The horizontal dims font properties says "none. using UI font" but the veritcal dims font properties looks like this..

Hi beanworks,

re:
> um. ... a little help here. How do i change the font size for the vertical dim?

You can set the font by selecting the dimension, then clicking "Details..." in the properties panel in the upper right corner of the window. Then you can click on the Font: line in that extended properties panel.

But it kind of looks like it might be a display bug, can you please send the model file to me at moi@moi3d.com so I can take a look.

Thanks,
- Michael

thats as small as the font will go

Hi Pilou,

re:
> That works fine but maybe that is not the good strategy ?
> It's curious that dimension can't works directly in the normal 3D world for any face! :)

It's kind of dangerous for dimensions to be too easily placed in 3D because it can cause ambiguity.

Like for example when you see a drawing like this:


It's important that it should be a measurement of this length:


And not this one which appears the same in the 2D drawing:



So for the purposes of making 2D drawings it's good for dimensions to be placed with some care and it's not great to try to make it really easy to stick anywhere in 3D space even though that would be fun for playing around with them.

- Michael

Michael,

Interesting, the file is way too big to email but the file came from Rhino with lots of annotations (which didn't show up in MOI3 but did in MOI4). When I exported the geometry to its own file it looks fine. Incidentally, the the file was produced in Rhino6, saved as a Rhino5 and its been doing some various weird things when I open the file. I would be happy to upload it to a dropbox or something if you still want to see it.

Hi beanworks,

re:
> The horizontal dims font properties says "none. using UI font" but the
> veritcal dims font properties looks like this..

Were some of those dims created in Rhino?

I think what you're seeing there is some kind of display bug, not really a font setting problem. Can you please send the file to me at moi@moi3d.com so I can take a look?

- Michael

cant email it Michael. its way too large. Yes, the dimensions were originally done in Rhino6

Hi beanworks,

re:
> I would be happy to upload it to a dropbox or something if you still want to see it.

Yes please that would be helpful for me to look at.

So the weird looking text salad that you're seeing at a far zoom out level is a side effect from the different display strategy that MoI's first round of dimensions are focused on. That's that the text is scale independent and tries to stay at the same size on screen no matter if you are zoomed in a ways or zoomed out.

The intention of that is to try and free you from having to worry about the text scale when you're putting in dimensions on a simple drawing.

The downside is that in a drawing that has a lot of dimensions and you also zoom out quite a ways they will run into each other like that. I think I might try to shrink down the text when you're zoomed out a long ways from a dimension to help tame that and I also know that there will need to be an option for the text to be scale dependent as well because scale independent text does not work for making something like a title block where you want the text to fit in gridded boxes.

- Michael

Hi beanworks, yes now MoI will display dimensions in files from Rhino while before it would keep those stored internally only.

But text is displayed differently in MoI than in Rhino, MoI is focused on scale independent text display that stays the same size on screen while Rhino's is fixed at a specific model size and gets huge when you zoom in and tiny when zoomed out.

- Michael

"... Maybe they should only do that when only annotation objects are selected and no other object types?"

Michael - I think that's worth trying and see if it seems intuitive.

Probably the tools I use the most are the alignment tools - they save a lot of time. For example, I'm working on a machine fixture that has a lot of pieces that butt up against each other in all directions.

So yeah, if annotations are selected only, then allow them to have a boundary box. If annotations are selected along with another object(s), restrict the boundary box to the objects as if annotations were not selected (but allow the annotations to follow the object(s) when moved?).

Otherwise moves and alignments won't work. I can't think of a case where a user would want to operate on the entire boundary box that included annotations.

If the boundary box includes the annotations as it does now, future edits of the model will be difficult, because either the annotations get separated from the object, or precision alignment is sacrificed.

One workaround is to only add annotations when the model is complete, but personally, I've never made a complex model that stayed static for very long :)

Ed Ferguson

<< So for the purposes of making 2D drawings it's good for dimensions to be placed with some care and it's not great to try to make it really easy to stick anywhere in 3D space even though that would be fun for playing around with them.

I can understand that...and there are another play tools for play with that! :)

And if i want really 3D dimensions i can use the CPlan and the 3 views so not a big deal... ;)

A funny one : the measure tool has it's own 3D Gizmo (of course this amazing free Twinmotion) :)
Funny to see the automatic measure following different rotations of the Gizmo along the altitude's variation of surfaces!
...and the jump from volumes to volumes like a laser one!

Michael,

Thank you. This is looking very nice so far. It sounds like you will be working on getting the annotations to export. Will there be a way to set defaults so so you don't have to keep making changes in the dialog? That would be very helpful. Also, as Frenchy has mentioned, it would be very nice to be able to draw dims more directly in the 3D view.

Very nice. Anxiously awaiting the export capability.

Thanks again for this great tool.

Terry

Hi Terry, thanks for testing it! Yes I still have some work left to do for export to DXF and PDF/AI formats and I do have a plan on setting the defaults. I kind of needed another week or so to get some stuff other than the exports done but I had to release it now since the current beta expires in a couple of days. So there are a few more loose ends than I would have liked.

For drawing dims directly in the 3D view not on the drawing plane, I'm sorry that is not planned currently. The reason why is described here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9526.24 . But you can draw them there now if you set the construction plane where you want them to go.

There will probably be some additional measurement tools implemented in future versions, dimensioning is not quite just a pure measurement tool by itself. They're kind of a communication tool that incorporates certain kinds of measurement in it.

- Michael

Hello Michael,

You got it, "lazy" is the right word for that Align with Dimension behavior.

As far as where to align and position the arrowhead and measurement information on the dimension line that decision can be as variable as the individual as the part being modeled. In that case I'd think manual flip/toggle makes sense so as not to add complexity.

Nice to hear curved leaders are a consideration for the future, it just broadens MoIs technical illustration appeal.

The last few drawings on this page give an example of dimensions stacked from a datum:

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mechanical-engineering/2-007-design-and-manufacturing-i-spring-2009/related-resources/drawing_and_sketching/

Could the existing Align tool be extended to not only effect position but also distribution? For example, select multiple horizontal dimensions, Align > Distribute would provide for spacing between dimension lines in the selected group. Also, selecting multiple leaders Align > Distribute > Left could effectively box in the dimension data. This way you're using an existing tool that is familiar to the user and not adding complexity by adding a screen. The user is confident that what they are seeing on the screen exports as they see it.

On another dimension note do you see any potential risk for confusion by allowing the user to fix scale options in two places?

Thanks.

Understood. Thanks again for your work on this.

Hi Ed,

re:
> So yeah, if annotations are selected only, then allow them to have a boundary box.
> If annotations are selected along with another object(s), restrict the boundary box to
> the objects as if annotations were not selected (but allow the annotations to follow
> the object(s) when moved?).

I'll give this a try for the next beta. It will enable some kind of odd scenarios like if you have both an annotation and a regular object both selected but they are separated by quite some distance it will be a little odd that the edit frame will seem to be ignored by the edit frame. It's also a little weird when the edit frame does not go around everything selected since it's presence has become kind of an additional selection cue as well.

But it's a pretty contrived scenario since there isn't too much use in having annotations just way off somewhere by themselves. Except possibly text.

So we'll see how it works out.

- Michael

Thanks a lot for the "barb" arrows Michael.



With variable dimension text size depending on zoom level how can I preview the actual relation of object, arrows and text of a future export to AI/PDF format? Is it possible to have an option that turns off this zoom behaviour and leaves the text in its real size independent of zoom level?

-Martin

Curiously this is impossible with the 4 views (if i have not forgotten something)

Only with the CPlan (and not so evident to call it at the good orientations without Helper lines! :)

Hi Pilou, so if you have a line and you want to know its length it isn't necessary to put in a dimension to find out. Just select the line and the length is displayed in the regular UI right here:



That works no matter where the line is and does not require any cplane manipulation or any tools at all, just select it and look over there.

- Michael

Of course but it's for direct schema documentation!
I have use it for very the good value of the arrow! ;)