Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

more intelligent dimensioning

Aussie John
Newcomer
How many times have you selected a dimension string & tried to place it on the plan only find it has evaporated because the wrong dimension direction button was selected. ( maybe never but I do it all the time!!)

The point is, in many instances the direction can only be in one direction- for instance click on a wall and the core is dimensioned-The orientation of the wall dictates the dimension string.
or if I select points and the y coordinates are all the same then the direction has to be one way

I shouldnt have to then select the orientation box.
Cheers John
John Hyland : ARINA : www.arina.biz
User ver 4 to 12 - Jumped to v22 - so many options and settings!!!
OSX 10.15.6 [Catalina] : Archicad 22 : 15" MacBook Pro 2019
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15 REPLIES 15
Anonymous
Not applicable
My sentiments exactly !
Anonymous
Not applicable
Well, AC is obviously intelligent enough to notice that you have entered (for example) 'all horizontal points' whilst the vertical dimension tool was selected - and doesn't even try to give you a dim line of zero....

What I would like to see is a check box along the lines of;

Hello dummy! Are you really sure you want to carry on with your futile clicking - 'coz you ain't gonna get a dimension line like this! (and in true GS manner we could have the options) "Yes / No" which would at least ensure we keep some Hungarian mysticisim to the process?!!

Just wishing ... Stuart
Aussie John
Newcomer
if that is too difficult the placement cursor could look like the direction buttons
Cheers John
John Hyland : ARINA : www.arina.biz
User ver 4 to 12 - Jumped to v22 - so many options and settings!!!
OSX 10.15.6 [Catalina] : Archicad 22 : 15" MacBook Pro 2019
[/size]
Anonymous
Not applicable
Aussie wrote:
How many times have you selected a dimension string & tried to place it on the plan only find it has evaporated because the wrong dimension direction button was selected. ( maybe never but I do it all the time!!)

The point is, in many instances the direction can only be in one direction- for instance click on a wall and the core is dimensioned-The orientation of the wall dictates the dimension string.
or if I select points and the y coordinates are all the same then the direction has to be one way

I shouldnt have to then select the orientation box.
Yes, I could not agree with you more.
Furthermore, another reason that I think the dimensioning tool could and should be made better is that in my experience when dimensioning on an angle, it is too easy to end up with a dimension line that is not parallel
to the wall or line that you want to dimension. Furthermore, it seems that too often it is only slightly out of parallel, so it is not obvious to the naked eye, yet the dimension numbers are not what they should be and it goes undetected. I realize that dimension strings can be rotated after the fact, but that is a lot of extra effort, and again, I find that they are usually off by a small enough amount that it is hard to detect the error when reviewing drawings.


My suggestion to Graphisoft would be as follows: (please forgive my copying from the old ArchiTalk, but I really think this would work very slick.)

1. This solution changes the way the direction of the dimension string is chosen and is much more direct and intuitive, in my opinion.
-- Click on objects or in space to establish the nodes for the dimension string
-- Double click (as you do now) to end "node selection"
-- Click on the edge of some object or a line to establish the direction (or angle) of the dimension string.
or if there is not such an object existing, just draw a vector. (As you all know this step of clicking on an edge or drawing a vector is how many of ArchiCAD's tools already operate. ie. the "Split" or "Adjust" tools in the Edit Menu)
Maybe to enhance this step there could be a little pop up window that allowed you to type an angle if you want and/or it would show you the angle of the object that you selected or vector you drew.
-- At this point, the dimension string should be at a set angle and should move along the with the mouse so you can set the location of the whole string (ie. how close it is to the wall or whatever) Click one last time to set this location of the dimension string.

Thanks,
Marc
Anonymous
Not applicable
The method I use to get around the current limitations of the angle dimensioning tool is by starting by clicking the edge of a wall which is perpendicular to the string you want to create. This gives you two points exactly in line with each other (each face of the wall). You can then add any points and you will know that the angle is correct. If you didn't want those points in the first place, you will have to delete a point, but that is not too big a deal.
__archiben
Booster
let's do a BIG overhaul:

how about when we edit an associated dimension the element that it's assciated to will change - backwards associativity (good job there's no spell check, eh?)

from what i understand from my colleague, revit used to be able to do this. . . .

~/archiben
b e n f r o s t
b f [a t ] p l a n b a r c h i t e c t u r e [d o t] n z
archicad | sketchup! | coffeecup
Anonymous
Not applicable
Being that the orientation can be set after the reference points are placed, I think a pet palette that appears before placing the string would be appropriate, easy to execute and would alleviate a lot of issue. I would also like to see them include an eyeball at placement to determine wich side of the string the text is to be placed when not oriented in the center splitting the string.
__archiben
Booster
and dimension strings that can be, and remain until chosen otherwise, associative to lines, etc.

[having just found that a while ago somebody must have moved one of our structural grid lines and the dimension did not move with it . . . ]

~/archiben
b e n f r o s t
b f [a t ] p l a n b a r c h i t e c t u r e [d o t] n z
archicad | sketchup! | coffeecup
Djordje
Ace
~/archiben wrote:
and dimension strings that can be, and remain until chosen otherwise, associative to lines, etc.

[having just found that a while ago somebody must have moved one of our structural grid lines and the dimension did not move with it . . . ]
It is probably linked to the marker, right?
Djordje



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