CHAPTER
24
PRECISION DRAWING AND
DIMENSIONING
This chapter describes precision drawing tools and techniques that
can help you create scale drawings, floor plans, architectural designs,
and other types of technical drawings. This chapter explains how to
display size information as you draw
set up the scale for scale drawings
add dimension objects to illustrations
use Smart Mouse to align objects
Some of the techniques described elsewhere in this book also apply
to precision drawing. For information on document setup and using
rulers, refer to Chapter 3, Document Setup.
Setting up a documents measurement scale
Canvas offers a variety of options for creating scale drawings. You
can set up a ruler to control the scale of an entire document. You can
also customize scale settings for individual dimension objects. Other
settings affect the format of measurement and position data.
The following settings affect the measurement of objects in a docu-
ment:
Rulers
You set up a documents overall drawing scale using the
Rulers command and Rulers dialog box. The ruler scale affects all
object measurements, including those made with the dimensioning
tools. The ruler scale also affects data in the Object Specs palette and
status bar. See Setting up rulers and the drawing scale on
page 11.125.
Number Form
A setting in the Preferences dialog box affects the
format of data in the Status bar and other displays. This option con-
trols the precision of data and the number format (decimal or frac-
tions). See Units preferences on page 15.236.
Dimensions
You can create custom scale settings for dimension
objects using the Dimensioning dialog box. You can customize indi-
vidual dimension objects, or set a custom scale for all dimension