Theme

Typing measurements

You can type instead of dragging, nearly everywhere.

• Feet and inches: 12', 8", 12'6", 12' 6 1/2".
• Plain numbers are in whatever units the drawing is in.
• A rectangle takes 12'x8'.
• An angle takes 34.1, or 8:12 for a slope.
• Truss notation. 6-8-15 is six foot eight and fifteen sixteenths. Feet, then inches, then sixteenths - the way a truss drawing writes a length, and the way the component design software the shops run prints it. Every field is a whole number, there is no foot mark, inch mark or slash anywhere in it, and the whole thing goes in from the number pad with the minus key. 0-8-8 is eight and a half inches; that leading nought for the feet is how a truss sheet writes anything under a foot.
• The sixteenths are whatever the drawing is counting in - the ROUNDED TO setting on the SETTINGS menu. A last field at or above that is refused rather than guessed at, because being quietly wrong by a hair on a length somebody cuts metal from is worse than being told.
• It works anywhere a length is wanted: a line, a side of a rectangle, a radius, a push, a move, the fitting wizards, retyping a dimension. For a rectangle it still wants both sides - 6-8-15x4-0-0, or 6-8-15/4-0-0 from the number pad.
• 12-6, with one dash, is twelve foot six - the older, shorter form of the same idea.
• With the circle or arc tool live, a number with an s on it - 24s - sets how many sides or segments it is drawn with. + and - do the same one at a time.
• A slash starts a command instead of a measurement - see commands.

A little arithmetic

Anywhere a length is typed, it can be worked out as it is typed. The answer shows at the end of the typing box as you go - = 8'-8" - and Enter uses it. Space is a space while you type, so a sum can be written with them; Enter is what uses it.

The typing box, at the right of the command bar, colors what you type so it can be read at a glance: the figures in amber, the foot and inch marks in green, the operators of a sum - + -- * / and brackets - in pink, and the x between two sizes in violet. The bar's second line is what the program just said, with names, lengths, commands and keys picked out the same way; right-click the bar to copy it.

Typed	Is	Why
8' + 8"	8'-8"	plus
8'24" + 3'4"	13'-4"	8'24" is ten foot - it always was
10' - 3'4"	6'-8"	a minus with a space either side
6-8-0--2-4-0	4'-4"	two dashes are always a minus - truss on both sides, all from the number pad
6-8-0+2-4-0	9'	truss adds too
8'6"-3"	8'-3"	a dash straight after an inch mark is a minus - a length never goes on past its inches
10'-3'4"	6'-8"	a dash after feet, with feet of its own on the other side, is a minus
8'17" / 2	4'-8 1/2"	a slash is divide - unless it sits between two digits
(8' + 4") * 2	16'-8"	times, and brackets first
3 * 2'6"	7'-6"	a plain number times a length
8' + 2	10'	a plain number in a sum is feet, as a bare number always is

What stays a length and is never a sum:

• 6'-8" and 6' - 8" - six foot eight, the way a dimension is written: feet, a dash, then inches with no foot mark. To take the inches off, give them their feet - 6' - 0'8" - or brackets, 6' - (8").
• 6'-8 - six foot eight as well: no mark after the dash, so no sum.
• 6-8-15 and 12-6 - truss notation, above: no marks at all.
• 6 1/2" and 3/4" - a slash between two digits is a fraction.

So a dash is a minus when it is two dashes (--), when it has a space either side, when it comes straight after an inch mark, or when the other side has feet of its own. Two dashes is the one to remember: truss notation never has two in a row, so -- is a minus whatever is either side of it, and the whole sum goes in from the number pad. A length times a length is an area, not a length, and is refused; so is dividing by nothing.

What it looks like