Specific selections for english and metric are next:
In the english section the first choice is Units, and the choices are Inches, Feet and Inches or Feet. The first selection specifies that all lengths will be stated in inches, while the second says the notation will be in feet and inches (when the length is 12 inches or more). The last choice says the units will be feet, and the fractional option (below) is grayed out, since the only feet option is decimal. Default is feet and inches.
Next is a selection for the kind of units Abbreviation to follow the numbers. The choices are the letters Ft/In, quotation marks '/", or no indicators assumed. If you selected Inches Only above, of course, feet and ' will not be used at all.
The next selection is the two radio buttons names Decimal and Fractional. These determine the basic display of any decimal part of an inch.
If decimal representation is chosen, the number of digits to the right of the decimal point may be determined. Notice that this selection is not quite the right selection to be making: in strict adherence to the notion of precision, we should be requesting the total number of digits used to display a measurement. It would be possible to request three places to the right of the point, and exceed Punch!'s accuracy limits (or, rather, your PC's limits) when measuring something over a thousand inches long. However, it is traditional to specify that all measurements be accurate to "a tenth of an inch" or similar wording, so we will simply note the discrepancy and move on. The decimal places may be set from 0 to 7.
If fractional representation also has an equivalent accuracy selection, but in powers of two rather than ten. The choices are made by a radio button group, and select inches, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 inch increments. If the 32nds are selected and the value 3.75 is formatted then the display will of course be "3-3/4" rather than "3-24/32".
The metric choices are similar to the english choices, with the exception of lack of fractions in metric. The first selection is Units, and the choices are meters or millimeters. Centimeters are not even considered as metric usage currently frowns on the use of units that are not even multiples of three powers of tens, such as units, thousands, millions, thousandths and millionths of units. Millimeters are the internationally preferred values for "normal", human-scale measurements.
The Abbreviations that may be selected are M/MM, m/mm and assumed. International metric usage prescribes lower case abbreviations for units that are not personal names (like Pascals of pressure or Newtons of force), but the choices are available.
Sorry, I couldn't resist that. As noted above measurements in centimeters are deprecated in metric usage, after a long run of centimeter popularity, presumably because it is the metric unit that most closely matches the venerable inch. The long-ignored decimeter is now making its move, though, of course, it's not called that - it's called the metric module, and defined as 100 millimeters. The module, a handy four inches long (3.937" for sticklers) is a favored rounding place for metric measurements. Sort of like "rounding to the nearest inch" in the metric world, rounding to module length yields nice, rounded metric numbers. Furthermore, as new materials are being specified and built, hard conversion to modular sizes is encouraged - for example, standard acoustic ceiling tiles are 24" x 48", which soft-converted to about 600 x 1200, though they are really 635 x 1270 millimeters. New "metric" ceiling tiles are actually being manufactured to an exact "hard-converted" 600 x 1200 millimeters. In any case, checking the Metric module rounding checkbox will soft-convert measurements to the nearest module measurement. Note that modules are not used as units, they are just a rounding point in values still specified in meters or, preferably, millimeters.
Finally, the number of digits to the right of the decimal are also specifiable for metric units. Again, International metric usage normally requires no decimals when using millimeters.
Back over on the left side, at the bottom, are three windows for observing how your selections will work in practice. Two measurements, 13.0 inches and 46.59375 inches are converted and formatted according to the currently chosen specifications to display the results. A third box allows the user to enter his/her own value if need be to likewise test the results. The value will be considered to be in inches if english is currently chosen, or in millimeters if metric. Changing the english/metric selection will convert the value appropriately.
One final word. The Punch! PowerTool interface does not allow Dimensions in Detail to set or change the metric/english measurement setting in use in Punch!. If you change the measurement system in Dimensions in Detail, and then exit from PlansPlus, Punch! itself will remain at whatever the setting was when you started PlansPlus. If you intended to set the plan to metric, then it would be best to start by setting that in Punch! and then calling PlansPlus so the settings remain consistent.
Dimensions in Detail and the contents of this help file are
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