technical drawing: dimensions

[iMac1943]

I have all 3 programs from Affinity, since the very beginning. One thing I still missing is measurement. Which means, I cannot use Affinity for drawing (in 2D) a plan of (for example) a living room (walls - doors - windows) with the exact size. Witch means: I want a square of 3.000 x 200 mm. And beside that wall a line with arrows and 3.000 etc.

Does anyone has had this problem or must I conclude the Affinity is NOT a program for such things (A program that has these posibilities is for example TouchDraw 2 or VectorWorks.

If someone has the solution, please let me know. You'll make me happy.

[R C-R]

You can easily create (for example) a rectangle of 3000 x 200 mm in Affinity, but you would have to manually create all the dimension lines & their dimensional units as separate text objects.

IOW, it is possible to make such things in Affinity but it is very poorly suited to doing that, so you would be better off using a program with dimensioning built into it.

[iMac1943]

It’s correct R C-R, do you have a proposal? Do you know TouchDraw 2? As I mentioned I used to make technical drawings in my profession but now I rarely have to make a technical drawing. (I’m retired) So I don’t like to spend a lot of money for the one drawing I like to make for things at home (a chicken run for example, and don’t laugh 😂)

[Old Bruce]

One easy way around this is to use 1:1 for the canvas size and the floor plan. Make your document 3 meters by a fifth of a meter in size and just read the dimensions off of the transform panel to get the dimensions. The caveat being you'll have to rotate things to be at ninety or zero degrees, can't measure lines not at zero degrees or right angles to zero degrees. Also cannot give lengths of curves, like the circumference of a circle.

I would spend some time looking at 2D drafting applications via Duck Duck Go or your search engine of choice, there are some that are free.

Expect a fairly steep learning curve even if you have drafting experience with a T square.

[iMac1943]

"One easy way around this is to use 1:1 for the canvas size and the floor plan." That is a possibility. But still not the way I prefer. Does anyone has used the program TouchDraw 2? This is a 2D application and not that expensive. But only 1 rating (in Europe). Maybe more elsewhere? I like to communicate with someone who works with TouchDraw 2

[v_kyr]

Well, there are a bunch of tools which probably will offer that, even free ones like LibreDraw from LibreOffice ...

• LibreDraw (free)

... or even Google Draw for 2D and SketchUp free for 3D etc.

[iMac1943]

Thank you v_kyr. I’ll have a look at Google Draw. I hope it has the same ‘way of working ‘ as TouchDraw.

[thomaso]

There seem to be at least 18 open source CAD apps … https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=cad+open+source&ia=web

[iMac1943]

Thank you , LibreCad seems to be the favorite.

 

[iMac1943]

the proposal of Old Bruce is the one I'll use (One easy way around this is to use 1:1 for the canvas size and the floor plan. Make your document 3 meters by a fifth of a meter in size and just read the dimensions off of the transform panel to get the dimensions.)

I tried it and he's right, it works fine.

I like to thank everyone here for helping me finding a way to make simple technical drawings.