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5.11.1 DRAW DIMENSION
The DRAW DIMENSION command is used to draw one or more dimension entities.
The dimension and text parameters are taken from the currently selected
parameters for the viewport or the system default parameters. Any of the
selected or system parameters can be overridden using the DPARAMETERS or
TPARAMETERS modifiers.
COMMAND FORMAT
The command format for DRAW DIMENSION varies according to the modifiers
used. When the command and the required modifiers have been selected,
entering a colon will result in the 'Loc', 'Ent' or 'View' prompt being
issued:
#DRAW DIMENSION modifiers :Loc/Ent
or
#DRAW DIMENSION modifiers :View
If the current active viewport is the sheet viewport, the 'View' prompt will
be issued if one or more internal viewports exist. The purpose if this
prompt is to enquire if you wish to use a different viewport for
dimensioning. If a viewport is selected, then all dimension values will be
calculated using the scale and units of the identified viewport. The
dimension entities themselves will always be created on the sheet viewport,
but will be related to the dimension viewport.
When the viewport has been selected, a colon must be entered to go on to the
next stage of input. To use the sheet viewport to calculate dimension
values, a colon is entered without selecting one of the other viewports:
#DRAW DIMENSION modifiers :View x1 :Loc/Ent ( To select a dimension
viewport ).
or
#DRAW DIMENSION modifiers :View :Loc/Ent ( To use the sheet
viewport ).
Whether or not the next prompt for input is 'Loc' or 'Ent' is dependent on
the type of dimension selected using the TYPE modifier. These differences in
format are described below.
MODIFIERS
LAYER Requires a layer number. This will override the current
active layer.
DEPTH Requires a depth number. This will override the current
active depth.
TYPE The TYPE modifier is used to select the type of dimension
required. There are seven available dimension types to choose
from:
HORIZONTAL Used to dimension the horizontal distance
between two points. This is the default
type used if TYPE is omitted.
VERTICAL Used to dimension the vertical distance
between two points.
LINEAR Used to dimension the total distance
between two points.
POINT Used to draw a single point dimension.
ANGULAR Used to dimension an angle.
DIAMETRIC Used to dimension an arc or circle.
RADIAL Used to dimension an arc or circle.
Each of these dimension types requires a slightly different
sequence of command input:
#DRAW DIMENSION TYPE HORIZONTAL :Loc x1 x2 x3 [x4] [:Loc ]
Locations 'x1' and 'x2' define the object points of the
dimension. The dimension value will be obtained from the
horizontal distance between these two points. Location 'x3'
defines the y point for the witness line. The optional
location 'x4' will be used as an origin point for the
dimension value text if it is entered. ( See fig. 5.75 ). If
If 'x4' is omitted, the dimension value text will be placed
automatically. ( See fig. 5.76 and 5.77 ).
The optional text origin is applicable to all dimension
types.
#DRAW DIMENSION TYPE VERTICAL :Loc x1 x2 x3 [x4] [:Loc ]
Locations 'x1' and 'x2' define the object points of the
dimension. The dimension value will be obtained from the
vertical distance between these two points. Location 'x3'
defines the x point for the witness line. ( See fig. 5.78 ).
#DRAW DIMENSION TYPE LINEAR :Loc x1 x2 x3 [x4] [:Loc ]
Locations 'x1' and 'x2' define the object points of the
dimension. The dimension value will be obtained from the
total distance between these two points. Points 'x1' and 'x2'
also define the angle of the witness line and leader lines.
Location 'x3' is used as reference point to place the witness
line. ( See fig. 5.79 ).
#DRAW DIMENSION TYPE POINT :Loc x1 x2 x3 [x4] [:Loc ]
Location 'x1' defines the object point of the dimension.
Locations 'x2' and 'x3' define the start and end point of a
leader line. The dimension value will be obtained from the
ordinate value of 'x1'. ( See fig. 5.80 ).
#DRAW DIMENSION TYPE ANGULAR :Loc x1 x2 x3 x4 [x5] [:Loc ]
Locations 'x1', 'x2' and 'x3' define the dimension angle.
The points 'x2' and 'x3' should be entered anticlockwise in
relation to the angle origin at 'x1'. Location 'x4' defines
the radius of the witness line as the distance between points
'x1' and 'x4'. ( See fig. 5.81 ).
#DRAW DIMENSION TYPE DIAMETRIC :Ent x1 :Loc x2 [x3]
Diametric dimensions are always created by referencing an arc
entity. The dimension value is obtained from the diameter of
the entity selected by 'x1'. Location 'x2' is used to place
the witness line. If location 'x2' is inside the radius of
the arc, then the witness line will be drawn within the
circumference of the arc or circle. If location 'x2' is
outside the radius of the arc, then the witness line will be
from point 'x2' through the middle of the circle. The angle
of the witness line is obtained by the angle formed between
the centre of the arc or circle and point 'x2'. No leader
lines are drawn. The dimension value text will be prefixed
by the diameter symbol. ( See fig. 5.82 and 5.83 ).
#DRAW DIMENSION TYPE RADIAL :Ent x1 :Loc x2 [x3] [:Loc ]
Radial dimensions are always created by referencing an arc
entity. The dimension value is obtained from the radius of
the arc selected by 'x1'. A single line is drawn from the arc
circumference to the location 'x2'. ( See fig 5.84 ).
ALIGN The ALIGN modifier is used to align a new dimension with an
existing dimension. ALIGN can only be used with the dimension
types HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL, LINEAR and ANGULAR. The command
format changes when the ALIGN modifier is used:
#DRAW DIMENSION ALIGN modifiers :Ent x1 :Loc x2 [:Ent ]
'x1' is used to select an existing dimension entity. The
witness line for the new dimension entity will be aligned to
the witness line of the selected entity. The location of 'x1'
is also used to obtain the first object point for the
dimension. Location 'x2' defines the second object point for
the dimension. If location 'x3' is entered, then this defines
the origin for the dimension value text. If 'x3' is omitted,
the dimension value text will be placed automatically. ( See
fig. 5.85 ).
DPARAMETERS The DPARAMETERS modifier is used to enter a further set of
modifiers used to control the dimension parameters.
.SUPPRESSLEAD This modifier can be used to suppress one or both of the
dimension leader lines. SUPPRESSLEAD is followed by one of
four keywords:
FIRST Suppress the first leader line.
SECOND Suppress the second leader line.
BOTH Suppress both leader lines.
NONE Do not suppress any of the leader lines.
( See fig. 5.86 ).
.LEADGAP The LEADGAP modifier is used to define the gap left between
the start of the leader line and the object point of the
dimension. If a negeative value is entered, then the leader
lines will extend beyond the dimension object points. LEADGAP
should be followed by a real value. ( See fig. 5.87 ).
.LEADEXT The LEADEXT modifier is followed by a real value used to
define the distance that each leader line is extended beyond
the dimension witness line.
.ARROWHEAD The ARROWHEAD modifier is used to select the type of
arrowhead to be used for all dimension entities. The modifier
is followed by one of 5 keywords to select the arrowhead
type:
CLOSED Use a closed unfilled arrowhead.
FILLED Use a closed filled arrowhead.
OPEN Use an open arrowhead ( < shape ).
DASH Use a diagonal dash as the arrowhead ( /
shape ).
NONE No arrowhead will be used.
..LENGTH Requires a real value to specify the length of the arrowhead
in the creation viewport units.
...RATIO Specifies the ratio between the arrowhead length and width.
If the arrowhead length was entered as 5mm, a ratio of 2.5
will make the arrowhead width 2mm.
.SCALE The SCALE modifier can be used to specify a scale factor
which will be applied to all dimension values.
.UNITS If this modifier is used, any dimension values will be
converted from their dimension viewport units to a specified
units type. The units types that can be entered are:
MM Millimetres.
CM Centimetres.
M Metres.
KM Kilometres.
IN Inches.
FT Feet.
ML Miles.
DEFAULT Use the default units.
.TEXT The TEXT modifier is used to enter a further set of modifiers
used to control layout and formatting characteristics for
dimension text.
..POSITION This modifier has a number of options to decide how the
dimension text is positioned relative to the witness line:
HORIZONTAL Always position the text horizontally. ( See
fig. 5.88 ).
ALIGN Always align the text with the witness
line. ( See fig. 5.89 ).
The above 2 options override any selected
text angle.
MANUAL Position the text manually. The text angle
and justification is taken from the
currently selected text parameters.
...BREAK If the BREAK modifier is used with POSITION options
HORIZONTAL or ALIGN, then the witness line will be broken to
fit the dimension value text. ( See fig. 5.90 ).
..DTEXT The DTEXT modifier can be used to enter a character string
that will be used as the dimension text instead of the
actual dimension value. ( See fig. 5.91 ).
..PREFIX The PREFIX modifier can be used to enter a character string
that will act as a prefix to any dimension value text. ( See
fig 5.92 ).
..NOPREFIX NOPREFIX will cancel any prefix text that may have already
been selected using the SELECT TEXT command.
..SUFFIX The SUFFIX modifier can be used to enter a character string
that will act as a suffix to any dimension value text.
..NOSUFFIX NOSUFFIX will cancel any suffix text that may have already
been selected using the SELECT TEXT command.
..PRECISION The PRECISION modifier is followed by an integer value used
to define the number of decimal places of precision to use
when formatting dimension value text. ( See fig. 5.93 ).
..TRAILZERO TRAILZERO is a toggle use to switch between displaying or
not displaying any trailing zeros when fromatting dimension
value text.
..TOLERANCE The TOLERANCE modifier is used to specify one of 4
tolerancing formats that can be used with dimensions. The
modifier is followed by one of 4 keywords:
T± Used to enter a single value for plus and minus
tolerances.
T+T- Used to enter two tolerance values; one positive
and one negative tolerance.
T+ Used to enter a single value for a positive
tolerance only.
T- Used to enter a single value for a negative
tolerance only.
...VALUE This modifier is used to specify the tolerance value ( or
values in the case of T+T- ) for the above modifier.
..FORMAT The FORMAT modifier is used to select the format for
dimension values if the dimension viewport units or selected
units type are imperial - feet or inches. The default is to
use feet and inches format with decimal fractions: one foot
six and a half inches would be formatted as " 1'-6.500" ".
...DECIMAL Will select decimal format for imperial units: one foot six
and a half inches will be formatted as "1.5416".
...IMPERIAL Selects the default imperial format. ( See fig. 5.94 ).
....FRACTIONS Will use fractional values in formatting dimension text
values for imperial units. The modifier should be followed by
an integer value defining the lowest denominator to be used
for fractional values. Unless the FIXED modifier is used, the
lowest common denominator will be sought; ie, if a value of
16 is chosen for the FRACTIONS value, 0.5 will be formatted
as "1/2" and not "8/16". ( See fig. 5.95 ).
The above example of one foot six and a half inches will
be formatted as " 1'-6 1/2" ".
.....FIXED Will used fixed fractions when formatting imperial values.
The denominator specified under FRACTIONS will always be
used.
TPARAMETERS The TPARAMETERS modifier is used to enter a further family
of modifiers used to control the text parameters and
appearance.
See the documentation for the command DRAW TEXT for a full
description of the modifiers used to control text parameters.
EXPLODE Specifies that the dimension should be exploded into all of
its component parts. If this modifier is used, individual
entities are created as opposed to a single dimension entity.
This means that each entity that makes up the dimension can
be edited or referenced in the normal way.
All of the entities created will be related to each other to
form a group of equal members.
.UNLINK If the UNLINK modifier is used in conjunction with EXPLODE,
the entities that compose the dimension will not be related.
ATTRIBUTE Used to enter one or more attributes associated with this
entity. For a full description of the ATTRIBUTE option, see
the documentation for the command ADD ATTRIBUTE.