dimensions in a 3d perspective viewport

[PonyB]

Fellow VW'ers,

 

I cannot seem to find the answer to how to display dimensions in a 3d perspective viewport. I'm creating a small object and wanting to share with the client. Orthogonal top, side, face drawings would not be as legible to the client. Any help please?

Thanks,

Pony

[Benson Shaw]

Best way is to draw the dimensions in the Design Layer, but create and assign them to a new 3d Dims class or layer just for these dimensions.  The goal is to have control of visibility in both design and sheet layers.  

 

To place these dimensions, set your drawing view as desired - anything other than Top or Top Plan.  In the drawing plane menu, verify or set to anything other than Screen Plane or Screen Aligned. Automatic is a great choice if available.

1. Start a dimension object by snapping to the first desired point.

2.  Extend the dimension to second point, and click.

3.  Move and Rotate your cursor around the end point.

   A. The dimension object will extend and switch from plane to plane as Vectorworks "reads" the relationship to front/edge/back planes of the drawing geometry.

   B  Click when dimension is displayed on desired plane.

   C. If needed, edit/drag/snap the dimension insertion points, witness lines, text locations to your desired locations.

        The dimension object will stay on that plane.

   D. If needed rotate the dimension object to a new plane via the Basic Palette>Rotate Tool in standard mode.  Choose the Automatic Drawing plane for this operation and hover the protractor to highlight the plane of rotation.

4.  Assign the new dimension object(s) to the 3dDims layer or class.

5.  In your sheet layer viewports, switch on/off the 3dDims as needed via the ViewPort OIP Layer and Class Menus.

 

Post back if it's not working for you.

 

-B

[Pat Stanford]

Draw the dimensions in a Design Layer with the object in the view and perspective that you want. I used the Constrained Linear Dimension tool.

 

In the image below, the Red dimension are drawn in the viewport Annotation space. The black dimensions are drawn in the Design Layer.

The top viewport is custom view and perspective. The bottom viewport is Front and Orthogonal.

 

Obviously the dimensions drawn in the Perspective viewport are not correct.

 

You could put the dimension on a different layer or class than the model if you need the model for other things.

 

[PonyB]

Thanks very much! I'm beginning to work some stuff out. Thanks for putting on the right path!

Best