Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations waross on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Dimensioning - Fractional Precision Defaults

Status
Not open for further replies.

DesignJunkie

Aerospace
Feb 24, 2010
21
Hello,

I did some quick keyword searching and couldn't find what I was looking for, so I'll ask the forum. In the drafting environment, when I'm converting a three-place decimal to a fractional dimension, the fractional precision defaults to 1/16. So if I convert .157 to a fraction, it comes in as 3/16. I then have to manually select this dimension and change the fractional precision to 1/64. Does anybody know how to change this default so that it is always set to 1/64?

Thanks!
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

If you change the preference in the customer defaults, it will change the default value for any new files you create (settings take effect when you restart NX).

To change the setting in an existing file, use "Preferences -> Annotation". This will affect any dimensions you add to a file that was created with the old customer default setting.
 
Thanks cowski,

I tried changing the customer defaults as you suggested, but didn't have any luck. Attached is a picture of the prerference that I changed. I restarted NX and created a new file to try out the changes. Still get fractional dimensions with a precision of 1/16.

The second method I was unable to try - I scoured the Preferences>annotation menu but could not find anyplace to change the fractional precision.

I don't suppose anybody has any other ideas? I'm using NX6 if that makes any difference.

Thanks!
 
 http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=da1e4272-5c6f-4325-bc12-f81c09576832&file=Annotation_Preferences.JPG
Looking at your picture, i could think of one thing else, there is a hierarchy in customer defaults. Site goes above Groep goes above User. So if this annotation preference is locked at site level it will always use this customer default instead of the User customer default.

Second : if you use a template for your drawings, look at the templates preferences. Change it there and save the template could also solve the probem. Will only affect new parts because old ones are saved with old template.

Best regards,

Michäël.

NX4+TC9 / NX6+TC8Unified / NX7.5 native

 
MickyV007 is right, I forgot about templates. If you are using a template part for your drawings you will have to change the preferences there too.

To find the setting in "Preferences -> Annotation" first go to the Units tab and change the "linear format" to your preferred fractional display then go to the "Dimensions" tab and change the fraction in the 'precision and tolerance' section (default is 1/16).
 
What confuses people is that there are what we call the 'Scope' of a setting in Customer Defaults. The two 'Scopes' are 'Part' and 'Session'. Part defaults are ones which are inherited the first time a part is created from scratch by the system (generally this only happens when you select the 'Blank' option when using 'File New'). Now many of these setting can be overridden by going into the appropraite 'Preferences' dialog, changing some setting and saving the part file. Going back and changing a Customer Default setting with a Scope of 'Part' will have NO effect whatsoever on any existing part files, be it a template or a legacy part file.

Now in the case of a 'Session' setting, these will apply even if you're using an existing templete file or even a legacy file, as your current 'session' will behave based on whatever was the last changes you made to Customer Default settings which have a Scope of 'Session'.

Now the best way to see for example which settings are 'Part' and which are 'Session', is to select the 'Find Default' icon (the one that shows a pair of binoculars in the upper right corner of the Customer Defaults dialog. So for example, lets say you wish to see what 'Drafting' defaults are Part or Session. Select the 'Find Defaults' icon, and enter the word Drafting and a list will come up showing ALL of the Customer Defaults which in anyway impacts Drafting and if you scroll all the way to the Right you will find the column labeled 'Scope' and there, for each setting item, you will see whether this is Part specific or Session specific (note that you can click on the column heading which will resort the list based on this column which might make it easier to see which are Part and which are Session settings.

Anyway, I hope this clarifies how this all works.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor