salf Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Yep...thats right I hate it!....how can you people work with all those fractions and weird measurements....... It used to be so easy in metric system, creating a line in autocad was just typing 1.5 and thats it.......now you have to type something like 23'-4/16" or something weird llike that! Hhehehee....yep, its a rant, needed to vent, the thing is I moved to the US from Venezuela, and just started my first work here, so this firsts days Ive been lost with Acad and Max and the new different system. ANyone out there went through this so can give me some advise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
znotlin Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 yeah, it is a pain, but the only thing worse is the metric system. Can't divide by 3 evenly, have to type in all those zeroes if you use millimeters, and keep your decimal places straight. Somehow thinking of buildings using the wavelength of tungsten (?) light (or a percentage of the circumference of the earth) as opposed to human body derived units doesn't speak too loudly about the human scale of the building - but I guess that's pretty much Napolean. It is a great system for laboratories, or shipping crates, but for architecture it's crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 I agree, the Imperial system is great for architecture because the units are at human scale. Metric is easy for math but it's got no soul. With the metric system you couldn't have had Frank Lloyd Wright or James Brown. I'm glad we Americans are stubborn and believe everything is a communist conspiracy, which has kept us from seriously considering switching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 ....now you have to type something like 23'-4/16" or something weird llike that! Ahem, actually thats 23'-1/4" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawyer Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Ahem, actually thats 23'-1/4" which is 23'0.25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zdravko Barisic Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 I agree, the Imperial system is great for architecture because the units are at human scale. Metric is easy for math but it's got no soul. With the metric system you couldn't have had Frank Lloyd Wright or James Brown. I'm glad we Americans are stubborn and believe everything is a communist conspiracy, which has kept us from seriously considering switching. Maybe, but without metric you wouldn't have MisVanDeRohe or Le Corbisie? Or Brunelesci or Michelangello? TOPIC: I must ask you who work with imperial units, do you have some shortcuts for ' + " or type it manually? I agree that inch, foot and yard are more to human being, but typing all those '+'' is a nightmare! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabkal Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 well I switcched from the metric system to feet and inches in 2001 when I landed in the US, the first job was a little bit more work but it got easier and easier, and now I moved back to the Middle East and I am still using feet and inches, whenver I get a job with the metric system, I scale it to imperial. I got so used to it I can't go back. it works great and moving stuff in 3ds max is much more accurate if you are using feet and inches becuase of max's internal unit system. inside max, an imperial model is 40 times bigger than a metric model. max's snapping tools and moving stuff within the invisible unadjustable 3d grid in max (yes there is one) is more precise with bigger stuff. ever imported something smaller than a millimeter? if you use the imperial system, max sees 1 mm as 4 cm. get it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 hehe, there's no 'better' about it, it's down to your upbringing. i bet the amount of Europeans who'd argee the imperial system is superior can be counted on the fingers on one hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyElNino Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Surely architecture is about the language of ratio and the relationships between the building components. Which measurement system is utilised has very little impact. I'm sure all can agree that great buildings have been created in both systems... (Metric is better though)...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasterZap Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 hehe, there's no 'better' about it, it's down to your upbringing. i bet the amount of Europeans who'd argee the imperial system is superior can be counted on the fingers on one hand. Actually, there are no sane people who preffer Imperial. /Z Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneis Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 ...we Americans are stubborn and believe everything is a communist conspiracy, which has kept us from seriously considering switching. Or perhaps a little indecisive? I'll site the world-famous "US-Keyboard" layout which allows for a decimal place key on the numeric keypad, yet no ' or ". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest STU_P Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 When i first started work the boss was an old bloke who was a brilliant 'old school' engineer except for when he went out to do a site survey and he'd come back with a measurement of 24 feet,200mm and 6 inches! the poor fellow just didn't have a clue. Metric all the way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Ahem, actually thats 23'-1/4" Or as-built 22'11 3/4" - 23'0 3/4", or as-built on a Friday after lunch 20' and in the wrong place. Let's not forget angles in degree/minute/second those are fun, too. A recent news item about some babies in a LA hospital getting a medication dose that was exactly 100x what it should have been points to the problem with an all-too-easy metric system--all measurements look the same. Its pretty hard to mix up feet, inches and miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 I saw "Red Dawn" a while back and you guys are giving me excellent material for my new commie list. well I switcched from the metric system to feet and inches in 2001 when I landed in the US, the first job was a little bit more work but it got easier and easier, and now I moved back to the Middle East and I am still using feet and inches, whenver I get a job with the metric system, I scale it to imperial. I got so used to it I can't go back. it works great and moving stuff in 3ds max is much more accurate if you are using feet and inches becuase of max's internal unit system. inside max, an imperial model is 40 times bigger than a metric model. max's snapping tools and moving stuff within the invisible unadjustable 3d grid in max (yes there is one) is more precise with bigger stuff. ever imported something smaller than a millimeter? if you use the imperial system, max sees 1 mm as 4 cm. get it? Not a commie. hehe, there's no 'better' about it, it's down to your upbringing. i bet the amount of Europeans who'd argee the imperial system is superior can be counted on the fingers on one hand. Commie sympathizer. ... (Metric is better though)...! Commie. Actually, there are no sane people who preffer Imperial. /Z Head commie. Excuse me while I prepare my office defenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 you guys are giving me excellent material for my new commie list. babies in a LA hospital getting a medication dose that was exactly 100x what it should have been "Using the metric system kills our babies"--patriot! (But not a New England Patriot). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 /me checks for webbed feet..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest STU_P Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 /me checks for webbed feet..... and six fingers on each hand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neko Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 A recent news item about some babies in a LA hospital getting a medication dose that was exactly 100x what it should have been points to the problem with an all-too-easy metric system--all measurements look the same. Its pretty hard to mix up feet, inches and miles. don't forget the movie 'spinal tap' where they built the replica stonehenge at 12" instead of 12' because they wrote it down wrong on a napkin......i always teach my students to include the 0" (12'-0") great thread...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 I'm surprised this argument hasn't come up. "All building materials are in feet and inches so the imperial system is better." Thats what I get around here. When it comes to drawing I'm ambidextrous, but no matter how hard I try I can't figure out Farhenhiet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunDon Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Come on guys, this is the same as the PC vs. Mac argument. Not that it isn't fun. ;-) I think I was lucky to start my drafting career at age 15 in a millwork manufacturing company. All our architectural plans were received in imperial, and all our CNC cutting machines worked in millimeters. I had to get very good at both systems, and honestly I like them equally for very different reasons, many of which have already been listed here. You like what you're used to, plain and simple, and you find reasons to rationalize why what you're used to is better than what other people are used to, because it sucks to suck at something. And fractions are hard, they're the reason I hated the 2nd grade, but now I use them every day and have their decimal conversions commited to memory. Now Celcius I'm still trying to get used to... the weather man on the TV has always told me the temperature in Fahrenheit. Let's go lynch him! Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 In Canada we've been totally screwed up by the US. We tried tried to adopt metric lumber, but because we export the vaste majority of our lumber we could not make it ecomomically feasible. (Maybe that will change now that our lumber industry is going bankrupt due to the US/CDN dollar parity). Anyway, our whole system is a mix. Site plans are in metric, floor plans are in imperial, residential contruction is imperial, while commercial construction is metric. Speed and distance are in km/h, cooking utensils show both metric and imperial, food in the grocery store has a price for both lbs and kgs, fuel is measured in Liters. People weigh themselves in lbs and their height in inches. Anyway, I hate imperial. When I built my yard, deck, etc. I measured everything I could in cm and mm. Imperial is backwarks. Who on earth thought base 12 was a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neko Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 In Canada we've been totally screwed up by the US. We tried tried to adopt metric lumber, but because we export the vaste majority of our lumber we could not make it ecomomically feasible. (Maybe that will change now that our lumber industry is going bankrupt due to the US/CDN dollar parity). Anyway, our whole system is a mix. Site plans are in metric, floor plans are in imperial, residential contruction is imperial, while commercial construction is metric. Speed and distance are in km/h, cooking utensils show both metric and imperial, food in the grocery store has a price for both lbs and kgs, fuel is measured in Liters. People weigh themselves in lbs and their height in inches. Anyway, I hate imperial. When I built my yard, deck, etc. I measured everything I could in cm and mm. Imperial is backwarks. Who on earth thought base 12 was a good idea. ...and don't forget that all government projects have to be in metric. yup, canada is uniquely screwed up between imperial and metric......you have to know both ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Imperial is backwarks. Who on earth thought base 12 was a good idea. The English thought up the English system (aka Imperial (English=Imperial, that's easy to remember)). The two measuring systems are actually: base 10/12/^2 fractions (foot/inch/remainder), until you get to miles which are 5,280 feet, or nautical miles which are something else. Base 12/60/60 (angle/minute/second) That shouldn't be so hard--it like a clock. But doing division on one of those measurements will turn your brain to jelly. So why does the rest of the world not use a metric clock? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 A nautical mile is 6000 feet. AKA a "kilofathom", for the metric crowd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neko Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 i can't believe that no one bit on my stonehenge reference from 'spinal tap' for all those too young to know what i'm talking about.... http://youtube.com/watch?v=WXGbwIkvh38&feature=related Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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