Using rectangles for architectural drawing with imperial units

[LudElectrical]

It's been quite a long time since I have done any CAD work...

This summer I need to help my sister rebuild the 3 balconies on her building, for that I'll need to have a set of plans.

So I downloaded a copy of DraftSight and figured I would start making a set of preliminary plans for her approval and in order to get the work approved by the city.

I quickly got stuck on the basics:

A) It is quite easy to create a rectangle of 10 feet by 2 feet (@10,2), but let's say I need to draw a beam that's 12' 1/2" by 8 3/8", how do I enter feet and fractional inches in the rect command line?

And since those plans are preliminary, dimensions will change! So:

B) How do you change to a specific value a dimension of a rectangle once it is created?

Using the beam from the previous example, if it needs now to be 12"1/4 x 8 1/2", how can I do that beside deleting the old one and creating a new one?

Thanks

 

[fmath]

You need to tell draftsight what units you want to use. Go to the Format menu and click on unit system.(it is almost at the end of the list. Once you are in the unit system menu look at the length option and click on "architectural".

As far as converting a rectangle to different dimensions you could use the stretch command or the scale command but with both you are probably going to have to do some math to do what you mentioned. It might be easier to just draw a new rectangle and erase the old one.

If you are going to print this your drawing you are also going to have to go back into the Format menu and deal with those settings but for now you can postpone that till you finish your model.

Good Luck
Rick