Fractional Feet-Inch Rounding of Visio Architectural Dimension Line Shapes

[lakeguy]

I'm sure there is something basic I am missing here.  I am using the Dimensioning - Architectural shapes to do a plot plan.  For example, if I use the "Horizontal Baseline" shape, even when the shape length is listed as 50 feet in the Size taskpane, the length displayed on the plan will be "49' 11 15/16" (more frustrating, it doesn't happen all the time).

Ignoring for the moment why it isn't just displaying 50' on the plan, it there a way to change/select the resolution of the length displayed?  I've tried editing the shape but haven't hit the magic step yet.  Ideally I'd like it to display only feet and inches as whole numbers (no fractions).

Any help appreciated.

[wapperdude]

Appears to be a rounding error           in the Size and Position window length function vs actual start / stop coordinates. 

You're not missing anything.

Wapperdude

[Visio Guy]

The dimension shapes can be tweaked. They have Units & Precision settings in the right-click menu, which unfortunately mostly focus on the number of decimal places.

However, if you aren't afraid to open the ShapeSheet for a dimension line (Window > Show ShapeSheet), you'll find a cell called User.InchPrec which is used for fractional feet-inch display.

It is set to 16, meaning show up to sixteenths of an inch. You could change it to 32 for finer precision, or 1 to always round to the nearest inch. This may help you.

My question is if the dimensioning text is off, or the actual size of the dimension line truly is 49' 11 15/16", in which case the status bar is rounding oddly, and snap/glue is probably getting in your way.

[wapperdude]

Let me expound on what I observed:  

What I noticed in the Size & Position Window is that the Length reported for the Horizontal Measurement shape would read right on 10 feet, but, the actual length as given by EndX - BeginX would not agree.  The distance shown by the shape in the drawing window would agree with the EndX - BeginX positions.  This appeared to be more of a function of initial positioning of the begin shape position, i.e., if it weren't exactly on grid or not.  Even if grid / ruler snapping were turned off, this didn't seem to help.  See attached.

I suspect that VisioGuy's recommendation will help "show" the desired reading, but, doesn't really resolve the root problem.

Wapperdude

Edit:  Tried the recommendation and it does indeed show the desired reading.  Since the error in this example was 1/16", it was only necessary to drop the precision from 16 to 8.