Add comma to drawing dimension - 10,000 instead of 10000

[pnyro]

I'm hoping someone can help me toggle between the American and Canadian numbering standards. I want the dimensions in a drawing to have a comma to divide up the number, ie. 10,000 mm instead of 10000mm. I can't seem to find this under Options > Dimensions, where I thought it would be. Thanks.

 

[ctopher]

"Use system separator for dimensions"

http://help.solidworks.com/2010/eng...NERAL.htm?id=49f3a090e5ea4b8aa3065d99bf8943c0

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[pnyro]

Hey Chris,

Thanks for your response.

The "system separator for dimensions" only seems to apply to the decimal separator. If I uncheck the box I can change the decimal from a '.' to a ','. However I was hoping to put the ',' to separate 10 from the 000 in ten thousand. I've also checked my regional setting on my computer and it says numbers should be separated by commas. Do you know if there is a regional setting in SolidWorks, that seems to be the only other place that could cause a problem.

Caleb

 

[KirbyWan]

I think this is difficult to do because it's considered bad practice. Europe (and I guess Canada) uses a comma to seperate the factions from the whole numbers where a period is used in the US.

-Kirby

Kirby Wilkerson

Remember, first define the problem, then solve it.

 

[ctopher]

Metric uses commas, inches do not. It's not specific to certain countries.

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Chris,

The OP is not talking about the thousands separator, not the decimal point separator.

Ten Billion vs 10000000 vs 10,000,000,000
Ten Thousand vs 10000 vs 10,000
Ten vs 10 vs 10.000 vs 10,000 (the latter 2 being shown to 3 decimal places)

The commas make the larger numbers much easier to read. Confusioon can arise when dealing with the smaller numbers.
eg. 10,000 (ten thousand) could be mistaken for 10.000 (ten to 3 decimal places) in some regions.

 

[ctopher]

Isn't that the same setting in "Use system separator for dimensions"?
It can be changed to "." "," or no separator.

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

No, that only affects the decimal point style.

 

[MechEng2005]

I agree that a comma should only appear in separating whole number from fractional component (where/when). It would be nice if SW had the option of perhaps putting a space between every 3 digits though, so ten million and one-half would be:
10 000 000.500 000
Easier to read and no creating confusion.

-- Me chE ng2 005

 

[KENAT]

"Metric uses commas, inches do not. It's not specific to certain countries. "

Sorry Chris, that's not the entire story. Continental Europe tends to use commas for decimal places, regardless of units/application. The US & UK use 'dots/periods'.

This is why in 'scientific' circles I'm pretty sure the idea of having a comma or any other indicator every 3 places is out of favor.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[KirbyWan]

I agree with Kenat and MechEng2005. I like having a separator every three spaces where needed for ease of reading, but a comma is right out. If SW could add a space if desired I think that would be a nice addition (heck give us the ability to put a comma there, who says we should be prevented from bad design). In the US we _always_ use a period to seperate the fractional component from the whole numbers regardless of units. If I see a comma and no period in a number I can usualy decide what is meant from context.

-Kirby

Kirby Wilkerson

Remember, first define the problem, then solve it.

 

[dogarila]

For your information, Canada uses point (".") as decimal fraction separator, regardless of units. For example: $14.99.

 

[kellnerp]

Metric uses commas, inches do not. It's not specific to certain countries.

Since when. Continentals use the comma where the English speaking countries use a period. I have never seen the comma mandated for metric numbers.

To answer the OP's question, it is possible to remove the <DIM> variable from the dimension name and insert the text 10,000. This is of course very bad practice because the number will not necessarily reflect the actual model dimension.

TOP
CSWP, BSSE

http://www.engtran.com

http://www.niswug.org

"Node news is good news."

 

[ctopher]

Found this online:

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/faq.html#decimal

http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/checklist.html

Working with military contracts (US and Europe) in the past, we have been always mandated to use commas in metric, periods in SI units.
Working within current US and Canada companies, I have seen both.

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[Nicole6022]

There is always the option of over-riding your dimension, and manually putting in the number with the comma yourself (not really the best practice, but will give you your end result).

 

[pnyro]

I just manually over-rode the dimension for now. I think I will just encourage the person who is asking for commas to use different units or not have the comma next time. We are a Canadain company I think we can stick with the accepted Canadian rules for numbers. Thanks for the help!