How do I work in dual units natively?

david_56

I model in dual units constantly (imperial hardware & material inventory in the US) with optical  and other components designed metric.  In SW (or ProE) I just type in the number followed by the units if they aren't my native units.  As near as I can tell, I can't enter metric dims on the fly while I'm working in an English model.  I also can't display dual dims while modeling.  Is this available?

lana

It is possible. You can explicitly enter whatever units you want to use, can even mix them in expressions : 3*2in + 2mm. The dimension will be showing in document units, but when you click to edit the value, you'll se the original expression.
Please file an issue if this does not work for you.

andrew_troup

I don't believe it is possible to display dual units simultaneously at present while modelling in Onshape.

lana

It is possible. You can explicitly enter whatever units you want to use, can even mix them in expressions : 3*2in + 2mm. The dimension will be showing in document units, but when you click to edit the value, you'll se the original expression.
Please file an issue if this does not work for you.

andrew_troup

I don't believe it is possible to display dual units simultaneously at present while modelling in Onshape.

david_56

Iana, wow, I tried just putting in 100mm yesterday (in an english model) and the field turned red (?).  Maybe it was a typo on my part.  I'll give it a try again.  From your reply it looks like it works and I just did something wrong.  Thanks!

david_56

Andrew, thanks for the answer.  I'm just starting out with OnShape so I went looking for a hole wizard next on a part I was trying and "surprise" no hole wizard.  I guess there's a few reasons this is still the Beta version.  Oh well, I sent in my check for my SW maintenance for the next year ...  I'll keep on eye on this program though and I'm scheduled for some of the seminars.  Thanks.

john_f_carr

david_56 said:

Iana, wow, I tried just putting in 100mm yesterday (in an english model) and the field turned red (?).  Maybe it was a typo on my part.  I'll give it a try again.  From your reply it looks like it works and I just did something wrong.  Thanks!

"100 mm" should be syntactically valid anywhere a length is requested.  It could be invalid in context.

If you type a value that is out of range for the operation type, like a 500 meter blind extrude, you will see the correct range if you hover over the red box.