What's with the tenth of a foot...?

[robertwells]

Measure to the inch if you want to. Then, when you are drawing your sketch, you will either need to convert.. or enter as feet and inches. If you measure to the nearest tenth, then all you do is type 20.4, or whatever, into your sketch software. Either way is ANSI compliant... but one is a little bit less work.

Good Point

 

[robertwells]

Also, does everyone realize a tenth of a foot is GREATER than an inch?

Hence my question about precision of offering the choice (inch vs. 1/10th foot)

 

[robertwells]

To calculate the area/enter into a sketch program you would have to convert it to a decimal anyway. Used to drive me crazy doing my own sketch from blue prints and having to convert every dimension into tenths.

I did find out today that my software can do inches utilizing the tab key for keyboard entry...

 

[TerryRohrer]

Surveyors use hundredth of a foot...unless some reason not to. Surveying with a Plane Table and alidade is rarely more precise than to the foot or tenth. Surveying wit a theodolite might be hundreds of a foot...BUT they always have a closure error unless extremely lucky. They may survey a line, then back survey as a check of accuracy. Architects use fractional inches here. When I was a tech draftsman (back in the old LeRoi Lettering days) plans were rarely more precise than a quarter inch, but landscape plans rarely were more precise than an inch, sometimes simply a foot. Laying out waterlines and sewer, again we used a foot when estimating the cubic yard of material necessary to dig footings etc. I saw a surveyor get busted to instrument man and a rod man get fired (for no reason) when the supervisor set the surveyors on the wrong stake - The engineer for the project discovered the error, he went berserk. Type A - like so many engineers. Died a few years later having a stroke at 40 some years age.

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Land surveyors pride themselves on their measurements. After all, what would be the purpose of commissioning a land survey if the bearings, distances, and areas on the map were not correct? But the simple fact is that no measurement is perfect. So the real question is not “is the survey accurate?” – but instead “how much error is contained in each measurement?” As any good lawyer would respond: it depends!​

My dad was a civil engineer and registered land surveyor, and we used to run the rod for him when growing up. I remember once being sent several miles away in search of a corner that hadn't been identified in years. He set up on the nearest known point with a theodolite and distance meter (new tech at the time) and kept me moving over the radio until the distance and angle were right. I was on an old pile of rocks...an encouraging sign. We marked the spot and began carefully digging through the rock pile til we found the one marked with the appropriate markings, about a foot from my rod.

He showed me the notes from the original surveyors from the late 1800s. They used rods (16.5 feet, 25 links) and chains (66 feet, 100 links) [5,280 feet in a mile is 320 rods or 80 chains], adjusted for the impact of temperature on its length, and stepped down steep sidehills in increments that allowed the chain to remain level to ensure they were only measuring horizontal distance. As with appraisers and modern surveyors, some cared and were extremely accurate and some were just collecting a paycheck. All such records are signed, so those that follow learn who to avoid,or at least charge more to follow. It seems it is easier these days!

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Measure to the inch if you want to.

I never knew anyone measuring to the inch. We all had tape measures that read out in tenths on one side. Laser always a choice in the menu.

y we should have for 35 years using a metric tape measure,

The conversion itself provides no uniform measurement. The Brits still talk in Km and miles. They still talk of 'stone' and 'fortnight' - yet have been "metric" for years.

So a barrel of oil will be 0.158987 cubic meters or 158.987 liters. A fifth of whiskey will be 0.757082 liters. 40 acres will be 16.59 hectares - All those legal descriptions still bearing rods and chains will be completely gunched up.

 

[chad hampton]

Anyone measuring to 1/10 of a foot is wrong. But this is what we get when we have a system that lets people that haven't appraised a home since clinton was president make the rules.

A lesson is significant digits would be helpful. I'm still waiting for guideance on which wall we are supposed to lie about when it's time to square the house up. I'm going with the right side wall on my sketches.

 

[Overimprovement]

Anyone measuring to 1/10 of a foot is wrong.

Why? What do you measure to?

 

[Dublin ohio]

To calculate the area/enter into a sketch program you would have to convert it to a decimal anyway

Not mine and not most. You can generally change it from decimal to inches.

Used to drive me crazy doing my own sketch from blue prints

Which is why the fetish some people have with tenths is strange. At least to me. Maybe it is because I have a construction background and have never seen a set of prints in tenths.

 

[Tim Hicks (Texas)]

Every fiberglass tape measure I have bought in 30+ years had to tenth of an inch measurements. Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, it did not matter, they were all 100 foot to the tenth of an inch.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

have never seen a set of prints in tenths.

Ever see a survey that wasn't?