Dimension Tool orientation

sorgesu · 12 Aug 2008, 13:36

I could swear that I used to be able to use the diension tool so that the "leader" is aligned to whatever orientation I wanted. I can't do it now. If I am pointing to an diagonal, the leader still insists on aligning with an axis direction and then bending 90 degrees to point to the "end point".
What have I forgotten? How can I do this?

Gaieus · 12 Aug 2008, 13:44

Susan,

You can "encourage" the dimension tool by hovering over the edge you want to dimension. Also, when pulling it out and moving slowly parallel to the edge, you will see it jump from one axis inference to perpendicular to the edge (the magenta inference) to the other axis inference.
Try to pull it out ner either endpoint - that seemed to be the easiest to me.

Very interestin furthermore that when you set it to any of the three and start moving it around, it can still jump from one to the other then the third.

sorgesu · 12 Aug 2008, 14:21

mp amount of hovering works. The only thing that works is to change the world axis temporarily but that is such a paing if I have a lot of diagonals.

Gaieus · 12 Aug 2008, 14:32

No Susan, it should really work! Try to moev it further from the edge and then the inferencing can be made more precise - just like with the rotate tool (go to top view if it is horizontal edge)

Jean Lemire · 12 Aug 2008, 14:53

Hi Susan, hi folks.

Dont forget that you can Orbit, pan and zoom in the middle of a dimensionning operation to force SU to use a plane instead of another.

See this SU file for ideas.

Dimensions positionning.skp