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Metric Quantities Display Incorrectly in OST

Views: 1002 Last Updated: 02/14/2023 07:34 am 0 Rating/ Voters
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Symptoms

When you are setting up a Condition and enter a value greater than 999 for Height, Width, or Depth, the field shows a "1" instead, or,

When you are performing takeoff, quantities over 999 display as a "1" in the Condition list and on the Takeoff/Summary and Worksheet Tabs.

Cause

The values are being stored correctly in the database, however, the way that Windows is configured causes On-Screen Takeoff to display the values incorrectly. The programs is designed to use the "English (United States) Regional and Language Options" located within Microsoft® Windows® (meaning commas are used as thousands separators).

Note
You can use Regional settings other than US-English, however, you must make a minor modification to those Regional Settings to work properly with OST. By default some Regional settings use a space, instead of a comma to separate the "Digit grouping". This causes On-Screen Takeoff to only display characters in front of the space - everything after the space is hidden.

Example

In the Condition Properties window a Height can be assigned, but when changing fields the height changes to the first digit.

OST Condition Details Dimension Box entering 1000 as metric dimension
Example 1 - Height set to 1000mm before leaving field

OST Condition Details Dimension Box not showing metric value correctly
Example 2 - Height "changes" to 1mm

Resolution

Your computer's Regional and Language Options must be modified to use commas for "digit grouping".

Open the Windows Control Panel (click the Windows Start button and start typing "Control..."),

Local and then open Clock and Region (Windows 10, consult your Windows Help for instructions for other versions of Windows).

Shortcut to Windows Regional Settings

Under "Region", click "Change date, time, or number formats".

Windows Regional Settings dialog box

In the Region dialog box, click "Additional Settings",

Windows Regional Settings digit grouping set to space

In the Customize Format dialog box, notice that the Digit grouping symbol: is a space.

Change the Digit grouping symbol: to a "comma" (,).

Windows Regional Settings digit grouping set to comma

Click Apply, notice that digits are not grouped using a comma - that will work correctly with OST.

Windows Regional Settings digit grouping set to comma - applied

Click the OK button, then click OK again to close the Clock and Region dialog box

Return to On-Screen Takeoff and you'll see that the program displays values higher than "999" correctly.

When you are done using On-Screen Takeoff, you can set this back to a space, however, be sure to adjust it before using OST the next time.

Note
If you don't want to change this setting every time you use On-Screen Takeoff, you can create a 2nd Windows User (maybe named "OST"), install OST, set the Regional Settings, and then use that profile to do your takeoff work. You can switch between Windows Users fairly easily in Windows 10. We understand this is not ideal and apologize for the inconvenience.


Product documentation (user guides) describes functionality in the latest version of each major release and may not match the functionality in the version you are using. Please check the Product Information and Downloads pages by clicking one of the product buttons above.

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