Steve @slbaumgartner now has a basic prototype working which puts a triangle in proportion, with rise and run showing with the run defaulting to 12, and the symbol size to 12" (run length in the model).
It works on edges or faces, and overcomes a known bug in which inferencing can become confused and put the marker in the wrong place if an off-edge or off-face inference is picked up instead of the edge, midpoint, or on-face inference highlighted by the inferencing engine.
It works on components or groups nested to any depth, and for any directions of axis of model or component/group.
Before going further with the user interface and options, I’ve tried to summarise what I’ve learnt from responses to this thread (thank you all) and a few other sources about how different people want to display slope markers on their drawings - whether in plan, elevation, or 3d model.
This is what I’ve come up with so far. (Click on the image to enlarge it to a legible size, or download the PDF)
Slope marker styles.pdf (189.8 KB)
The use of what I have called an Inverted triangle or lines for edge slope marks is limited, so we don’t plan to implement that unless there’s a strong call for it.
And (not shown) if you use an Equilateral Triangle mark on a face with the slope ‘down the page’ in a plan view, the text should show mostly ‘right way up’ as in Angular Dimension 2 for angle text.
Are there any other symbols or marking styles that I’ve missed, that anyone uses, not covered by these ones?
Are there any in this list you don’t see any need for?
These are the options we suggest developing:
Edge marker symbol
- Triangle (initial default) [Skip the inverted options at least for now]
- Rise & run lines [i.e., no hypotenuse]
- None (text only)
Face marker symbol (on the face: points down the steepest slope ‘the way the water runs’)
- Equilateral triangle [initial default]
- Long arrow [text parallel to arrow shaft]
- Short arrow [text in line behind arrow shaft]
Marker text
- Rise and run (edges only) [If selected with None for edges, or for face, use Ratio instead]
- Ratio y:x
- Fraction y/x
- Percent %
- Degrees °
Other parameters:
- Run denominator (as integer) - default to 12 in US Customary or Imperial units (Architectural or Fractional Inch in SU), or 100 in metric units
- Marker size (as a length) - default to 12" or 300mm depending on units
- Marker offset from edge (as fraction of marker size), normal to the edge and in a vertical plane through it
- Text scale (as fraction of marker size) OR
- Text height (as a length) If > 0 overrides text scale
The run denominator would be shown as an integer, and the rise or angle to whatever precision is set in Model Info/Units.
Would that cover the options you can foresee wanting?
Pinging previous respondents:
@Neil_Burkholder, @Box, @Geo, @bmike, @Anssi, @JQL, @MobelDesign, @barry_milliken_droid, @simoncbevans, @Ccaponigro, @Anssi, @Lindsey