Display units
Inches display for projects in US Survey and International Feet
For projects that are in units of US Survey or International feet, you can display and enter distance value in units of inches. This functionality provides the ability to see all displayed values in feet and inches and also to enter values in inches. Two unit formats are available: decimal inches and fractional inches. These options are selected via a Settings menu option for Display Units. This setting option is only available for projects that are in US Survey or International feet. When either inch option is selected, all values within the software are displayed in inches, including: northing, easting, elevations, offsets, stationing, rod heights, COGO distances, staking distances, GNSS tolerances, and cut/fill values.
The format of the two unit settings are as follows:
|
Decimal Feet |
Decimal inches |
Fractional Inches |
|---|---|---|
|
5.220 |
5’ 2.64” |
5’ 2-5/8” |
Values can be input in inches regardless of the display setting. So even if your display setting is in decimal feet, you can still enter a value in fractional or decimal inches, and vice versa. To enter values in decimal inches, the software detects and uses the <space> as the foot and inch separator. It is not necessary to enter the single or double quote. For example, entering 5 2.64 (five space two point six four) equates to 5’ 2.64” (five feet two point six four inches).
To enter fractional inches the <space> again serves as the foot-inch separator, a <dash> or minus sign serves as the whole-fractional inch separator, and a <forward slash> serves as the fractional separator. For example, entering 5 2-5/8 (five space two dash five forward slash eight) equates to 5’ 2-5/8” (five feet two and five eigths inches). You can enter metric values on a project in feet by using an “m” at the end of the value entered for meters. For example, you still can enter 2m for a two meter rod height.
When using fractional inches there is a tolerance option that sets the rounding of the displayed values. The tolerances can be set at 1/16”, 1/8”, 1/4”, and 1/2” whereby the software rounds the displayed value to the nearest fraction based on the selected tolerance. The tolerance is for display purposes only, except as noted below. The software still records all measurements within the work order’s SPJ file at full decimal foot precision and those values are not rounded to the nearest fractional inch when recorded.
However, values recorded in the task log (e.g., COGO calculations, rod heights, stakeout reports) are recorded according to the current unit display setting. For example, if you stake a point while in decimal feet, the values are displayed on screen and recorded in decimal feet, then if you change to fractional inches and stake a different point, those values are displayed and stored in the task log as fractional inches based on the current tolerance value. Therefore, changing the unit display setting in a work order may result in recorded task log values that have different units. The Record.txt file and Report utility still are in units of decimal feet and are not affected by the inches unit setting. There are also no changes in the Trimble Business Center software due to the inches setting when importing the work order data.
