Hi, I'm a scientist/engineer working for NASA. The metric system is used extensively at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but inch-pounds are still dominant.
Our metric technical drawings are normally drawn for metric paper sizes (A0-A4), and we generally follow international drawing practices for metric drawings. Yet strangely enough, all our printers and plotters are loaded with inches paper sizes, and when the metric drawings get printed they are usually resized to fit the inches (A, B, C, D...) size paper. Worse yet, our purchasing department doesn't even know what A3 paper is, and can't find a vendor to buy it. At least our metric drawings are REALLY metric, following international standards for the title block, tolerances, etc. But I've noticed that the few metric drawings we get from American companies are drawn with inches-style title blocks, parts, tolerancing, and paper size. So my questions are: - Are there any US companies that use metric paper sizes? - How common is metric paper usage (A4, A3, etc.) in recently metricated countries? - Where in the U.S. do you get affordable metric size paper, esp. A3? (I'm paying about $100 / ream!) - Are there any other American engineers besides me designing entirely hard-metric? - Do engineers in recently metricated countries draw on metric sheet sizes, or inches sizes? - Do engineers in recently metricated countries use hard-metric parts, or do they simply convert inch-pounds parts to metric numbers? John
