I’m VERY disappointed that Trimble hasn’t added ordinate dimensions yet. Drawings are unnecessarily cluttered unless I spend a disgusting amount of time to “fake” them in.
With what I spend a year for a licence, I should be able to make the best use of my time with it - not waste valuable time.
Yantski,
What do you mean by ordinate dimensions? Dimensions from the dimensions tool, or dimensions on the 2D layout plane?
If you mean on the 2D layout plane, the location of your cursor relative to the page, the location of your cursor is provided. If you mean the location of your cursor relative to some point, this is also provided. True, you may have to create a temporary line, but this isn’t a huge time waster (2 or 3 clicks).
I really would like to understand.
Best,
Chip
My guess is something like this.
I looked it up. Ordinate dimensions in 2D are distances along the x or y axis all measured from a reference point called the datum. Like what @DaveR showed.
OK, Thanks for explanation. I have been playing around, and I agree that particular type of dimensioning is possible in Layout, but it is not particularly straight forward. Seems like a great place for an extension…uh, nope.
The image shows what I mean. It’s a tool I know from using Solidworks. In Layout I’ve been making the dimensions (to get accurate measurements) then add ordinate dimension lines with the numbers using the label tool. How do you do it that is less involved? How would you add them so they would update if geometry changes - anything manually added is precarious at best?
Well Anssi might not know Solidworks but he has a way to do ordinate dimensions.
standard dimensions with different symbol on start and end. all taken from the same point on the left.
then he just moves the text box.
that way they keep the dimension aspect (automated text) but look like ordinate dimensions.
Your method is easier and more importantly, accurate, and I’ll likely use it in the future. But the result doesn’t replicate the industry standard very well.
What needs to be said is that when producing drawings for people who are used to seeing them in a certain format, the drawings must be close or they won’t use your services.
FWIW, the dimensions are all anchored to the model like other dimensions. I made one extension line and the dimension line transparent. I just moved the text to overlap the visible extension line. The dimensions update with changes in the model as here.
It’s something we are looking for as well. The workaround is ok, but cumbersome. Ordinate Dimensioning can make a lot of sense, because you can ensure that one error in copying a measure to the real world will not result in every other measure shifting by that error. In metal works it’s a bit of a standard.
I keep hoping they add an espresso machine…
what we spend on a license is completely unconnected to our own profits. What we spend is what Trimble says their app is worth. We take the calculated risk that their app can make us profitable.
I doubt very highly that Trimble has/is/does worry about you making the best of your time with their app. I know they don’t worry about me and my use of time. If they did, Layout would be a lot of things it currently isn’t right now that I opine is necessary (me and quite a few people on these forums I reckon).
As someone will make clear, there is no other 3D/2D modeling software that can do what Sketchup and Layout can do at their price point. For less than five hundred dollars a year we have a robust platform, with all its admittedly quirky behaviors. The question is always about profit. If the time it takes to do a workaround for this type of dimensioning on every project in a year amounts to more than double the price of another app, then sketchup is the wrong tool…use the other app. But if that amount, even with the yearly cost of Sketchup, is still less than any other 3D/2D platform, then shift the mindset and make the workaround the workflow and rejoice that you have saved money.
And before Im labeled a fan-boy, know that Im a complainer of the first order. I have just been adjusted more than a few times on these forums to see the light before being absorbed by the darkness.
“Pro’s do more with inferior tools than hobbyists do with perfect ones.” ~Unknown~
If you mean the image I posted somewhere in history, it replicates our local (Finnish) standard for ordinate dimensions in the construction industry. The world has, I guess, thousands of standards about these.
I think that this might be possible to do with Curic Single Line Text extension ($20). You’ll be hemmed in with the default font but it should be able to do automatic ordinate dimensions from a component origin.
