redfish,
There are multiple ways to interpret your request, but I
think I know what you want. I don't have a copy of Apex v4 (aka "Medina") - the closest I have on my machine is v5, but I
believe what I am writing also applies to v4.
Bear with me on this - going through this should help you understand what is going on. The SF calcs are not getting rounded - only what is being posted on the screen for the drawing are. This is done for consistency with the Area Breakdown section so "Reviewer" types aren't confused ;-)
As you know, you can enter in most any fraction - i.e. 12' 6 3/32" is a valid entry - and what shows on the screen is rounded to your configuration settings. But the calculation is actually done on the full number.
If I draw a square using that dimension, I would enter:
12 ' 6" 3/32 [Right Arrow]
12 ' 6" 3/32 [Down Arrow]
12 ' 6" 3/32 [Left Arrow]
[A] for auto-close
If my decimal precision was set to 1 (for x.x), each dimension posted would show as 12.5 but the calculation would be 156.4 SF.
If I draw another box using 12.5
, 12.5 [Down], 12.5
, [A], the calculation properly shows 156.3 SF
If I had set my decimal precision to, say, 3 (for thousandths) then the posted dimensions would be 12.508' for the first one but still be 12.500' for the second one.
(See first image below)
In the version you have (Av4?) there is no setting to allow you to post architectural (feet and inches) as you draw, but you can select an individual line, right click on it and choose "feet and inches" from the "dimension type" fly-out menu. If you are doing whole Areas vs. individual lines, you can click inside an Area to select it, then right click on any one of the Area lines and do the same thing so that all dimensions for that Area are shown in a sort of hybrid "decimal feet-inches" format. In the second image below, I selected the box on the right (12.5' x 12.5') and changed them all from Engineering (decimal feet) to Architectural (feet and inches.) On the one on the left, I show being in-progress changing an individual line, having previously changed the others. The others are styled differently because I used different precision settings. I think the one you will most likely want to use is 1 decimal place like the one above the fly-out - it reads: 12' 6.1"
So, I think the easiest thing for you to so is draw like normal, then select the Area, right click on a line and select dimension type > feet & inches, leaving things at 1 decimal place.
Hope this helps! If you need help, feel free to call Brian Marino in Tech Support tomorrow and he can walk you through it. Oh, FWIW, in later versions (especially v6), it is easier, but there was hardly every any real call for posting feet & inches for most users, so it was never a high priority to tweak this item since the actual SF calculations are correct with or without the rounded dimensions (the actual lines, thus the math, were taken out a few decimal points anyway.)
-Randall Garrett-
..Apex Software..
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