User Guide

Chapter 4: Drawing And Vector Effects
Number Form: A setting in the Ruler manager affects the format of data in the Properties br
and other displays. This option controls the precision of data and the number format
(decimal or fractions) (see "To set up rulers:" on page 75).
Dimensions: You can customize individual dimension objects with the Dimensioning
controls in the Properties bar.
Floating point technology
Projects in the scientific, engineering, medical, and biotechnology industries demand the highest
levels of precision.
When working with very small units of measure, errors can occur since no human system of
numeration can give a unique representation to every real number because there are simply too many
of them.
To meet the demand for increased decimal precision, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) has produced a standard for binary floating point arithmetic (IEEE 754-1985). This
standard specifies how single-precision (32 bit) and double-precision (64 bit) floating point
numbers are to be represented, as well as how arithmetic should be carried out on them. An
application that supports this technology will generate a floating point number; i.e., the decimal
point literally “floats,” and, therefore, achieves a more precise fractional result.
Without installed support for the floating point standard the computations within a computer design
environment will generate only a close approximation of a requested command. Although these
calculations may generate satisfactory results for most purposes, the demands that exist within the
science, engineering, medical, and other related professions dictate that only extremely accurate
results be used within projects.
Canvas’ drawing engine fully supports the IEEE floating point standard.
Displaying dimensions as you draw
Canvas can display the horizontal and vertical dimensions of an object as you draw it. The Show Size
command makes dimensions (in scale) appear at the pointer as you drag with any drawing tool.
These dimensions do not remain in the document.
When Show Size is active, Canvas
displays the scaled size of the
object as you draw.
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