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[Allan Chesney]

I desperately need help to get short 'tails(?)' on my dimension lines.

I do not want the lines extended back to the walls, just short lines (tails?) above and below the dimension line as in the image but still offset away from the walls.  I just want the short lines regardless of how far away from the walls the lines are.

I am rapidly pulling my hair out experimenting to get what I want and the only way I seem to be able to do it is create the dimension, then drag the dimension line back to the wall, which shortens the tail lines, then move the whole dimension line group back away from the wall again to where I want it.  This is time consuming and means the marker arrows are now separated from the wall that they are measuring.  There has to be some better way to do this but I just can't work it out.
 

Can someone please give me some screen images of the dialog boxes involved, so that the dimension lines appear as in the image?

Any help will be greatly appreciated, while I still have some hair left! 
 
Allan

[CB]

I think I understand you, and it may depend on the total setup that you have. In model view, perform an AuTO EXTERIOR DIMENSIONS.  Now go to SETTINGS>DIMENSION SETTINGS. This should be the setting for the dimension style that you are using. In the 'exterior' tab go to 'dimension line distances', and then 'dimension offset'. Shorten this down to 900 or less...

[stephan]

Hi Allan,

I still select the dimensions on the same row and then adjust them all seperately. Very,very tedious.
That is why I have asked them several times if they can't write the codec for the dimensions so we can have different dimension line distances set for different dimension rows. For example, Row 1 is closest to the walls and contain all the window and door dimensions, Row 2 is the next row and contains all the dimensions for interior walls and wall thicknesses and row 3 contains all the dimensions for the exterior walls and their off-sets. If you can set the first row to let's say 50mm, the second row to 60mm and the third row to 70mm, it will seriously make life easier. If you want to accomplish the same at this stage, you wil have to create three different dimention types. Each containing it's own dimention line offset, let's say ARCH 1,ARCH 2 and ARCH 3. Then you have to select all the dimensions on the same row and re-name them.

I am in the prosess of doing this. Just waiting for my Version 8 CD to arrive. I think a lot of my problems with version 8 is caused by a defect download. Don't want to do it now and then have to re-do when the CD is insatlled.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Stephan

[stephan]

Hi Allan,

Have quickly done some comparisons for you. I think the second set of dimensions is more like what you are looking to achieve. It is almost impossible to achieve that with auto dimensioning. The program automatically doubles the extension line with every extra row of dimensions. I have encircled those extensions in orange.

The second set is achieved by doing the first row manually in worksheet. You will see there is a red line through the actual drawing. That is my line where I insert my dimensions from. I then select the continious dimension icon and do the next row on the first row. I then select the dimensions on the second row and move it away. I then create the third row in the same way.

The final part is to just select every row and move(space) them equal distances.

Quite tedious, but still better than auto dimensioning.

Hope this helps
Regards
Stephan

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Stephan and Chris,

I thought it was just me that could not get this right but I gather from your comments that there isn't a way to do what I want to do, without a lot of fiddling.  I can get the auto-dimensions pretty close to what I want by juggling the Dimension Offset and the Current Style's Extension Offset. But when I try to do the individual dimensions is when all the fiddling starts.

Is there a way, with a single dimension, to have the tails (if that is what you call them) be just a fixed length above and below the dimension line?  To me that just seems so obvious and all you then do is drag the dimension line out to the distance you want from the plan.  Can that be done or not? It appears that the line that faces the wall is always flexible, no way to fix its length (?).

Allan

[stephan]

no Allan, no way!

Stephan

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Stephan and everyone,

Thanks for the replies - dissapointing to hear though. 

Further on Linear Dimensions and Continuous Dimensions, how do I get them to snap to the edges of the wall not the centre of the core?  Automatic Interior Dimensions do it automatically but I can get the others to do so.

I thought I could use the Automatic Interior Dimensions and just move them outside the building but they create a line all the way back to the walls, so that doesn't work either.

I have tried ticking the 'surface' boxes and 'Core' boxes but they still go to the centre of the core regardless of which boxes are ticked. Does this have to be 'activated' in some way or does it only apply to automatic dimensions not Linear? There seem to be so many 'snap' options that I can believe there is not some way to do this.  I can't think of any reason why someone would even want interior dimensions to go to the centre of a wall.  (Maybe it is to make sure you do not cut the carpet too small !  )

Back to the initial quesion: How do I get Linear Dimensions to snap to the edges of the wall not the centre of the core?

Allan

[stephan]

Hi Allan,

Attached are my settings. Works quite well like this.

Stephan

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Stephan,

My settings are identical to yours and work fine for auto interior dimensions but they still snap to the core when doing Linear Dimensions. I have tried with Object Snap on and off and SnapTrack on and off - it will still only snap to the core centre.

In the Worksheet it will snap to the surface of the nearest corner but not mid wall.

Is there something else to set to make it work on the model?

Allan

[stephan]

Allan, please post a sreen clip of both your settings and a section(plan) of your wall type. Maybe I can see something that you are missing because of your fruistration.

Here is a screenclip of my dimensions inserted with linear manually.

Stephan

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Stephan

As I said the settings are the same as yours but dialogs attached.

In the plan image, notice that the Linear dimension has snapped to the internal walls centre, not the interior surfaces which is what I want to show.

It is a real pain having to zoom in real close and manually postion the start and end of the dimension line right on the surfaces, so I do hope you can see what is causing this.

Allan

[stephan]

Hi Allan, what I can see is that your internal walls consist of a core only. If that is the case, the change your internal wall dimension setting to "leading edge and trailing edge core". See if that makes a difference.

Stephan

[Allan Chesney]

No it doesn't.  

I had tried that before but have tried it again just in case but it still snaps to the core centre. I also tried adding some thinkness to the core surface but that made no difference either.

In case it was something to do with this model I tried testing it in a new blank project but it still snaps to centre of the walls.

On the Worksheet i did get it to snap to the edges along the wall by ticking the MidPoint in the Object Snap Settings but that does not seem to affect the model snapping.

Previously I thought that I have had this working in the model.  
Have you actually tried it in V8?
What sort of snap symbol do you get on the cursor at the edge of the wall and the centre of it?
I just get a ...x at the centre, nothing on the edges.

Allan

[stephan]

Yes I did try it in EV8. It works 100%. I get a little square block where it snaps. No crosses like you.

I have another problem though. I tried to finish a 7.2 project in 8. I have done one heck of a lot of work in 8. Switched my compu off last night, switched on this morning, and now when I try to open thet file in 8, the program just crashes and I get the message that it has to close.

Stephan

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Stephan,

Have you tried opening it in different ways?  I had a problem one time when it would crash if I tried to open it by doublec-licking the desktop icon but or starting it from the Program files but if I double-clicked the file I wanted to open it was perfectly OK.

When I start drawing the diemnsion line I get the X...x but a the other end it is a circle with a X in it, but both are in the centre of the wall. Have even tried different wall types to walls in case they were affecting it somehow but makes no difference.  On the Worksheet I get a X with the top points connected and the bottom points connected but this is on the surface of the wall. It will snap to the centre too but with no snap icon dispalyed.

I don't understand the differences or why it won't work on the model surfaces.
Still hoping someone else knows a solution (and for your situation too!)

Allan