Komodo Dimensional Drawings

[Jarred Land]

To add to Jarred's response, I should point out that Americans will never go full metric. And quite frankly I am glad of it. Even I use feet and inches to describe things now and then. E.g. car length and width is metres, tyres and wheels are inches. CDs are 12cm, but vinyl records are 12", 10" and 7". Etc, etc.

We still measure stages (as in live theatre) and associated things in feet. That's the basic building block. There's no metric equivalent.

Going the other way, I can never relate to focal length if it's described with inches.

I spend half my day, every day stuck deep in Solidworks designing things.. all in mm but i always "visualize" in inches. I've been in the US for 15 years now and I still have a problem going between mm and inches... but oddly the other way. I come from a Metric country but Inches are just easy for me. If i see 40mm I always convert to inches in my head immediately. Not sure if that is normal.. or if there something is wrong with me. So much so that I actually have a metric/imperial ruler stuck to my keyboard ( it's a sticker ) that is priceless .

 

[Robert Parkin]

I spend half my day, every day stuck deep in Solidworks designing things.. all in mm but i always "visualize" in inches. I've been in the US for 15 years now and I still have a problem going between mm and inches... but oddly the other way. I come from a Metric country but Inches are just easy for me. If i see 40mm I always convert to inches in my head immediately. Not sure if that is normal.. or if there something is wrong with me. So much so that I actually have a metric/imperial ruler stuck to my keyboard ( it's a sticker ) that is priceless .

I relate it to a second language, there are some things that just translate better in another language. Same here, it's somehow inherently easier to visualize something in 3D in inches if you're used to working with imperial and metric, it's like a draft format, then you use metric to nail down exact dimensions for engineering purposes.

 

[David Rasberry]

I relate it to a second language, there are some things that just translate better in another language. Same here, it's somehow inherently easier to visualize something in 3D in inches if you're used to working with imperial and metric, it's like a draft format, then you use metric to nail down exact dimensions for engineering purposes.

An architect friend once outlined for me how imperial scale relates directly to human body dimensions, and is still most useful for things like buildings that deal with human scale measurements. Most adult male human body dimensions are remarkably consistent, but the imperial scale was reportedly taken from King Henry VIII's body dimensions.

1 inch= length of the index finger from tip to first joint. (where the term index finger comes from)
1 foot = length of King Henry's foot
1 cubit= 18" or the length of the arm from tip of the middle finger to the elbow
1 yard = 36" or the length of the arm from tip of middle finger to the shoulder joint.

 

[Kristin Stewart]

It's quite subjective in fact. Inches and feet don't mean anything to me. Meters, kilograms, seconds, etc... are way more meaningful

According to me, if a system is powerful enough, it 's not necessary to go back and forth to another system. People thinking in the metric system never compare to the imperial one (maybe Jarred because he's living in the USA. If he was in Europe he wouldn't even bother ). Whereas the imperial system isn't sufficient by itself : for instance the lens issue I was talking about previously : distant scales in feet and focal length in mm... And in science (I studied physics), imperial units aren't used at all. Maybe when Newton was alive

 

[Robert Parkin]

It's quite subjective in fact. Inches and feet don't mean anything to me. Meters, kilograms, seconds, etc... are way more meaningful

According to me, if a system is powerful enough, it 's not necessary to go back and forth to another system. People thinking in the metric system never compare to the imperial one (maybe Jarred because he's living in the USA. If he was in Europe he wouldn't even bother ). Whereas the imperial system isn't sufficient by itself : for instance the lens issue I was talking about previously : distant scales in feet and focal length in mm... And in science (I studied physics), imperial units aren't used at all. Maybe when Newton was alive

That's my point, imperial doesn't mean anything to you because you don't use both systems. If you ask people who use both systems I think you'll find that lots of people like imperial better for estimations.

 

[Elizabeth Lowrey]

Sorry to momentarily hijack this thread, but trying to get in contact with Mark L. Pederson. Mark, I left you a PM a couple of days ago but aren't sure how conspicuous it is or how often you drop by these parts. Let me know if the PM didn't go through for some reason. And if anyone else has a working email for Mark, I wanted to reach out to him for guidance on an issue with my Hotlink. Thanks, and now back to regularly scheduled posting.

 

[Jordan Dery]

I spend half my day, every day stuck deep in Solidworks designing things.. all in mm but i always "visualize" in inches. I've been in the US for 15 years now and I still have a problem going between mm and inches... but oddly the other way. I come from a Metric country but Inches are just easy for me. If i see 40mm I always convert to inches in my head immediately. Not sure if that is normal.. or if there something is wrong with me. So much so that I actually have a metric/imperial ruler stuck to my keyboard ( it's a sticker ) that is priceless .

Living in Canada (a metric country) I get drawings in either metric or imperial. Usually engineering drawings are in Metric (mm) and yet i can't buy a single piece of material in Canada that is metric. For example, plywood comes in a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet and is either 3/8", 1/2", or 3/4" thick. When I go to buy a screw at home depot it will be in inches. In fact it is almost difficult to find a metric screw at your regular stores, I have a supplier that I use that specializes in just metric screws. Good luck trying to find metric sizes in metal stock as well, I will have a drawing that specs 6mm steel plate and I will have to ask if 1/4" steel plate will work for the application.

Canada is metric, I learned metric when I went to school and yet everyone one knows their weight in pounds and all of our material is imperial. That being said I totally get what Jarred means when he says he visualizes in inches. I am exactly the same, you can say something is an inch and I will have an idea in my head as to what that dimension is, yet if you told me it was 20mm i'd have no clue.

 

[andrewhake]

I spend half my day, every day stuck deep in Solidworks designing things.. all in mm but i always "visualize" in inches. I've been in the US for 15 years now and I still have a problem going between mm and inches... but oddly the other way. I come from a Metric country but Inches are just easy for me. If i see 40mm I always convert to inches in my head immediately. Not sure if that is normal.. or if there something is wrong with me. So much so that I actually have a metric/imperial ruler stuck to my keyboard ( it's a sticker ) that is priceless .

You should have it laser engraved.

 

[Phil Holland]

The strange one for me was growing up with a father who was a woodworking in the US and getting involved in the motion picture industry in my teenage years going from imperial to metric back and forth constantly.

At the VFX studio, metric was king.

Seemingly on set anything smaller than 3 feet was metric. More often than not, smaller than 1 foot.

Imperial markings on the lenses of course.

Then there was the disconnect of camera and VFX unit communicating in spatially divided ways.

We should have all gone metric though. This is from an American. But there's something nice about the inch and foot weirdly.

 

[Gregory Karydis]

I spend half my day, every day stuck deep in Solidworks designing things.. all in mm but i always "visualize" in inches. I've been in the US for 15 years now and I still have a problem going between mm and inches... but oddly the other way. I come from a Metric country but Inches are just easy for me. If i see 40mm I always convert to inches in my head immediately. Not sure if that is normal.. or if there something is wrong with me. So much so that I actually have a metric/imperial ruler stuck to my keyboard ( it's a sticker ) that is priceless .

I'm on the same boat...
So I set out to make this:

Still in the prototyping phase

The idea is to make it scrollable.

 

[Eric Lange]

@Jarred Thanks so much for posting drawings always helpful !

In the USA and machining it's mostly 'tenths" and somehow 40 millionths (of an inch 0.00004" ) in the USA still has more meaning than 1 micron … 0.001 mm

Thankfully seems most people stick to nano meters in the semiconductor world (wherever they are).

I started out metric* but as I write this I have three different tape measures and rulers of various sizes always next to whatever computer I'm using.

Even Rulers have the inches and cms going in opposite directions ???

So your (@Jarred) parallel scales have thwarted 350 years of "ruler" design.

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* I hate it when machine tools and CAD /CAM systems force you to make a single metric versus "English" system choice before you "start" (or in some cases even before you buy), mixed units can be a real PITA (even in Solidworks) And of course the "English" gave up the "Imperial system" for the metric system sometime around 1974 ??? And yet nominal stock sizes (in the UK) are still in inches (Shrugging shoulders). Do Germans buy all their lumber in mm sizes ?

 

[Jarred Land]

I'm on the same boat...
So I set out to make this:

Still in the prototyping phase

The idea is to make it scrollable.

I love this so much..

 

[Gregory Karydis]

I love this so much..

You'll get a copy soon as it's stable enough
Want to make the graphics prettier and maybe not crash my MacBook every few times I use the shortcut...
For now, here's another teaser https://f.io/wb9YdeAM

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

Even Rulers have the inches and cms going in opposite directions ???

That's to prevent you from cheating. ;-)

For now, here's another teaser https://f.io/wb9YdeAM

Are you going to let it go indefinitely, or cap it at 12"? Looks rad.

 

[Gregory Karydis]

That's to prevent you from cheating. ;-)

My cheat for that was to get two and stick the opposite ends together.
Until at some point, magically, they started making one that had them both going in the same direction.

Are you going to let it go indefinitely, or cap it at 12"? Looks rad.

I am working on two versions. For now, the infinite ruler crashes infinite times more often! Couldn't even get it to work for the video.
So I might just cap it at some point and call it a day.

 

[Robert Parkin]

Being able to print off a copy to see the physical size in your hands is really cool, made possible by Carlos R. Dueñas who posted a 3D model on the Komodo facebook page.

 

[Mestizo Devon]

Looks like a little over half the size, nice! OTH what's that mini nato rail, I have never seen a low profile one like that???

 

[Robert Parkin]

Hey Mestizo, it's a smallrig low profile nato, they're really handy!