Scale Converter

[RichardG]

I have created a website that provides an app for converting measurements between different scales and units. https://scale.programtheweb.com/

You can convert in either direction. Supported units are Meters, Millimeters, Inches, English Feet/Inches, and French Pied/Pouces/Lignes. There are standard scales built in but you can also enter your own. The site is free and does not require any sign-up. The software has been tested on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers. It will also work on Android Chrome and the iPhone browser (although testing on that last one has been limited; my youngest daughter doesn't like me stealing her phone!).

 

Any suggestions for improvements or bug reports are welcome. 

 

Hopefully people will find it useful.

 

Richard

[bruce d]

28 minutes ago, RichardG said:

Any suggestions for improvements or bug reports are welcome. 

Richard, that tool is now on my favorites bar, many thanks.

Quick comment for others that may stumble as I did: if entering 'English Feet/Inches', the way to success is enter feet and then inches, even if it is 'zero inches'. I am sure a tech-savvy child would have seen that coming but it fooled me on the first attempts.

Nice one.

 

Bruce

[svein erik]

this is a grait tool, i have bin looking for some like this😊 its on my favorites too!

 

svein erik

[RichardG]

Thanks Bruce and Svein Erik. And for the likes.

 

Richard.

 

[Peter Cane]

This is just brilliant.

I am a bit dumb when it comes to figures.

This scaling calculator does everything I need at a touch of a few buttons.

Thank you so much for this .

You are a clever clogs!!!.

Easy maths!!!

My dream come true.

I always knew maths was a waste of time at school.

All you need is a mobile phone these days.

Thanks.

Pete

[RichardG]

Thanks for your kind words Pete.

 

It's odd, I've been writing software professionally for 40 years now and I don't think I've ever been so nervous releasing a product. Doubly odd considering how friendly a bunch we have here.

 

Richard.

[Peter Cane]

It's a very useful tool Richard and will be well used by myself.

As you do software, here is  one across your bows.

When we photo copy plans and enlarge them to say three or four times their size  then of course we are also enlarging the thin line it is drawn with as well so accuracy is difficult in this instance.

What it needs is this.....

Somebody to design software that can enlarge the plan x amount but at the same time reduce the drawing lines to minimum for accuracy.

Hard call at the moment but someone will do it eventually.

Dont lose sleep of it though Richard.

Pete

[Peter Cane]

Richard!.

Just a thought that may make your scaling calculator even more useful.

A facility to choose which scale we want and then a print off of that scale in ruler form.

Stick said ruler on a piece of card with Prit Stick and presto....we have a scale rule!!!

Pete

[RichardG]

59 minutes ago, Peter Cane said:

When we photo copy plans and enlarge them to say three or four times their size  then of course we are also enlarging the thin line it is drawn with as well so accuracy is difficult in this instance.

What it needs is this.....

Somebody to design software that can enlarge the plan x amount but at the same time reduce the drawing lines to minimum for accuracy.

 

There are two issues here, the first is it's very difficult technically, the other would be its potential for abetting piracy. 

 

1 hour ago, Peter Cane said:

Richard!.

Just a thought that may make your scaling calculator even more useful.

A facility to choose which scale we want and then a print off of that scale in ruler form.

Stick said ruler on a piece of card with Prit Stick and presto....we have a scale rule!!!

Pete

Now that is possible. I'll give it some thought.

 

Thanks for the suggestion,

Richard.

[Peter Cane]

Hey Richard.

Great!!

But Piracy is okay.

Dont forget we make model ships!!!!!!

Pete

[bruce d]

2 hours ago, RichardG said:

Now that is possible. I'll give it some thought.

Richard, I hope what I suggest as a useful feature is do-able without too much effort. If a print feature can be done as described by Pete, great: if it can also be done so the finished 'rule' is of a larger size perhaps the output could then be copy & pasted into plans that are intended for printing onto A2 or larger. I am thinking here of larger items such as keels and masts where transfering reference points from original scantlings, ie yards, feet and inches, can be carried out directly on the image. This would mostly benefit those of us who do not have CAD software.

 

I have used your converter to check some of my previous figures and guess what? I found the errors before I cut the wood, so thanks again.

I wonder how many other people are seeing new applications for your converter?

 

Regards,

Bruce

[BANYAN]

Hi Richard, great tool and another option in the arsenal.  Is it possible to also allow it to accept decimal inches  (eg 6.3 inches)?

 

For Richard, I am no expert here but would that not also depend on the type of drawing format.  I always try to get a scalable format  (ie vector rather than bitmapped) so that the lines stay sharper - may be onb the wrong track here.  

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited September 22, 2019 by BANYAN
Incorrect name initially

[RichardG]

57 minutes ago, BANYAN said:

Hi Bruce, great tool and another option in the arsenal.  Is it possible to also allow it to accept decimal inches  (eg 6.3 inches)?

 

For Richard, I am no expert here but would that not also depend on the type of drawing format.  I always try to get a scalable format  (ie vector rather than bitmapped) so that the lines stay sharper - may be onb the wrong track here.  

 

cheers

 

Pat

You can enter decimals in either of the measurement fields except when the unit is feet/inches (English or French).

 

If you can get drawings in the original vector format e.g. from a cad program then scaling is easy however if they're images or on paper then it's really difficult.

 

Richard.

[mtaylor]

21 hours ago, Peter Cane said:

Hey Richard.

Great!!

But Piracy is okay.

Dont forget we make model ships!!!!!!

Pete

 

NO! It isn't.    I hope you were making a joke.

[Peter Cane]

Richard very much indeed I was joking!!

I was trying to indicate that pirates and ships go together but it went the wrong way.

My apologies.

Pete

 

[BANYAN]

Thanks Richard (sorry for using an incorrect name earlier).  It is specifically for inches that I would find it very handy BUT. I am only one user and many may not use such a feature, making any change not worth the effort.

 

There are quite a few online scale converters (and apps) out there but what makes yours unique and very useful, apart from the handy fractional input/output, is the ability to convert using other units of measurement (French etc). 

 

Have you given any thoughts to making this an App (Android please )  as converting from say an olde Dutch measurement into English Imperial or even to modern metric, is a real challenge even with a calculator and having this handy as a phone app would be really neat.  Sorry if I am pushing the envelope a little here, just asking   I very much appreciate you have made this available.

 

Thanks for considering it.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited September 22, 2019 by BANYAN

[RichardG]

Banyan,

 

Sorry, I'm a little confused. You can already enter 6.3 inches (or millimeters/meters):

If this is not what you meant, please let me know.

 

1 hour ago, BANYAN said:

Have you given any thoughts to making this an App (Android please )  as converting from say an olde Dutch measurement into English Imperial or even to modern metric, is a real challenge even with a calculator and having this handy as a phone app would be really neat.  Sorry if I am pushing the envelope a little here, just asking   I very much appreciate you have made this available.

I have already started on an Android version. Until that's complete, you can still use the app via the browser on the phone. Because of the cost, I will not be building an iPhone version though. 

 

I can add Dutch units (or other countries), I just need some information:

 

What were the units/sub-units called?

How many cm or mm to each unit?

 

So for French, I used:

"The French foot, pied, measured 32.48 cm, and was divided into 12 inches—pouces—of 2.71 cm. The inch was further divided into 12 lines— lignes—of .226 cm, and finally, the line was divided into 12 points— points—measuring .0188 cm each. (from Boudriot and Berti 1993: 10.)". I didn't bother with points, 1.88 mm at full-size would be microscopic at scale model size!

 

Apparently there were many different units at the time, see - https://units.fandom.com/wiki/Voet_(Old_Dutch) I have no idea which of these would be appropriate for ships of the time.

 

Thanks,

Richard

Edited September 22, 2019 by RichardG

[mtaylor]

No worries, Peter.  

[BANYAN]

Thanks Richard.  I will go back and recheck again, but it does not seem to work for me - the values under the input box does not update when entering the decimal as shown in the screen grabs (even if I click on the Convert buttons).  I am using Chrome browser on a PC running Win10 pro 64 bit.

 

  

 

Not intended as a complaint, simply raising a potential bug (probably my end) and appreciate your continued support.

 

Thanks again.

 

Pat

[Gregory]

I'm having trouble with the " English Feet / inches " item also..

 

How are you supposed to enter a value?  When I enter a number it defaults to " in " ..

 

With Pat's example I can enter " 63 " and get the correct answer for 1/72..

 

However I don't see how to enter " Feet " ..

Edited September 24, 2019 by Gregory

[RichardG]

Pat, 

Feet/Inches does not accept decimals. It assumes old fashioned "pre-decimal" numbers; i.e. Feet and inches as whole numbers and fractions of an inch. I need to add a new Feet/Decimal Inches unit. 

 

Gregory,

To enter feet you separate the different units. So for 3ft 2 inches, enter 3 then a space then 2. For 3 ft 0 inches, enter 3 then space then 0. For the fractions enter a space after the inches. So for 3ft 2 4/5 inches, enter 3,  space,  2, space, then 4/5. E.g.:

 

The ... under the text box, means the software doesn't understand the number entered. 

The data entry was designed as a single box to make data entry easier but it's not always easy to also make it intuitive 😀. There is also a Help screen available from the menu on the bottom.

 

Thanks for your input.

Richard

Edited September 24, 2019 by RichardG

[Gregory]

OK I see that now .. Great tool as far as I can see..  I just happen to be doing a lot of conversion from 1:64 to 1:48..

[RichardG]

Pat,

 

I've added Feet/Decimal inches as a unit:

Enjoy 😀

 

Richard.

[BANYAN]

Many thanks Richard, appreciate that as it is a very handy tool.  Have you uploaded the new version yet.  I tired through my bookmark this morning and no change?  The reason for my asking for the decimal is that many calculators etc now out put inches as decimal as it was 'too hard' for them to do the fractional readout.  As a result I have several sets of dimension that are all printed as decimal inches   

 

I'll see if I can find some data on the other national metrics and forward to you if I do.  It was just a suggestion which I am not sure how many will use.  I know I have been bitten once or twice thinking I was using a standard foot but it was something entirely different.   Perhaps a straw poll here using the polling option may help identify identify which dimensions would be more useful? to modellers?

 

Many thanks again.

 

Pat

Edited September 24, 2019 by BANYAN

[RichardG]

Yes, I posted it last night.

 

I just checked on my phone and my wife's and it was working.

 

Have you tried refreshing the page?

 

Thanks,

Richard.

[BANYAN]

Thanks Richard, I did, and I tried a direct access from your earlier link and no go - no biggie, just may take a while to filter through?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[RichardG]

Pat,

 

I've purged the cache on Cloudflare, I don't think there's anything else to do.  Hopefully the new version will get to you eventually 🤔.

 

Richard.

[BANYAN]

Thanks, still no go this morning but I am sure it will appear

 

cheers

 

Pat

[RichardG]

Pat,

 

You are using the the Feet/Decimal Inches unit?

Thanks,

Richard.

[BANYAN]

aghhhh  no   I wasn't - SORRY  - I feel a twit....

 

Works well. many thanks

 

cheers

 

Pat