dimension lines (traits de cote)

[Distortion]

15 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Just follow the Beta forum - you will immediately know if there is anything new in the given topic and if progress is being made.

I suspect jmf was looking for some information that goes beyond what we can find in the Beta forum.

[Distortion]

1 hour ago, jmf said:

no progress on this?

 

I hope I am wrong but I would be very surprised if we will ever see this implemented.

It looks to me that there is simply no interest in adding this functionality.

I'm not judging. Serif can do what they like. I was just hoping to start using Designer instead of Inkscape. It's not the end of the world though. I can keep using Inkscape. It works well and it's free.

[jmf]

this is a bit "surprising" ...on the front page of the designer offer, they show an intricate architect blueprint with a load of dimension marks...
...which would be extremely tedious to introduce with the current software !
(it CAN be done, but is so much easier in other software, including LibreOffice! )
Isn't it a bit "misleading"?

 

[Distortion]

20 minutes ago, jmf said:

this is a bit "surprising" ...on the front page of the designer offer, they show an intricate architect blueprint with a load of dimension marks...
...which would be extremely tedious to introduce with the current software !
(it CAN be done, but is so much easier in other software, including LibreOffice! )
Isn't it a bit "misleading"?

 

I don't think it is.

It's pretty clear to me they are referring to the compatibility with (ie it can read) DWG/DXF files.

I don't think Designer is the type of software suitable for that type of drawing (regardless the presence of a persistent measuring system).

[jmf]

well, I would not present such an example if it was not made with the advertised product,
even if it is compatible (which means capable or reading postscript or PDF)

 

[michaelh99]

I'd like to add my voice to the requests for dimension lines as a "nice to have" feature.

But honestly, for the basic drawings I'm doing (woodworking and basic house layout) grouping a line and text object works just fine as a stopgap solution for a dimension line.  Copy, change the length and the text and move on.

I also wanted to thank the Serif team for the features that are there in V2.  I've been using Photo since soon after V1 came out and never thought I needed Designer but with the recent promotion I decided to get the entire package.  Designer sat around for a week until it occurred to me to wonder if it supported dimensional drawings.

The fact that it does and does it well means that I can stop trying to shoehorn cad packages (that often don't have simple shapes) into something that I can use for fairly simple 2D dimensional drawings.  I wish I'd asked that question 6 months ago.  But better late than never

[admiraljuice]

Just want to keep this thread alive as this is currently my biggest ask for Designer development.  It's almost there!...  Being able to pull dimensions with the Measure tool is pretty handy.  Now please just make the dimensions stay there!  Preferably as a grouped, but editable, object.  Styles would be great, but that can come later, once basic functionality is established. 

For now, I've saved dimension lines, consisting of a few strokes with frame text, as Assets so I can pull them in and manually edit the text as needed.  I use the Measure tool to get the values, which I usually need to convert from Inches to Feet and Inches, since I usually work in Imperial units.  It works, but definitely takes longer than it would if the dimensions that the Measure tool provides would just stay in place on the page.

[Pšenda]

9 minutes ago, admiraljuice said:

and manually edit the text as needed

On one of the other threads about dimensioning, it was requested that at least the measured value be saved to the Clipboard so that it can be easily used afterwards. And it wouldn't be such a big job either - like a complex dimensioning tool.

[admiraljuice]

1 minute ago, Pšenda said:

On one of the other threads about dimensioning, it was requested that at least the measured value be saved to the Clipboard so that it can be easily used afterwards. And it wouldn't be such a big job either - like a complex dimensioning tool.

Could you please point me to that thread?  I want to follow any threads related to this topic.  

And yeah, that simple solution would definitely make the workaround easier!

[Pšenda]

31 minutes ago, admiraljuice said:

I want to follow any threads related to this topic. 

To search forum posts I recommend the Search engine from Google (or another according to custom), because in most cases it brings more relevant results than the Forum Search function.
https://www.google.com/search?q=dimensioning+tool+site:https://forum.affinity.serif.com

 

31 minutes ago, admiraljuice said:

Could you please point me to that thread?

 

P.S. The request for Dimensioning Tool is really "old" 🙂 

 

Edited February 12 by Pšenda

[jmf]

Thks for the continued interest (I may someday buy some parts of the package, but I have for now given up on "Designer", as a key feature is missing)

I am actually a bit *surprised* that this point was raised already a long time ago (2015) without being taken into consideration!
(thks Psenda for pointing this out! )

Difficult to be optimistic for the future in these conditions!

[Pšenda]

58 minutes ago, jmf said:

Difficult to be optimistic for the future in these conditions!

Of course, you have to take into account the fact that ADesigner is not a CAD, where this function is absolutely necessary, so it may have a lower priority compared to other - far more critical functions and features. On the other hand, Measure and Area functions have recently been added, which are absolutely necessary for Dimension tools. It is therefore possible that it is "moving" in the right direction 🙂 The information presented here,

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/198146-random-and-inconsequent-usage/&do=findComment&comment=1170759

which indicates a closer cooperation between Serif and Architectural firms - for which, I assume, such a tool would probably be absolutely essential - is also worth paying attention to. But of course this is just speculation.

[Distortion]

As I posted before, I do hope I am wrong but considering the timeframe and the actually progress done, I think I can be forgiven if I assume that there is zero interest in offering this functionality to Designer’s users - on any measurable timeframe.

From my viewpoint, it is a shame. Mainly because Design is a very good product and there is very little on the market that offers functionalities similar to Designer and that also has dimension lines.

I have been using Inkscape for a while. It is easy to use, it works well and with little effort I can do dimension lines and much more. And it is free. But as much as Inkscape covers what I need at zero cost, I would switch to Design in an instant, if I could.

The current situation may be disappointing for some current and potential users like me but it is fair enough. Even if, hypothetically, a large number of users asked for dimension lines, Serif has no obligation to listen to them. Or to me for what it matters.

[Marjolein]

Here to ask the same thing. We already have the ruler which snaps to the points and gives the dimension.  Why should the dimension line dissapear? 

I use Affinity for drawing plans, even though I have professional CAD software. I love using Affinity for my simple floorplans, it's fast and I can use my own assets and make beautiful plans.

This would be so usefull and would speak to a big (new!) audience who is paying a lot for expensive CAD software now.

[jmf]

In a way, this goes well in par with another point raised by Marjoein (in a separate post) , namely implementing scales (see for instance in CorelDraw, you can set the scales through the rulers)
(this means, the dimension posted would be the "real world" dimension and not the "drawing" dimension ...in a way ,the drawing dimension had much meaning in the time of paper and pencil, but with vector drawing, it makes more sense to draw in "real dimensions" and then scale to print )

[Distortion]

Quote

[Marjolein]
Here to ask the same thing. We already have the ruler which snaps to the points and gives the dimension.  Why should the dimension line dissapear? 

I don’t know how the software has been designed but I suspect that the current ruler tool and dimensions would work, from the software viewpoint, in a very different way.

The ruler tool is a device that lives detached from the drawing itself. It read it but it is not part of it. Dimension lines would be objects that are part of the drawing and that also react to the drawing itself. I believe the investment necessary to implement dimensions is not comparable.

Quote

[Marjolein]
This would be so usefull and would speak to a big (new!) audience who is paying a lot for expensive CAD software now.

I agree with you. It would be a very useful thing to have but I wouldn’t count on seeing it implemented any time soon (or probably, ever).

I can only guess but I think Serif don’t see a good enough return of investment for dimension objects. It would be very odd if there were a significant ROI but they wouldn’t do it anyway. I am sure they have their metrics to decide this kind of things and it's definitely not my concern.

There might be also a more general marketing consideration about the type of application or perhaps some software constraints. We'll never know. Regardless, I’m sure people at Serif know what they are doing.

[JQL]

Now with DWG/DXF Export this is becoming even more important. I haven't upgraded from V1 yet, but I will once this happens.

[davidgray]

I have been following this topic for years.

I  purchased the full Affinity package for version 1. I have resisted any urge to upgrade to future version until dimensioning (similar to Corel) has been added. Its a good application, but sadly missing an obvious feature.

Currently for me, the name "Designer" is a misnomer. Designers need to see and adjust, there needs to be an interactive dimension adjustment layer for me to continue using Affinity Designer.

[MickJ]

Would realy like to see this working, I sketch drawings to scale mostly in Corel (cheap student version) and Inkscape,  would jump to Designer2 if the same functions worked.

testing V2 and set a scale for drawing (waiting for this a long time) but ruler is in a world of it's own.  I don't want to buy V2 only to find these functions appear in V3 and I have to buy again.

listen up serif, please.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, MickJ said:

I don't want to buy V2 only to find these functions appear in V3 and I have to buy again.

I’m sure there will be a huge fanfare when a Dimension Tool is added to Affinity Designer. At that point, you should be able to download the trial version to check whether it behaves as you expect.

[MickJ]

Thanks @Alfred,  it's part of my problem, had a trail last year - won't let me trail V2.4 cos last trail expired !!  now trailing under a different email on an old small slow lappy, don't want to keep doing this.  Will keep an eye on the Beta pages and listen for woops of joy

I do understand that the software is moving forward and do expect to see these features and more before I grow old.

[Distortion]

8 hours ago, MickJ said:

Would realy like to see this working, I sketch drawings to scale mostly in Corel (cheap student version) and Inkscape,  would jump to Designer2 if the same functions worked.

(...)

Same here. Occasionally, I receive invites to upgrade but honestly, I ignore them. I would have purchased designer at the speed of light if it had dimensions.

6 hours ago, MickJ said:

(...) [I] do expect to see these features and more before I grow old.

I guess it depends on your age but I wouldn't count on that.😀

[Marjolein]

On 2/26/2024 at 11:04 AM, jmf said:

In a way, this goes well in par with another point raised by Marjoein (in a separate post) , namely implementing scales (see for instance in CorelDraw, you can set the scales through the rulers)
(this means, the dimension posted would be the "real world" dimension and not the "drawing" dimension ...in a way ,the drawing dimension had much meaning in the time of paper and pencil, but with vector drawing, it makes more sense to draw in "real dimensions" and then scale to print )

You can draw in scale jmf :), in V2 at least. 

On 2/27/2024 at 12:45 PM, Distortion said:

I can only guess but I think Serif don’t see a good enough return of investment for dimension objects. It would be very odd if there were a significant ROI but they wouldn’t do it anyway. I am sure they have their metrics to decide this kind of things and it's definitely not my concern.

There might be also a more general marketing consideration about the type of application or perhaps some software constraints. We'll never know. Regardless, I’m sure people at Serif know what they are doing.

Well they are making vast improvements for "architects" (drawing in scale, import of dwg dxf,..). For me they don't even have to be locked if that is too hard to implement. But the tool is already there, you can draw scaled and you can measure the scaled dimension. Only, the dimension line dissapears when you measure other points. If it would just leave it there (measure tool in Blender f.e.), that also would be amazing.

Or have the option to turn on the dimension length of a line/stroke. An on/off option in the stroke panel to show the lengt of a stroke.
So that way, if you stretch the stroke, the dimensions adjust accordingly. 

When I work fast in 3D I prefer Sketchup over Vectorworks.  But I'd love to use Affinity Designer instead of Sketchup Layout for 2D plans (the graphic and export options are way better)

[Alfred]

37 minutes ago, Marjolein said:

(measure tool in Blender f.e.)

<off-topic>
If you want to abbreviate ‘for example’, put it at the beginning and use the Latin abbreviation ‘e.g.’ (exempli gratia). Otherwise, write it out in full:
(e.g. the measure tool in Blender)
or
(the measure tool in Blender, for example)
</off-topic>

[ziplock9000]

If the current ruler tool simply left a permanent curve + text on the drawing it would satisfy 99% of the needs of the people here and would be easy to do. Nothing more needs to be done. Obviously this would be a checkbox.