cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

Dimensioning line automatic offset

Miha_M
Advisor
Hi! I need my plans to look good. It's not only the built object that counts, I treat the plans as artwork as well. But I need a lot of time for placing all the dimensioning lines, because I need them to be at a designated distance from the measured object (walls, doors, etc.). Now I have to pick all the points for the dimensioning, set the dimensioning line to the objects edge, activate this dimensioning line and then move it to the designated distance from the object. Could you please integrate some kind of automatic offset for placing this dimensioning lines? With automatic dimensioning this is possible, so why wouldn't it work with manual dimensioning?

This would make my life so much easier. I guess some archicad people out there might like this addition as well.

| Archicad 4.55 - 27
| HP Z840 | 2× E5-2643 v4 | 64 GB RAM | Quadro M5000 | Windows 10 Pro x64
| HP Z4 G4 | W-2245 | 64 GB RAM | RTX A4000 | Windows 11

4 REPLIES 4
Barry Kelly
Moderator
There is no need to place the dimension, select it and then move it.
It can all be done as you create the dimension.

Double click to finish the dimension inputs.
Place your mouse cursor over the point you want to set the distance from but do not click.
Type "X" or "Y" and input the distance you want for the dimension followed by + or -.
Then press ENTER.

To offset to the right you would type "X 600+" and to offset to the left "X 600-"
"Y 600+" would go up and "Y 600-" down.

Notice the +/- is after the number - this will add or subtract the distance from the current cursor position rather than from the origin.
If you don't put the +/- after the number the distance will be measured from the user origin.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Miha_M
Advisor
Barry wrote:
Notice the +/- is after the number - this will add or subtract the distance from the current cursor position rather than from the origin.
If you don't put the +/- after the number the distance will be measured from the user origin.
Now this one I didn't know, in spite of considering myself to be an experienced Archicad user. Thank you for sharing this. But still this is just one small step towards the good solution. I'd rather have, maybe in the dimensioning dialog window, one option for using offset placement, where one could put the offset value in. The whole procedure would be almost the same, where you click on the points to be measured, then click to choose the dimensioning line orientation, (which would also become the origin for the offset!), and after that you would choose the side of the offset placement (like WE USED TO DO when inserting windows, where you could choose left or right - I still don't understand why this is not possible anymore). You could also keep the traditional measuring placing method as the default option, I wouldn't mind that.

| Archicad 4.55 - 27
| HP Z840 | 2× E5-2643 v4 | 64 GB RAM | Quadro M5000 | Windows 10 Pro x64
| HP Z4 G4 | W-2245 | 64 GB RAM | RTX A4000 | Windows 11

Stephen Dolbee
Booster
This has been on my wishlist for some time. Barry's method is good, but still too much typing for me.
AC19(9001), 27" iMac i7, 12 gb ram, ATI Radeon HD 4850 512mb, OS 10.12.6
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
I voted ESSENTIAL.
I would also like the ability to be able to set a dimension a certain distance from an other existing dimension using this method. This way a series of 4-5 dimension lines would be nicely (and quickly) placed one after the other.
Yes, the current method works, but this could be done so much faster.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27