Dimensions for non-orthogonal features in drawings...

[Anonymous]

Hello!

Feeling a bit lost as I try to make a simple drawing to describe the angles and lengths of this chair I have attached, since the features I need to dimension are not flat to orthogonal views.

Look at the legs, you can see that they are splayed out about 60 degrees. They are also subtly rotated, though I don't think you can tell from these images. The legs were created from flat sketches, for which I would hope I could find orthagonal views in the drawings environment so I can explain their specific angles and lengths. The same issue goes for the egg-shaped top of the chair, I can't easily view it "flat" so I can give proper dimensions for its radiuses, etc.

How would you deal with this issue? Thanks for any help!

[scott.price]

Thanks for reaching out - I think what you're looking for is an Auxilliary View, which is a feature that we'll be moving onto soon after we complete a few large projects that are currently underway. 

I think I have a workaround that will work for you using named views in the model space - if you look in the component browser of the Model - you'll see one item called Named Views, right clicking on this allows you to create a new Named View of the current model orientation. Once a named view is created and the model saved/drawing updated - the named view will be available as an orientation when placing a view.

In order to get a view where the dimension you're looking for will be available, the easiest way is to use the "Look at" button in the Navigational bar at the bottom:

This will orbit so you are looking dead on at any surface you select - this might prove a little difficult if you're surfaces are non flat, so you may need to use "Construct" to create a Tangent Plane (Or there may be a better plane option) to where you want to look at.

Apologies for the long answer - let me know how it goes, and would you mind passing along a link to your model - I think it would be a very good test case for Auxilliary Views when we get there.

Best,

Scott

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Scott. Very thoughtful reply.

I have tried the Named Views, but when I attempt dimensioning them in my drawing I get the familiar "Cannot Dimension Objects in an Isometric Projected View" popup. Funny to get that when, in a sense, I am looking dead-on orthogonally at a feature. Is there any further finagling to be had, or would my best option at this point be to export the view as-is and drop my own dimensions in via PhotoShop or Illustrator?

http://a360.co/1LWlXuZ

Pass: auxiliary

[scott.price · Accepted solution]

Thanks for pointing that out, the smart dimensioning tool has some intelligence in it to try to prevent non orthogonal dimensions - we're still thinking through how to make it applicable to a wider set of options - it'd be interesting to take a look to see if it could look at the orthogonality of the edge it's on as opposed to the view. 

Outside of that, you should be able to use the Aligned Dimension tool (Avaialble in the Annotation flyout)to get what you need in this scenario, it will show the orthogonal dimension between two endpoints, and if you press spacebar while using it it will switch to edge selection.

Let me know if this works out for you. I was able to create the dimension this way using named views, it's not pretty, but I believe it is correct.

Best,

Scott

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Scott. I think I can find a workable route for this now, with a bit of Illustrator work on the drawing after PDF export. Looking forward to seeing the Drawings module mature a bit, as I want to leave my old-world CAD programs behind professionally. Fusion360's glimmers of the future get brighter and brighter!