topic Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls in Documentation

dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Anonymous — Mon, 22 May 2023 21:59:10 GMT

Is there a way to control the dimension tool so that it only snaps to the end of the control line of the walls that are perpendicular to the dimension string and not the end points of the walls that are parallel to the dimension string? I need this for snapping to the intersection the ends of two walls. To facilitate future changes I want to only snap to the wall that is perpendicular to the dimension string.
I think that there was a post on this subject but I cannot find it.
Mahalo,
John

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Barry Kelly — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:26:56 GMT

I'm not quite sure I understand what you want exactly.

If you are dimensioning on the end of a wall and there is more than one wall ending at that point then you can use the TAB key to cycle through all the available walls.
When the one you want to dimension is highlighted that is when you click for the dimension.

Otherwise just pass your mouse over the length of the wall you want and when you see the mercedes cursor click to dimension - this will give you the width of the wall with one click.

Barry.

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:46:43 GMT

Barry wrote:
If you are dimensioning on the end of a wall and there is more than one wall ending at that point then you can use the TAB key to cycle through all the available walls.
When the one you want to dimension is highlighted that is when you click for the dimension.Barry.

TAB. That works. Thanks, that is part of what I was looking for.

Barry wrote:
Otherwise just pass your mouse over the length of the wall you want and when you see the mercedes cursor click to dimension - this will give you the width of the wall with one click.Barry.

When I do this I get three dimension points per wall. I get a dimension point at the end of the control line of the wall as well as dimension points at each of the two surfaces of the wall. I only want to dimension to the control line of the wall.
Is there a setting so it only dimensions to the control line?

Thank you,
John

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Barry Kelly — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:54:47 GMT

johncassel wrote:
When I do this I get three dimension points per wall. I get a dimension point at the end of the control line of the wall as well as dimension points at each of the two surfaces of the wall. I only want to dimension to the control line of the wall.
Is there a setting so it only dimensions to the control line?

You can make it dimension just the "core" skins of the wall but unfortunately you can't make it dimension just the reference line.

Barry.

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:02:26 GMT

Barry wrote:
If you are dimensioning on the end of a wall and there is more than one wall ending at that point then you can use the TAB key to cycle through all the available walls.
When the one you want to dimension is highlighted that is when you click for the dimension.Barry.

There is a secondary issue here in using the Tab Key to cycle through the overlapping walls if I am extending an already existing dimension string. This gets particularly difficult because I'm holding down the Control Key to add the new dimension points and hitting the Tab Key starts to cycle me through the different view windows that are open. It kind of funny and kind of frustrating but this isn't the biggest problem that I am dealing with today.
Let me know if there is a workaround for this situation.

The main thing that I'm interested in is how to dimension to just the endpoint of the wall's control line without dimensioning the wall thickness.

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:15:28 GMT

Barry wrote:
You can make it dimension just the "core" skins of the wall but unfortunately you can't make it dimension just the reference line.Barry.

How do you make it dimension to just the core?

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Barry Kelly — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:23:12 GMT

Oddly enough you can select the dimension to sdit then TAB through the walls first to highlight the one you want, let go of the tab key and then press CTRL and click the node.

Or in the pet palette for the dimension there is the option to "Insert/merge dimension point" which means you don't need to use the CTRL key.
But you do have to select it in the pet palette every time you want to add a node.
I am not sure what version of Archicad this pet palette option became available but definitely since 14.

Barry.

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Barry Kelly — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:27:18 GMT

johncassel wrote:
Barry wrote:
You can make it dimension just the "core" skins of the wall but unfortunately you can't make it dimension just the reference line.Barry.
How do you make it dimension to just the core?

In the dimension setting dialogue there is an option you can check.
This image is from 15 but it has always been there.

This only really works if you have set your wall composites up with core and non-core skins.
You set these in the dialogue when creating or editing the composite.

Barry.

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:54:11 GMT

Barry wrote:
In the dimension setting dialogue there is an option you can check.Barry.

OK, you are my new best friend. Thank you very much for walking me through this.

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Barry Kelly — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:01:09 GMT

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:16:54 GMT

Our practice normally provide dimensions to finished surfaces, but today I've had to show dimensions to the structural core, so was glad to find this thread.

However, I've found it incredibly difficult. Although I've been careful to assign 'core', 'finish' and 'other' within the composite wall, and checked the box for 'core only' in the dimension dialogue, it seems as if the core is dimensioned only if you select the whole wall. If you try to snap on a wall junction, it always wants to pick the finished surface. In some instances I've been forced to place a hotspot by eye in order to try and get an accurate dimension.

Is this normal?

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:55:03 GMT

So?

Would I be better converting my model to Autocad and dimensioning there?

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Erika Epstein — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:40:32 GMT

Keith,
Stay in Archicad.

When you are dimensioning core only, in addition to setting dimension to Dimension Core Only, set your MVO to display Core Only. Then you will see the end point of each core.

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:49:31 GMT

Aha!

I didn't know this option existed (Partial Structure Display). This is the answer. Many, many thanks.

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Barry Kelly — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 02:09:16 GMT

Erika wrote:
When you are dimensioning core only, in addition to setting dimension to Dimension Core Only, set your MVO to display Core Only. Then you will see the end point of each core.

But be carefull. When you change your partial display option again the dimensions will disappear. They will only show in the partial display option that they were created in - a bit like turning layers on and off.

Keith,
I think the idea of the dimension core only feature is so that you can just click on the side of the wall to dimension the core - no need to go to the ends.
If you want just one side of the core then select the side, you will get the 2 circle crosshair symbols halfway along the length of the wall.
Then just click on one of these to turn it off.

If you want to dimension at the end or junction of the walls you will have to zoom in hard enough to see aal the available end points because they will all be active - not just the core endpoints.
Is this a bug or a feature? I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.
I see it as a feature. I can dimension just the core by clicking on the sides of the wall but if I want individual skins I can zoom into the ends.

Barry.

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 09:03:54 GMT

Barry wrote:
But be carefull. When you change your partial display option again the dimensions will disappear. They will only show in the partial display option that they were created in - a bit like turning layers on and off.

.. as I discovered! This seems to defeat the object. Not much point in being able to dimension to the core, if you can't see the dims in the general view!

Barry wrote:
Is this a bug or a feature?

A rather useless feature, I'd have thought. How much better if you could snap on any of the intersections, just as you would when the 'dimension to core' option is off. (The option does say 'dimension only the core') And then simply turn the 'core' option back on if you needed to.

I'm still reeling from this experience which is both incredibly time-consuming and inaccurate, and wondering whether in future I should explode walls to lines just to be able to dimension quickly and accurately by ensuring I've snapped on the correct junction!

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Erika Epstein — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:38:43 GMT

Keith wrote:
.. as I discovered! This seems to defeat the object. Not much point in being able to dimension to the core, if you can't see the dims in the general view!

I'm still reeling from this experience which is both incredibly time-consuming and inaccurate, and wondering whether in future I should explode walls to lines just to be able to dimension quickly and accurately by ensuring I've snapped on the correct junction!

Not sure what you find inaccurate but if you explode all your 3D elements you are creating many more areas for possible error.

It is very quick to click on the wall and then delete one of the dimension nodes, on each wall and ACCURATE. Changing your MVO to core only just to see where the live dimensioning nodes are should help you to quickly find an end of core node when all skins are visible if that is what you prefer.

Perhaps you should sit with another AC user in Glasgow to get some training?

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:30:23 GMT

Erika -

I think maybe we have different perceptions of the term "quick"!

If you're dimensioning a complex layout, dimensioning the finished surfaces, you can very quickly move around the model, snapping on all the various intersections. That's quick and easy.

If, however, you need to dimension to the core, this facility no longer exists, and you have instead to pick up the end point of a wall, or a point somewhere in its length and delete the nodes you didn't want, plus zoom in to check that you haven't picked a finishes-junction by mistake, then it's a whole different ball-game. Okay, it's do-able, but not so easy.

My complaint is that dimensioning in 'core-only' mode should be just as easy and quick as in the normal mode. And how tantalising that the 'Partial Structure Display - Core only' mode very nearly does it! Wouldn't it be a simple enough matter to retain the dimensioning carried out in this mode? Why on earth make them disappear in "full model display"? If you wanted this to happen you could put them on a separate layer. This must be a mistake, surely. Perhaps the programmers should go for training!

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Gerald Hoffman — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:45:18 GMT

If, however, you need to dimension to the core, this facility no longer exists

Keith,
AFAIK this is not the case. I dimension to the core all the time. If the composite wall have the correct core elements that you want to dimension you just need to pick the wall edge when dimensioning and it will put a dimension to the core element. You just have to make sure you do not select nodes.

Cheers,

Re: dimension points to only to perpendicular walls

Barry Kelly — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 02:26:45 GMT

I can see where Keith is coming from.
In his example he wants to just dimension the end points of the core of the vertical wall.
So he either need to zoom in to the ends for accuracy or click on the sides of the two horizontal walls and then delete a node from the outside edge of each of those walls.
It could be expected that because the dimensioning is set to "core only" that it defaults to the end of the core at junctions rather than the finish nodes.
It seems that it doesen't do this - maybe it should with the option to zoom in and pick the finish end point if needed.

The partial structure display isn't really a tool for being able to dimension just the cores.
As it says it is a display so that different versions of the plan can be displayed - with out finishes for small scale plans with dimensions to just the cores and with finishes for large scal room plans and details with dimensions includeing the finishes.
Some will see this as a feature, others as a hassle and I suspect many would think it not necessary or not even know it is there.

Personally I don't model walls with finishes (yes there are good and bad points about this).
Never did when I was manually drafting so why would I now on a computor.
Except of course for large scale details and then these are usually a 2D line drawing so it really doesn't matter what wall composite I use.

Barry.