Is it possible to reset Cura from mm to inches?

[RikChik 0]

I'm stumped.  I live in a country where we don't use mm or cm or anything but inches and feet.  How can I reset Cura to inches?

[ahoeben 1,956]

You can't. You can install a plugin that will let you scale a loaded model by 25.4 (from inches to mm), but there is no way to have Cura work in mm (nor any other unit of length other than mm).

[geert_2 558]

15 hours ago, RikChik said:

...

I live in a country where we don't use mm or cm or anything but inches and feet.

...

 

I thought all countries world-wide had switched to the metric system?

 

The UK has switched gradually, with the latest units changed around the year 2000, I think? Today in the UK the old imperial units are only allowed for "drinking and driving", as one Englishman said on another forum. (=for road signs and beer bottle labels). But correct me if this info is incorrect.  :-)

 

The USA has officially adopted the metric system in 1875 (yes, 18..., not 19...), although most politicians, government officials, and press people are not aware of this. So they keep converting these metric units back to imperail units for "convenience", although it is very inconvenient for them, and it slows down conversion in everyday life. This causes big headaches for US-technicians, engineers, industry, and all other internationally oriented businesses.

 

I thought the handfull remaining countries in Africa and Asia, previous English colonies, had also switched recently, except maybe Burma/Myanmar?

 

Although in daily life people tend to keep using their old habits of course, just like we still use horse-power for cars instead of kilowatt. I guess because the number in horse-power is 1.3x higher than in kilowatt, so it sounds more impressive.  :-)

 

[dhewes 0]

This is our culture and I raised by it. I don't ask other people to change their culture. 

 

Also there are many reasons why people may be using imperial system. For an example an existing design may be using the imperial system.  

 

I have always worked in both systems and I think all systems should support both.

[nallath 1,123]

When using a format like 3MF, there is no need for a conversion, since the format itself simply defines the unit (which is used by Cura to convert into mm). Some formats (like STL) don't have this, but the most commonly used unit for STL's is metric (so Cura assumes this). If it is in inches, it's also rather trivial to convert it, as it's just scaling it by 25.4.

Also allowing for settings to be in multiple systems would be a lot more difficult, and add an maintenance burden on us. This is why we chose not to support it and keep all settings in the scientific (and thus metric) system.

 

I also don't think it matters that much. Settings might say things like 50 mm/s, but usually if people change it, they change it based on what's already there (eg; It needs to be a bit faster, so let's make it 60). For these relative changes the unit doesn't have that much impact.

[johnse 31]

I think where choice of units really matter is in the design software...something I think is already the case.

[arashr15 1]

Based on this thread I think I'm screwed for being in US! lol There should be an easy conversion system or plug in to fix this issue. isn't it? 

[johnse 31]

You don’t create designs in Cura. All of the critical dimensions (nozzle size, layer heights, etc.) are in mm across the 3D printing community.

 

where other units matter is in design software, like Fusion 360, Freecad, or TinkerCad, to name a few.

 

Those design systems allow you to design in whatever units are best for you (though if you design in inches and enter a dimension as 15/64”, it will show as the decimal equivalent 0.234375”.

 

In that same software simply set the STL export units to mm (STL files are dimensionless).

 

And, BTW, I am also in the US, and grew up on inches & feet. But I do 99%of my designing in metric.

Edited November 27, 2019 by johnse

[n1malone 0]

Disappointed that Cura does not provide a unit selection.  The statement that it is trivial to convert and then to state it is to difficult to maintain is not consistent.  There are heritage designs in inches that will not just disappear.  When trying to confirm that parts fit before building the real thing not having a simple conversion built into the tool has the potential to create problems...See Mars mission catastrophic failure due to incorrect trivial conversion!  Agree with other commenter: What do you expect when it is free.  I will try the conversion plug in soon. Glad to now understand the problem.  FYI: Competitors 3D printer has the option for inches and metric and it works very well.

[ahoeben 1,956]

17 hours ago, n1malone said:

See Mars mission catastrophic failure due to incorrect trivial conversion!

 

Isn't that a great example for why only one unit should be used? No conversion, no catastrophe.

 

17 hours ago, n1malone said:

FYI: Competitors 3D printer has the option for inches and metric and it works very well.

 

Out of interest, what 3d printer has that option?

[tinkergnome 927]

25 minutes ago, ahoeben said:

Out of interest, what 3d printer has that option?

 

Basically it's commonly available, because Marlin firmware has this option (G20 / G21), RepRap-Firmware too (and maybe others as well?).

http://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G020.html

 

Rumors say that the Makerbot software was able to handle imperial units (*), but i don't know any other slicer that has this option.

(*) yep, pun intended 🙂

 

@n1malone - any modeling software should be able to convert the output to mm during STL-export. That's where this task usually takes place.

[ahoeben 1,956]

46 minutes ago, tinkergnome said:

Basically it's commonly available, because Marlin firmware has this option (G20 / G21), RepRap-Firmware too (and maybe others as well?).

 

I know that, I was wondering if there is any printer that supports it on its interface, or in any user-facing way.

[n1malone 0]

9 hours ago, ahoeben said:

 

Isn't that a great example for why only one unit should be used? No conversion, no catastrophe.

 

 

Out of interest, what 3d printer has that option?

Makerbot....The real world requires all to be experts at conversion in many areas of science.  Just wanting a no conversion world will not change reality.  Units have been created by experts for hundreds..thousands of years and to make new discoveries typically require  standing on the shoulders of Giants using their units.  The market will decide when one product allows easy conversion for all they will have a larger market.  Telling a customer what they need is not a great market strategy.

[Oliveros 11]

There's another thread about this on a different section.

 

But why not just use both? There's times I do inches, when I fabricate out of metal, like bigger stuff.

 

Then when I'm modeling for 3D prints, I just model in metric, most objects if you are copying something will be able to be measured by a caliper, wall thicknesses, hole spacings, etc. all can be done in metric with a caliper, if you REALLY don't even want to look at metric numbers, then get a multi feature caliper with inches, fraction and MM and you can measure it all out in inches, then push the button and see it in MM and keep going.

 

I use both, it's easier and it just depends on the size of the object I'm working with,

[nallath 1,123]

On 12/25/2019 at 11:22 PM, n1malone said:

Makerbot....The real world requires all to be experts at conversion in many areas of science.  Just wanting a no conversion world will not change reality.  Units have been created by experts for hundreds..thousands of years and to make new discoveries typically require  standing on the shoulders of Giants using their units.  The market will decide when one product allows easy conversion for all they will have a larger market.  Telling a customer what they need is not a great market strategy.

Well, it has been, because we (Ultimaker) have been using the metric system for ages. We get maybe 2 requests a year (if at that) about the conversion. Most of them simply see it as a minor (in)convenience.

 

I doubt if we will sell any more (or less) machines depending on if we implement it or not. Even if we would, its not likely to be enough to cover the cost.

[61ache 2]

On 6/13/2019 at 5:51 AM, geert_2 said:

 

I thought all countries world-wide had switched to the metric system?

 

The UK has switched gradually, with the latest units changed around the year 2000, I think? Today in the UK the old imperial units are only allowed for "drinking and driving", as one Englishman said on another forum. (=for road signs and beer bottle labels). But correct me if this info is incorrect.  :-)

 

The USA has officially adopted the metric system in 1875 (yes, 18..., not 19...), although most politicians, government officials, and press people are not aware of this. So they keep converting these metric units back to imperail units for "convenience", although it is very inconvenient for them, and it slows down conversion in everyday life. This causes big headaches for US-technicians, engineers, industry, and all other internationally oriented businesses.

 

I thought the handfull remaining countries in Africa and Asia, previous English colonies, had also switched recently, except maybe Burma/Myanmar?

 

Although in daily life people tend to keep using their old habits of course, just like we still use horse-power for cars instead of kilowatt. I guess because the number in horse-power is 1.3x higher than in kilowatt, so it sounds more impressive.  :-)

 

This really could not be further from the truth.  US mechanical engineers design in ANSI units of measurements.  If you go into a engineering lab in the US you find 4-40 you don't find m3.  Certain industries are almost exclusively ANSI units.  Aerospace for example, a majority of systems are in ANSI units.  Boeing, Collins, Honeywell, Raytheon, Lockheed, etc, etc, etc all ANSI.  Airbus who integrates many of these systems takes them in ANSI.  The joke is there's two type of units in engineering, the ones that have sent people to the moon and everyone else.

[harrelsontrumpet 0]

On 12/31/2019 at 1:58 AM, nallath said:

Well, it has been, because we (Ultimaker) have been using the metric system for ages. We get maybe 2 requests a year (if at that) about the conversion. Most of them simply see it as a minor (in)convenience.

 

I doubt if we will sell any more (or less) machines depending on if we implement it or not. Even if we would, its not likely to be enough to cover the cost.

 

This assumption is hilarious and misinformed. YES, you would sell more units IF you would take 2 days of your engineers time to solve this very simple problem. The vast majority of machine shops and designers DO USE inches and feet and not the metric system. I cannot stand CURA for this reason alone. I have owned 5 Ultimakers and sold 4 of them partly because the software is so hard to use. Most other 3d printer software DOES offer conversion to inches. I'm working on a project right now that would have been set up in seconds on my other printers, but because I'm running it on Cura for the S5, it is a serious problem as the file will not load correctly because it was designed in inches. When making the conversion myself, it does not tell me where it is measuring the vague length and width on a non-square part.

 

In the end, Ultimaker has a long way to go to compete in the US market and I'm quite certain their arrogance as designers is preventing them from becoming commonplace here.

 

 

[harrelsontrumpet 0]

On 3/15/2020 at 12:03 PM, 61ache said:

This really could not be further from the truth.  US mechanical engineers design in ANSI units of measurements.  If you go into a engineering lab in the US you find 4-40 you don't find m3.  Certain industries are almost exclusively ANSI units.  Aerospace for example, a majority of systems are in ANSI units.  Boeing, Collins, Honeywell, Raytheon, Lockheed, etc, etc, etc all ANSI.  Airbus who integrates many of these systems takes them in ANSI.  The joke is there's two type of units in engineering, the ones that have sent people to the moon and everyone else.

 

This is completely true.

[nallath 1,123]

4 hours ago, harrelsontrumpet said:

 

This assumption is hilarious and misinformed. YES, you would sell more units IF you would take 2 days of your engineers time to solve this very simple problem. The vast majority of machine shops and designers DO USE inches and feet and not the metric system. I cannot stand CURA for this reason alone. I have owned 5 Ultimakers and sold 4 of them partly because the software is so hard to use. Most other 3d printer software DOES offer conversion to inches. I'm working on a project right now that would have been set up in seconds on my other printers, but because I'm running it on Cura for the S5, it is a serious problem as the file will not load correctly because it was designed in inches. When making the conversion myself, it does not tell me where it is measuring the vague length and width on a non-square part.

 

In the end, Ultimaker has a long way to go to compete in the US market and I'm quite certain their arrogance as designers is preventing them from becoming commonplace here.

Solve the conversion? I did, there is a plugin for that. As for the rest of the conversion, I already mentioned that when you're exporting in 3mf, the entire conversion isn't an issue, since it will handle it automatic from that point.

[Welsh-Dragon 0]

In the marketplace, there is a plugin called Barbarian Units that converts imperial to metric, I wonder if it will work vice-versa...??

 

HTH...

 

 

 

[DanielClayman 0]

I use Rhino for most of my modeling and as an American I use inches, etc. . Before converting the original model to STL I just convert the file to mm, still within Rhino. Not really a big deal, I just did it and the conversion takes less than 1 minute! Then I take the STL and dump it into CURA. I love CURA and my Ultimaker is a great workhorse.

[GregValiant 1,305]

I'm a poor American stuck in "English" units too.  I was a tool designer for 40 years.  Design software uses units.  But what 1 unit equals is all in the users head.  Autocad doesn't know or care if 1 unit is a 1 nanometer or a 1 lightyear.  Generally you have to measure something or check the size of the text to tell what units the designer had in mind when the model (or 2d drawing) was created.

 

If baloney, milk, bread, gasoline and beer had been sold here in metric units, housewives would have bought in, and the United States would be full metric by now.

[ma1025 0]

We were also having the same problem while importing the .stl files in Cura. All the inches were taken as mm while opening in Cura. Found out that inventor has an option while saving as .stl files. Just clicked that option, went to units and changed is from inches to mm. And when opened Cura it took it as mm and the problem of scaling was gone.

[CRiley65 0]

On 12/25/2019 at 7:26 AM, tinkergnome said:

 

Basically it's commonly available, because Marlin firmware has this option (G20 / G21), RepRap-Firmware too (and maybe others as well?).

http://marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/G020.html

 

Rumors say that the Makerbot software was able to handle imperial units (*), but i don't know any other slicer that has this option.

(*) yep, pun intended 🙂

 

@n1malone - any modeling software should be able to convert the output to mm during STL-export. That's where this task usually takes place.

 

On 12/25/2019 at 6:43 AM, ahoeben said:

 

Isn't that a great example for why only one unit should be used? No conversion, no catastrophe.

 

 

Out of interest, what 3d printer has that option?

Craftbot will let you switch from metric to imperial. Craftware also allows it.

[RobbyRob 0]

There isn't a need with Cura to import a file in mm.  If your stl file is in inches, and you import into Cura all you have to do is scale it 2540%  This is how I have been doing it.  Works perfect. 

 

This is similar to converting inches to mm.  Multiply the inch dimension by 25.4 and you get mm.  - .5 inches x 25.4 = 12.7mm