Angular dimensioning in 3D

[Anthony Reilly]

Hey All,

I've drawn a ramp in 3D to assist me in determining the angles to cut on the legs. The framing is 2 X 4, the legs are set inside the 2 X 4 framing and they touch the 3/4 ply decking. When I choose a right or left side view and select the angular dimension tool and try to select a leg and corresponding framing I get the little foghorn sound and a the note: "angular dimensions can only be between intersecting objects."

obviously, i've only done simple dimensioning

i have show/snap/modify others chosen

i've selected all and chose send to front in the right view

Could I please get a little help here?

Thanks much,

A

[Pat Stanford]

The angular dimension tool really only works on 2D objects.

Set the mode bar to the third option. This will let you draw two "phantom" lines along the edges of your ramp and get the angle between the two. Start at one end, go to the intersection point and then out to the other end.

[Anthony Reilly]

Fantastic!

Thank you.

A

[Kool Aid]

Have to spoil the party?

While I'd love to have some 3D-dimensioning, we have to keep in mind that eg. angular 3D-dimensioning is anything but unambiguous and straightforward. It may work in trivial cases of simple 3D-forms in rectilinear x/y -coordinate systems, but what would eg. be the ?angle? between two ramps that are not parallel? The angle can only be determined in & for a particular projection.

It is unfortunate that the tools shipping with VW cannot show (read: tag) the ?vertical? angle of eg. a roof face (which otherwise is quite useful for simple ramps of arbitrary shapes.)

[islandmon]

I'm in complete agreement with Kool Aid .. just because you can view it doesn't necessarily mean that it is 'measurable' from that plane of view.

In the example given the assumption is that the ramp is parallel to the SideView.

If that ramp was turned and pitched like.. say.. a parking garage spiral, no amount of 2D angular fiddling would get it right.

The lesson here is that you need to be especially mindful when applying 2D Tools to 3D Objects.

Hence the applicability of the WorkingPlane Tool to set the plane for measurements between 3D oriented objects nonparallel to the standard Top-Front-Side viewing planes.