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Very simple dimensioning objects


GarryP

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Just in case anyone is interested, I was playing around and came up with these simple dimensioning objects (in the attached afdesign file).
To use them accurately you will have to snap to the grid, they don’t have automatic measurements, and they don’t work in all situations, but they can be used for simple drawings without too much fuss (you can see them working in the GIF).
You might need to adjust some elements in some copies of the objects to make your drawing look right but it’s not too difficult.
You can change the “Dimensions” Text Style font to get a different look and you can change the “Dimensions” colour in the “Dimensioning” Palette to create a quick blueprint (see last attached image).

affinity-dimension-lines.afdesign

dimensions.gif

dimension-normal-variant.png

dimension-blueprint-variant.png

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Wow. Thanks for this. Definitely a time-saver.

Sometimes I use photos for reference at my job. It can be a pain to fire up Autocad and import/scale the images just to make some quick annotations.

Using these on various colored photos, with a simple Contrast Negate blend, really makes them stand out.

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Awesome tool. But where do I find the Dimensioning Palette?

I'm so clueless... First one I tried somehow the text turned gray. Put both the fill and outline to black the colour palette said were black but it was still gray. ungrouped them, transformed to curves, still gray. Just started over. 

And how can I extend just one of the legs?

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Bonjour GarryP, bonjour à tous.
Bel exemple de l'utilisation des contraintes.
Ca attise la curiosité :)
Cordialement

Good morning Garryp, good morning everyone.
Good example of the use of constraints.
It arouses curiosity :)
Cordially

Toujours pas !
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On 11/23/2019 at 1:34 PM, GarryP said:

Just in case anyone is interested, I was playing around and came up with these simple dimensioning objects (in the attached afdesign file).
To use them accurately you will have to snap to the grid, they don’t have automatic measurements, and they don’t work in all situations, but they can be used for simple drawings without too much fuss (you can see them working in the GIF).
You might need to adjust some elements in some copies of the objects to make your drawing look right but it’s not too difficult.
You can change the “Dimensions” Text Style font to get a different look and you can change the “Dimensions” colour in the “Dimensioning” Palette to create a quick blueprint (see last attached image).

affinity-dimension-lines.afdesign

dimensions.gif

dimension-normal-variant.png

dimension-blueprint-variant.png

That is a very useful idea! Is this what you would call an 'Asset'? If yes then I could create a couple of these.

I would normally snap to the object but it could also snap to near object but not the one you want. I've never tried snapping to the grid so next time I will give it a go.

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

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AD version 2.3.0

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19 hours ago, jackamus said:

Is this what you would call an 'Asset'?

Yes, you could probably make these into Assets.

I can’t remember why I said that you would need to snap to the grid, rather than snapping to other things, but I think it might be something to do with the way I used Constraints to get the various layers working together (notice the gap between the visible lines and the bounding box). I created these a while ago so there’s a good chance that someone can come up with better versions.

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Hi Garry,

I have taken your dimension file and edited to suit mysef. However I do not understand how the 'Buffer' works. It would work better if the Group bounding box coincided with the two extension lines (not the line with arrows). This would mean that I could drag a side handle so that it snapped the extension lines with edges of the rectangle then I could read off the text for the dimension value. File attached.

I haven't yet tried to make it into an Asset.

 

Dimensions.afdesign

Edited by jackamus
Additional information

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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I can’t remember why I added the buffer layer.
I added a note in the name which says it’s a “work-around for group clipping” but I can’t remember what I meant by that.
I don’t think I would have added it on purpose without needing to do so for some reason.
However, that doesn’t mean that the reason for it is still valid (it might have been added for a purpose which no longer matters).
Maybe it will come back to me at some point.

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Yes I know the feeling! You forgot to comment on the attached file!

I have attached another file to explain the problem.

A Is using your method. When you click on the dimension group the bounding box does not coincide with the left and right extension lines.

B Is a screen shot showing this.

C Is how I used to do it long-hand so to speak. When made into a group the group bounding box coincides with the left and right extension lines. This mean that I can read off the dimension text from the Trans1460076128_Dimensions2.thumb.jpg.e903b58b15a2aa666ae639f1d9cd0893.jpgform tab.

However you idea saves a lot of time but there is that bounding box problem. Why is this?

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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Perhaps you can test this by

1. Deleting the buffer layer.

2. Ungrouping.

3. Grouping again.

Hmm, this recipe seems only to work for the horizontal version.

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Yes that would seem achieve the same result but as a 'Group' I have saved it as an Asset and can use it any time.

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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55 minutes ago, A_B_C said:

But since the bounding box of the layer is exactly as wide as the distance between the left extension line and the right extension line, you can snap it to the bounding box of the object to be measured when resizing (see my video).

Isn’t that what you meant to achieve? 😀

Comparison.png.ec321b84a804f0dd3c51c617ccc630f9.png

Comparison.afdesign

Yes but the bounding box of the top example is wider than the object and will only snap to the handles of that box.

Whereas in the lower example the bounding box is the same width as the object and snaps to the object. This achieves my objective and in a previous post I said that I made it into an 'Asset' for future use.

 

The problem has now been solved the only question remaining is just academic. What is it ,in the upper example ,that creates a bounding box WIDER than its group?

 

 

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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I have created a 'Dimension' Asset and it works well and save me a lot of hassle. However I have just used to for the first time to dimension a drawing but I wanted to resize the drawing and the dimensions and discovered, although I had selected the 'Scale with object' the dimension text does not resize but stays at the same original size.

Is there a way to do this? File attached.

Dimensions.afdesign

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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44 minutes ago, jackamus said:

although I had selected the 'Scale with object' the dimension text does not resize

As in DrawPlus, the ‘Scale with object’ option only applies to line weights. Also as in DP, Artistic Text resizes when you resize its container but Frame Text does not.

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