How to change a model's dimensions from 1/32" to 1/16"?

Hello and good day,

I have been making measurements for a dream house project, and I was thinking that using 1/32" would be more accurate, but I came to realize that it was causing more issues than not, and so I switched to using 1/16".

I know how to switch it (by going to Window->Model Info->Units), but that doesn’t help with my existing measurements for some of the walls and such in my model, because then it shows some measurements as being ~1 1/16" (which may have been either 1 1/32" or 1 3/32" originally back when using the 1/32" units) rather than just a true 1 1/16".

I know I can manually go in and redo all those measurements, but I’m wondering if there is a faster way to fix any ~#" and easily round them off or adjust them so that they will be true measurements without the squiggle?

If there isn’t an easy way, if I do have to do them manually, is it generally better to round a 1/32" back or forward from a measurement (for example, if I have a 6 7/32" thick wall, would it be better to round it to 6 6/32" (aka 6 3/16") or round it to 6 8/32" (aka 6 1/4" aka 6 4/16")?

Thank you for any help and your time!

If all of your dimensions were out by te same proportions you could use Scale. I expect that’s probably not the case so fixing things will be more work. The exact fix depends on how you did the modeling. Probably a combination of the Move tool and Push/Pull. It’s entirely possible that starting over would be the easy route.

Keep in mind that what you are setting in Model Info>Units is only Display Precision. It doesn’t affect the actual precision of your model. If you haven’t done so, turn off Length snapping. It is the most common reason for seeing the ~ in your dimensions.

That depends on which way it’s out. I expect you’ll find some are out wone way while others are out the other way.

If you try to do it over, try thinking in 1/4" accuracy for your design, while using as accurate modeling as needed for members. For example engineered wood may have 1/8" dimensions, but the floor to floor would be designed at 1/4" increments if not to 1". If we showed 1/8" and 1/16" framing dimensions all over, the builders would laugh at us, and we’d be driving ourselves nuts.

In details and construction work you may need to be more specific. For example we just spent hours designating cut stone sizes-- some to 1/32" for a stone order, but this was after having as-built measurement and needing the pavers to do specific things over large areas. The stone will be machined “close” to these dimensions–but rough carpentry wouldn’t be. (If the stone were not custom cut, we wouldn’t bother. This isn’t common.)

If I have a wall that’s let’s say 10’ 6 5/8", is it generally more common to round that to 10’ 6 1/2" or 10’ 6 3/4" (if I’m measuring with 1/4" increments)?

If you’re measuring an existing wall, 5/8" could make sense (however I bet that’s not the same along the whole wall). If you are just trying to adjust your plan for a new work, I’d use 1/2". No rule about it. Work it into the overall dimension of the house. It depends on where the wall is. For example in the bathroom there could be fixture dimensions to take into account.

A question when doing a model of walls: Are you drawing wall width to the finish or just studs? Both? Using actual stud width? It has to do with your approach. I personally don’t make floor plans to the finish, but I sometimes do models and detail plans with all dimensional materials. I’ll be working on models and plans like that today–its the only way to work it all out in this instance.

I come from the hand-drawn tradition, but now with computer models and BIM, people include much more in a model, and often in plans, though the written dimension you show in the plan may be mostly the framing dimension . To me the model makes little difference in how I present a drawing. My floor plans are similar to 30 years ago and it works fine for everyone. Details help with the rest.

@DaveR has already mentioned it but I wanted to point it out with an example.
Changing the display settings in units to something less refined can lead to errors that can accumulate and cause confusion or doubt about the accuracy of your model.
You can see in this gif that as I change the display precision the dimensions alter to accurately reflect the new settings until it gets to a point that is below what you are letting it display. And note that even though neither dimension is actually 1/2 inch there is no tilde (squiggly line).
Display
So personally I model with the highest precision setting so that I know my measurements are accurate, but change the setting for output or in layout so the printed dimensions are at the required level for a nine fingered carpenter.

2 Likes

Usually, it’s not a whole finger, but (multiple) phalanges of a few fingers. If lucky, it can be healed (transport them in your mouth), but the nerves are always difficult to regain full workings.
That’s why I always set precision low, so at least I still get to say I have ~10…

My index finger ran tangentially through the blade and if I didn’t stop, theoretically, I could have had ~11 fingers.

1 Like

As shown in Box’s answer, it is possible to set the precision for fractional inches even for area and volume units.

IMHO this is not realistic. Usually, areas and volumes are given in decimal, unless I made a mistake in writing this.