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Adding dimensions to an isometric view.
simon_powell
Member Posts: 5 ✭
Is it possible to show dimensions on isometric views? Onshape allows me to do so and it seems to be in the correct plane, but the dimension stated is smaller than it actually is. My guess is that it's a result of showing a 3D dimension in 2D?
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Best Answers
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viru Member, Developers Posts: 619 ✭✭✭✭@simon_powell, Actually it is due to foreshortening property of isometric view. Please refer below detail.
The concept of foreshortening is a very important one in isometric projection. Let us take two orthographic views (first angle i.e elevation above) of a pencil which is parallel to the ground, and take a view perpendicular to its length. In its starting position the pencil is a true length in both plane and elevation. Holding the pointed end of the pencil steady move the opposite end away from you, ensuring the pencil remains parallel to the ground. Keep moving the pencil away from you until you are looking along the point of the pencil. A view along the point of the pencil (a point view) is a view parallel to the direction in which the pencil is pointing. The length of the pencil changed as you moved it from full length to a point view. Every time you moved the pencil away from you its length appeared to get shorter or it foreshortened. As the pencil rotates parallel to the Horizontal plane its elevation becomes foreshortened. The further you move the end of the pencil away from you the greater the foreshortening. This is known as the degree of foreshortening. For example, if you moved the pencil from its starting position (full length) 5º away from you (the 5º is relative to the vertical plane) then the degree of foreshortening is very small as the pencil appears only a little smaller than full size. However, if you moved it 85º from its initial position then it would appear very small (very near a point view). In this case there is a large degree of foreshortening.
Note: The pencil is initially parallel to both the Vertical and Horizontal planes. It is then rotated 5º . The pencil is now no longer parallel to the Vertical plane. The full 5º rotation can be seen in the plan view. When fully rotated the pencil is perpendicular to the Vertical plane and still parallel to the Horizontal plane.
Let us take the same cube as above to further illustrate this point. Starting with an elevation view of the cube we see a square. The LOS, in this view, is perpendicular to the front edges e.g. 'AB' and 'BC' and also to the back edges e.g. 'EF' and 'HG' ('G' is the lower corner right behind 'C' in the elevation). Because the LOS is perpendicular to these edges, they are true lengths. It is also important to note that in the elevation edges 'AE', 'BF', 'CG' and 'DH' all appear as point views. This is because we are looking parallel to these lines.
Let us now rotate the cube about 'AD' so that the elevation and end view are visible together. We are no longer looking perpendicular to the front face of the cube. What has happened to the edges 'AB' and 'AE'? The line 'AB' has been rotated just like the pencil above so it appears shorter in this view, i.e. 'AB' has foreshortened. However, the line 'AE' has gone from being a point view to a line view. This line still does not appear as a true length so it is still foreshortened. How about line 'AD'? We are still looking perpendicular to this line so it appears as a true length.
Finally let us rotate the cube vertically up about the line 'DG' while holding point 'D' on the ground. Now, what has happened to line 'AD'? Well, we are no longer looking perpendicular to it so it now also has foreshortened. If you watch the animation you will see the vertical height of line 'AD' decrease. In fact, all the edges of the cube now appear foreshortened. If the angles between the projection of the axes are equal, i.e. 120º, then all the edges foreshorten equally. This view is known as an isometric view. When the cube has been fully rotated a point view of the body or long diagonal 'DG' results which only occurs in an isometric view of a cube.
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Narayan_K Member Posts: 379 ✭✭✭simon_powell , You are correct it is showing 2D dimension.Isometric value will be less than the normal value.It will shorten the length by 81.65 %. So if you measure center to center in Isometric view it will show 816.5(1000 x 0.8165).
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Answers
The concept of foreshortening is a very important one in isometric projection. Let us take two orthographic views (first angle i.e elevation above) of a pencil which is parallel to the ground, and take a view perpendicular to its length. In its starting position the pencil is a true length in both plane and elevation. Holding the pointed end of the pencil steady move the opposite end away from you, ensuring the pencil remains parallel to the ground. Keep moving the pencil away from you until you are looking along the point of the pencil. A view along the point of the pencil (a point view) is a view parallel to the direction in which the pencil is pointing. The length of the pencil changed as you moved it from full length to a point view. Every time you moved the pencil away from you its length appeared to get shorter or it foreshortened. As the pencil rotates parallel to the Horizontal plane its elevation becomes foreshortened. The further you move the end of the pencil away from you the greater the foreshortening. This is known as the degree of foreshortening. For example, if you moved the pencil from its starting position (full length) 5º away from you (the 5º is relative to the vertical plane) then the degree of foreshortening is very small as the pencil appears only a little smaller than full size. However, if you moved it 85º from its initial position then it would appear very small (very near a point view). In this case there is a large degree of foreshortening.
Note: The pencil is initially parallel to both the Vertical and Horizontal planes. It is then rotated 5º . The pencil is now no longer parallel to the Vertical plane. The full 5º rotation can be seen in the plan view. When fully rotated the pencil is perpendicular to the Vertical plane and still parallel to the Horizontal plane.
Let us take the same cube as above to further illustrate this point. Starting with an elevation view of the cube we see a square. The LOS, in this view, is perpendicular to the front edges e.g. 'AB' and 'BC' and also to the back edges e.g. 'EF' and 'HG' ('G' is the lower corner right behind 'C' in the elevation). Because the LOS is perpendicular to these edges, they are true lengths. It is also important to note that in the elevation edges 'AE', 'BF', 'CG' and 'DH' all appear as point views. This is because we are looking parallel to these lines.
Let us now rotate the cube about 'AD' so that the elevation and end view are visible together. We are no longer looking perpendicular to the front face of the cube. What has happened to the edges 'AB' and 'AE'? The line 'AB' has been rotated just like the pencil above so it appears shorter in this view, i.e. 'AB' has foreshortened. However, the line 'AE' has gone from being a point view to a line view. This line still does not appear as a true length so it is still foreshortened. How about line 'AD'? We are still looking perpendicular to this line so it appears as a true length.
Finally let us rotate the cube vertically up about the line 'DG' while holding point 'D' on the ground. Now, what has happened to line 'AD'? Well, we are no longer looking perpendicular to it so it now also has foreshortened. If you watch the animation you will see the vertical height of line 'AD' decrease. In fact, all the edges of the cube now appear foreshortened. If the angles between the projection of the axes are equal, i.e. 120º, then all the edges foreshorten equally. This view is known as an isometric view. When the cube has been fully rotated a point view of the body or long diagonal 'DG' results which only occurs in an isometric view of a cube.
Foreshortened values in drawings seems pretty redundant? Does anyone have any use case where this value is needed instead of actual lenght from the 3d model?
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/8519/support-of-drawing-dimensions-in-oblique-views-true-dimensions
Please help me explain these sizes to my carpenter.
This is mindblowingly weird.
Wait a minute...when I google "dimensions in isometric drawings", I get loads of examples with REAL dimensions, so...this is just a bug in OnShape?
No this is not a bug in Onshape drawings. This is just functionality we have not implemented yet. We will get to it. Right now Onshape only places projected dimensions. This is generally the more popular use case compared to true dimensions. As others have mentioned there is not an automatic way to know that dimensions should be "true" versus projected. We will likely include a setting on a view that will set dimensions to be true or projected. It's likely that isometric views will always be set to True type when we implement this, and then users can switch if they need. For named views, it will probably be impossible to know if users want true or projected dimensions by default so we will likely default to projected. We will likely not permit, at first, for views to contain a mix of true and projected dimensions. That can get awfully confusing to the readers of drawings.
I am not a programmer. Not my thing.
BUT, I do believe, that without too much effort on the part of Onshape employees, we could have a half decent workaround, where there are 3D dimensions in the Drafting tab
Just one thing needs to be done — HAVE AN OPTION to hide lines created with the USE tool.
Now I don’t want to suppress these particular lines. I just want to hide them. And I don’t want to suppress them because I want to use the dimension tool on these lines to get my 3D dimensions.
THAT’S ALL THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE !
Once you have your dimensions, all you need to do is take a screen capture and paste that into the drawing tab
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There are a couple other things that would improve on this. One such thing would be to have an option to make the driven dimensions black upon doing a screen capture
The other thing would be for Onshape to create a tool or function for doing VECTOR screen captures (Vector PDF) where I could then paste that into the drawing tab
Take a look at the PDF below
OK if you downloaded the PDF above, you saw that we have 3D dimensions in Onshape RIGHT NOW. Not the full blown 3D dimensions, but a workaround
But, to make those 3D dimensions, you have to use the USE tool on the surfaces that you want to create the dimensions. When you use that USE tool, it makes a very heavy weight line. That’s why I would like the ability to hide those lines made with the USE tool
I could be wrong as I am a greenhorn on the browser version of Onshape, but yesterday I stumbled across what seems to be that you can only use SHOW DIMENSIONS on one sketch at a time on the browser version of Onshape.
On the mobile version, or at least on my iPhone, I could use SHOW DIMENSIONS on as many sketches as I want, and have all these different sketches SHOW DIMENSIONS simultaneously. Which gives me that ability to do what I did in the above PDF.
Not realizing that you could not do this on the browser version — well that’s maybe why I got that dastardly down vote - LOL
Anyway, it seems that the iPhone or the mobile version of Onshape has something that the browser version doesn’t
GO MOBILE !
Projected dimensions are most definitely the more used dimensions on drawing views in general. Yes, not for isometric cases, but in general they are used far more extensively in engineering drawings for lots of good reasons - compared to true dimensions.
Any suggestions?
- Allowing "show dimensions" on multiple sketches at a time on the Desktop app
- Allowing to hide lines created with "use" functions
I really hope the Onshape team will work on this feature