Thanks for responding.
i've tried, for example, handy calc. the problem is that they dont stay in standard fractions, ie, /2, /8, /16, /32..
basically it needs to work in foot/inch while handling fractions of an inch down to 32nd of an inch
this is actually for my dad, and that was the first thing i said, until i started to screw around with it and figured out it wasnt exactly the same