Curved leader with label offset for very small dimensions - help

Developers SketchUp SDK
1

When I use the Layout tool (2017) and set a dimension through the user interface, it automatically renders the small dimensions with a bezier leader and label offset.

Now when I use the Dimension API (code taken from createLayoutExample) on an exporter on Windows, it renders large dimensions correctly but small dimensions also, it puts the label above or below but does not put the curved leader by default.

Is there any additional apis to call to show the curved leaders and label and some sample code ? Or some pointers.

Ravi

2

Hi,

We noticed this bug in our API very recently but we have not been able to address it yet. The issue is due to us not changing the leader line type in the LOLinearDimensionCreate function resulting in the default setting of Hidden. When the leader line type is set to Hidden we do not move the dimension text from its relative position, even when a dimension is resized to be a small dimension.

Unfortunately, setting the leader line type after creating the dimension will also not cause the text to automatically pop out if the dimension should be a small dimension.

To get the small dimension to show up properly you would have to do the following:

  1. Create the dimension.
  2. Set the leader line type.
  3. Get a copy of the dimension text.
  4. Move that LOFormattedTextRef to the desired location.
  5. Set that text ref as the dimension text.

Obviously this is not ideal. We are considering some options in making this work better.

  1. In the Create method, we can set the default leader line type to two segment. This will cause small dimensions to automatically pop out the text.
  2. We can potentially modify LOLinearDimensionSetLeaderLineType to pop out the dimension text if the dimension is a small dimension and the leader line type is changing from Hidden to something else. Note that this may cause the text to go in an undesired direction as we can’t be certain where it should go.
  3. We might be able to surface the options that can be seen when moving the text around when manipulating a dimension in the LayOut application.

We may make all of these changes or do something else if it makes sense to do so.

I would love to hear what you think about the issue.

Thanks,
Adam

3

Thanks Adam for the update. Let me first try out your suggestion to understand the issue better. I guess you and your team are more qualified to get a proper solution and fix the issue. But if I have some ideas, will surely update the thread.