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Is it just me or, is there still really no way to dimension to objects in a drawing at 180 deg?
shawn_crocker
Member, OS Professional Posts: 947 PRO
in Drawings
I have never been able to do this but, I'm starting to wonder if I have simply missed out on something. Anyone know hoe to do this? It seems like something any drawing tool be expected to do. My use case is, dimensioning a door in an exploded view. Showing an exploded view of the door opened to 180 degrees and dimensioning it, has always been something I just end up manually typing into a note or something. 😣
0
Answers
What if you make it 179.999 degrees? That should be rounded up to 180 degrees?
@sebastian_glanzner I do this and sometimes it's ok. Sometimes I can't when the two lines I need to measure are not coincident with the rotating axis. When this is the case, the dimension behaves very strangely. I will try the 3 point angle dim as @PeteYodis has suggested. 😊👍
@shawn_crocker I have a similar issue try to dimension components of an assembly that are the same plane. I need to show a dimension of zero (0.00 mm), but it is impossible. I presume you are working in an assembly. Therefore, make your angle to 179.0 degrees (or as close you want) in the assembly. Then, create your dimension on the drawing. Then, go back to the assembly and change the dimension to 180.0 degrees. The drawing should update and show the 180.0 degrees as well. However, if you end up updating your assembly, you might have to repeat the process to properly illustrate it again on the drawing.
That is certainly NOT any option. We should never compromise our design to cover up shortcomings of the tools available. I recommend going with the 3-point-angular dimension, and use the drawing detailing tools to create that angle vertex required, in case it is unavailable, like in this case:
It would help, though, if there was a means of hiding that sketch point, which might lead the faint at heart craftsman to believe there's to be a hole right there. We could also discuss wether sketch points in drawings need to look like holes. Maybe they should rather look like annotation, but there's no way to at least change their line style or colour, for that only works on edges.
@martin_kopplow For modelling a part, I would also never do this. But for showing an open door in an exploded view, it seemed like a good workaround.
Thanks for the tip for the three point dimension.
@martin_kopplow @sebastian_glanzner Indeed. For simply showing a door opening to 180 deg, if I find the smart dimension tool usually works when setting to 179.999 deg, and is faster then defining an angle with the three point angle tool, I'm def going to just set things to 179.999 deg as a standard practice. When a work around saves time 90 percent of the occurances, it would be lunacy not to use it just to uphold some high level of standard. 🤭
We have a popular saying here. It goes "Ein geklemmtes Kind scheut Automaten". The meaning is a bit hard to translate, but it goes along the lines of "A child once trapped will avoid vending machines".
I once had a colleague who used such tricks, tiny deviations invisible to his co-workers. That caused major damage, when an unsuspecting designer built on top of such stuff. In my experience, there is rarely a need to dimension 180° angles, for non-dimensioned lines will be regarded as alingned anyway. So the time-saving character of adjusting a part to be 179,999° in an assembly is not obvious to me.
@martin_kopplow The time savings come from it taking longer to dimension the angle using the three point angle dimension tool, but it doesn't take longer to remember to set an exploded view to 179.999 deg The time savings come from adjusting the list of parameters one uses to define ideal, and include some parameters outside the realm of theoretical perfection. In the Grand scheme, cheating on an exploded view position to make things slightly more straightforward down the road, has no negative side. 🙏😜. Adapting is so much more relaxing and healthy, then monitoring for deviations from perceived ideals. 👍