topic Re: Dimlinear in paperspace gives incorrect dims on ONLY 1 set of objects in AutoCAD Forum

Dimlinear in paperspace gives incorrect dims on ONLY 1 set of objects

matthew_tiblier — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 17:35:38 GMT

Hello, I am dimensioning 3d models in a viewport in paperspace and having an strange issue. When I "dimlinear" the background, most objects and even random lines I've drawn I get accurately scaled dimensions. However, when I "dimlinear" a specific set of items, the scale is way off and return fractions of an inch. When I use the "dim" command everything is accurate and when I use either command in model space the dimensions are accurate.

Any ideas on why only one type of object returns incorrect "dimlinear" dimensions?

Re: Dimlinear in paperspace gives incorrect dims on ONLY 1 set of objects

mcalhounL9JCF — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 18:02:23 GMT

The main reason I've gotten this problem is that I'm snapping my dims to something in paperspace, not something that resides in the viewport. That usually results in something showing as 3 inches long when it should say 5 feet or something.

Example:

If you've checked and it's not that, maybe your dimension is picking an undesired snap, like a quad instead of an endpoint. It shouldn't matter because dimlinear obviously does the length from a given viewpoint angle but it's why the distance command can be so hard to use on 3D models from a top down view.

Re: Dimlinear in paperspace gives incorrect dims on ONLY 1 set of objects

matthew_tiblier — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 19:02:30 GMT

That is a good point but in my particular case, the only o-snaps are in model space and so I don't believe that is the problem.

Re: Dimlinear in paperspace gives incorrect dims on ONLY 1 set of objects

mcalhounL9JCF — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 19:15:17 GMT

Is the trouble object a block? Maybe exploding it or redrawing it after purging your drawing might help?

If not, you could try the flatshot command, or the viewbase command. I use viewbase way more than flatshot so I can only speak on it, but it essentially allows you to select a specific object and drop a viewport of just that object in paperspace. You can scale it like a regular viewport but it's an associative command, meaning if you change the model you could lose it and have to recreate it. But you can also get a section view of it if you need to.

I think flatshot works similarly, but it makes a 2D rendering of your 3D object so you wouldn't have anything behind the object or something on the object's Z axis accidentally snapping.

Re: Dimlinear in paperspace gives incorrect dims on ONLY 1 set of objects

matthew_tiblier — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 11:34:47 GMT

The objects causing the problem are block but it would not be feasible to explode due to losing attributes and the shear quantity per drawing

Re: Dimlinear in paperspace gives incorrect dims on ONLY 1 set of objects

mcalhounL9JCF — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 14:37:45 GMT

Have you tried copying the block into an empty drawing to see if the problem shows up there?

You said the object is 3D, do you mind me asking how you made it 3D? The other day I had to make a shape by drawing it with a 3D polyline and then using loft to make it a 3D solid, because just using the extrude method was going to be too complicated. But when I went to draw an outline on an object in paperspace to highlight it, AutoCAD crashed like 3 times. I ended up having to explode the 3D solid down to regions so I could move on.

Another option is copying your block way off into empty space so you can see if exploding just one allows you to document the dimensions without losing your attributes for all the blocks in the drawing.

If you need to document the object in the space that it sits in, it may be worth just drawing a polyline with a hidden line around it so you can dimension off that.

Maybe you could redraw your object out in empty space, see if you can get the correct dimensions off of it before blocking, then once you do go to block it, just name it the same as the old one. When you get prompted, say you want to redefine your old block to the new one. That should update all your blocks in the drawing without moving them or having to place them all again.

I'd also retry all the old reliable diagnostic problems, like:

-un-nesting any blocks

-making sure your object is on layer zero within the block editor

-using pedit to convert lines to polylines

-making sure defpoints is empty

-purging the drawing

-copy base-point-ing your whole drawing and dropping it into a new, blank one.

-dropping your block into an old drawing that you didn't have issues with to see if it's just that file