How does MicroStation OpenRoads and Connect versions define the foot? With the new datums coming out in 2022 the international foot (1 iFt = 0.3048 m) will be the standard. The label 'Imperial' on the seed files is misleading because the US doesn't use the Imperial Yard in that was created in England. I don't fully understand the imperial units and am looking for clarification.
Thanks,
Dan
I think "Imperial" is used for lack of any better term to describe a system of inches, feet and yards.
MicroStation (and OpenRoads, OpenRail, OpenSite…) supports metric and both US Survey (39.37 inches per meter) and International feet (0.3048 meters per foot).
Even with deprecation of the US Survey foot, many states will continue to use that unit of measure until their respective statutes have been revised.
Check the Working Units in the design file - for simplicity, I will assume they are either a) Meters b) Feet or c) US Survey Feet. Imperial (for me) covers the last two options as they are NOT Metric. The MicroStation 'units.def' file has the relationshiip defined as follows:
# Valid values for System are:# 0 Undefined# 1 English (based on International Foot)# 2 Metric# 3 English (based on US Survey Foot)#Label,Label,...; Name(singular); Name(plural); Numerator; Denominator; Base; System m; _[SYSTEM]_; _[SYSTEM]_; 1.0; 1.0; 1; 2 #Meters ft,'; _[SYSTEM]_; _[SYSTEM]_; 10000.0; 3048.0; 1; 1 #Feet sf,ft,'; _[SYSTEM]_; _[SYSTEM]_; 39370.0; 12000.0; 1; 3 #US Survey Feet # This gives# 10000 / 3048 = 3.2808399 ft to 1 m# 39370 / 12000 = 3.280833 sf to 1 m