Change The grid from Meters to Feet

I was making a house in the game but the house plans are in feet, how would I change the grid to feet so I don't have to convert every measurement.

You can't.

Where did you get the plans from?

the plans are of my house.
damnit, so theres nothing i can do?

What format are the plans? Autocad? What program created the house in the real world? Also you could convert each foot to meter using 1 foot = 0.3048 meters http://www.onlineconversion.com/

http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_all.htm

A good rule of thumb, is to remember that a yard (36 inches) is almost a meter... so that there's 3 feet (roughly) to a meter.

Conversely.. among my various travels over 2 and a half years, I've noticed that on average, any given SL avatar generally seems to be about 1.13 x larger than it "should" be mathematically.. so someone who thinks they have a 6 foot avatar, usually has a 6.78' avatar.

I mention this.. because there's actually 39some inches in a meter. and 1.13 x 36.. is 40.68 inches..

So if you were to build a house, at "1 feet = 1/3 meter" scale.. you'd actually come a lot closer to the unofficial "SL Scale".

(remember though, 4.25m ceilings minimum.)

Sure there is! Learn, adapt, adjust! Either go through the boring process of converting with a calculator OR get your creative juices flowing and use your eyes. What looks right? Build a wall to the scale you think the overall build length should be or fits on your property etc. The first window is 1/4 length over etc. etc. etc.......................

Well you could decide that three feet equal a metre, it's SL, it's flexible, the Linden metre is a Linden metre.

Learn how to multiply.

AND divide!

I've built from RL plans that are in feet and inches, and I will agree - for SL, you can do pretty well by accepting a 3 feet = 1 meter conversion factor.

So, try this: Make a 10 x 10 grid in a graphics program. and then divide each square into thirds each way, so there are nine smaller squares in each larger square. Import that into SL as a texture, and on a 10 x 10 M prim you'll have a grid where the smaller squares are roughly 1 foot each. You can build on that grid and work in feet, or if you realy want to be "exact scale" (which will look too small against normal avatars), shrink that grid down a bit.

Another approach - Import the plans at "full scale" :

Scan your plans, or at least get them into a graphics application. Cut that up into square textures that are no more than 30 feet across, based on the scale of the drawings. (I would advise 25 feet). Somewhere on the drawing, add a to-scale line representing 1 meter in length. If you have plans for to-scale elevations, make those into textures too.

Import your plans, and tile them onto an array of 10 x 10 M prims. Link and scale them down a bit until your 1M line on the texture is either 1M according to a prim comparison, or whatever enlargement factor you are comfortable with to match an avarage avatar (I'll highly recommend 1.25 to 1 enlargement as a starting point...). Build directly on the plans. Use the elevation plans on vertical walls of prims to compare to.

I used imported plans just like that to make the "Old Queens" schoolhouse at the center of the RUCE 2 sim. I used a 1.5 to 1 expansion factor to ensure that even fairly tall SL avatars could comfortably use the facility. Check it out to see the result.

mm. while your at it --

I have this plan for a boat. An ark actually. The plan is scaled in cubits. So I want the UI to allow me to scale things to cubits. I mean, it's only fair, if you're going to scale things in inches, feet and yards, you should also allow cubits.

I've got to go. It's starting to rain.

Another factor you'll need to take into account when importing RL blueprints into SL is the 'camera factor'. You need to have 1.5 - 2 metres clearance above your avatar's head in order to ensure free movement of your camera inside your building. If the ceiling is too low it can result in very bizarre and disorientating camera bounce and jitter.

In my experience 'real' scale does not work. It feels cramped in SL. What I would refer to as 'palatial scale' feels normal and allows for proper camera movement. At the very least you find yourself needing to stretch your blueprints vertically by 1 - 2 metres per floor as well as widening your stairs, passages and halls..

Accomodating the camera factor alone will redefine how you use the interior space of your imported RL design. If you build it true to scale (or very close) the rooms will feel alot smaller. Hallways, passageways and stairs will feel way too narrow.

In SL any staircase narrower than 3 metres (almost 10 feet) feels unrealistically narrow and can impede free movement of an avatar. In RL no-one bats an eye at stairs 1 metre wide: they feel quite normal. Try a 1-metre wide staircase in SL and you'll understand the problem immediately.

Any way you look at it you will end up modifying your blueprints to accomodate the quirks of SL avatar and camera controls. Import your design by all means but be prepared to do a fair bit of modifying in order to make it workable in SL.

What Alazarin said.

I think you would do best to forget about meter->feet conversions. Instead use your plans as an inspiration for your build.

If you try to stick to the exact plans, you will wind up disappointed with the final result. It might be true to scale, but the SL and RL scales don't match up, and you'll find that your camera isn't behaving well.

So just look at the floorplan and "eyeball" it.

Metric system, for all your convenience.

Measure easy in weight, size and volume with one single calculation.
Why use imperial?

1 meter is 100 centimeter,
1 liter (water) is 1 kilo
1000 kilo of water is 1000 liters, and equal to 1 cubic meters of volume.

so make a cube of 1 x 1 x 1 meters, and it'll fit exactly 1000 liters and if it's water, it's 1000 kilo's.

try that in imperial without a calculator.

Another thing to consider is that RL house plans have a lot of rooms that will be a waste of space in SL. You won't need bathrooms, for example. You can certainly add a large one in for...ahem...fun and games...but you certainly won't need three of them. RL sized rooms are also going to be frighteningly cramped. And if you plan on...ahem (again) ...fun and games...you'll end up popping your camera into other rooms when you try to zoom in and out for better viewing. It would be far more sensible to create your exterior to match the RL exterior and then adjust the rooms inside to match the way SL works.

If it looks too big: Make it smaller. If it looks too small: Make it bigger. (^_^)y

exactly.

Really?

is this a show stopper for you?

You make it sound so difficult to look at a blue print and convert the feet to meters. I'm a math idiot and it is not even a problem for me.

Yep. When placing ceilings you need a height that doesn't do crazy things to your camera, and that allows for direct teleporting. (Otherwise people will teleport into the ceiling prims and end up getting pushed up to the next level of the structure.)

Also, did you know you can just type conversions into Google to get the answer? (Google has a built-in calculator and unit converter.) For example, I just typed this in my Google Toolbar: 4.25 meters in feet

And I got the following answer: 4.25 meters = 13.9435696 feet

And if it doesn't fit, you're not using a big enough hammer. (@^@)

Now that's asking an awful lot.

Darn, I thought this was going to be a poll about adopting feet as the SL unit of measure. I think LL should take a leadership role in getting things back to the way they're supposed to be

It's bad enough living in the only country still using this silly system, leave SL out of it. D:

I think SL should move to the M&M unit of measurement! It's only 2,222,220 M&M's per cubic meter.. It's easy to calculate it!

Hmm............ maybe you should just buy a newer metric house