more than sufficient for even the most stringent of house plans; indeed, this accuracy approaches the limit of mechanical measurement (a micrometer (the machinist's tool, not the small part of a meter!) is generally accurate to thousandths of an inch). Better accuracy than this depends on optical, rather than mechanical measurements.

All that is needful, then, is to display this accuracy, and this is what Dimensions in Detail does. Using Dimensions in Detail the user can determine to what accuracy he or she wants the dimensions on the plan to show. In addition, the formating is also up to the user - the display can be the traditional ft-in-fraction used in the United States, or it can be decimal inches. On the metric side it can be meters or millimeters, which is the accepted standard for architectural plans across the world. All of these options are at the Punch! user's control.

Plans with these accurate numbers may be exported from Dimensions in Detail, in both BMP bitmapped graphics files and by printer. In addition, a vector graphic export in Extended Metafile Format (EMF, and extension on WMF) is also available. This means that the drawing can be scaled externally to Punch! and Dimensions in Detail, in any program that can handle metafiles.

If this all sounds very familiar to you, perhaps it is because you have read the same thing in the Precision User's Guide. Precision was a PowerTool that combined the capabilities of Dimensions in Detail with PlansPlus; later, they were separated into their current configuration.

Compatibility

Dimensions in Detail, as of version 3.1.0, is fully compatible with all Punch! PowerTool-enabled versions through level 12.x, including AS5000-12 and Master Landscape Pro-12. See the Compatibility page for more details.


  

Dimensions in Detail and the contents of this help file are
Copyright©2006 by ThistleKeep Engineering; all rights are reserved.

Comments and suggestions, as well as support, are entertained at Lmc@ThistleKeep.com.
"Punch!" and other titles of Punch! operations are trademarks of Punch! Software L.L.C.