Checking Template Units

[medeek]

I'm sure this has been asked before but I'm not seeming to find it so I will ask again. I want to be able to detect whether the user is using a metric or imperial template so I can customize my plugin user interface to the correct units. What is the suggested way to check for metric vs. imperial units of the template being used?

[thomthom]

Btw, I wrote a general article on how to deal with units in SketchUp: http://www.thomthom.net/thoughts/2012/08/dealing-with-units-in-sketchup/

[thomthom]

You don't really check the templates - you just ask the current model the user is using. The current model might be of a different unit than their selected template.
At my previous job we switched a lot between mm and m in our project files.

You use model.options to inspect the current model's options:

options_manager = Sketchup.active_model.options
options_manager.keys.each { |options_provider_name|
  puts options_provider_name
  options_provider = options_manager[options_provider_name]
  options_provider.each { |key, value|
    puts "> #{key} - #{value}"
  }
}

Output from that snippet:

PageOptions
> ShowTransition - false
> TransitionTime - 2.0
UnitsOptions
> LengthPrecision - 0
> LengthFormat - 0
> LengthUnit - 2
> LengthSnapEnabled - false
> LengthSnapLength - 0.03937007874015748
> AnglePrecision - 1
> AngleSnapEnabled - true
> SnapAngle - 15.0
> SuppressUnitsDisplay - false
> ForceInchDisplay - false
SlideshowOptions
> LoopSlideshow - true
> SlideTime - 1.0
NamedOptions
PrintOptions
> PrintWidth - 8.5
> PrintHeight - 11.0
> ComputeSizeFromScale - false
> SizeInPrint - 1.0
> SizeInModel - 1.0
> VectorMode - false
> FitToPage - true
> NumberOfPages - 1
> LineWeight - 0.5
> PixelsPerInch - 150.0
> SectionSlice - false
> ModelExtents - true
> PrintQuality - 0
> ScaleAdjustment - 1.0
> QualityAdjustment - 1.0

So in this case you want to inspect UnitOptions:

model = Sketchup.active_model
model.options["UnitsOptions"]["LengthUnit"]

Note that you want to use the constants in the class Length against the values returned here.

Length;;Decimal
Length;;Architectural
Length;;Engineering
Length;;Fractional
Length;;Inches
Length;;Feet
Length;;Millimeter
Length;;Centimeter
Length;;Meter

So something like this:

model = Sketchup.active_model
unit_type = model.options["UnitsOptions"]["LengthUnit"]
metric = case unit_type
when Length;;Millimeter, Length;;Centimeter, Length;;Meter
  true
else
  false
end

I'm doing this check because LengthFormat got options that can be used with both imperial and metric units.