topic Re: Placing MBD Diameter dimension on perpendicular plane to the face in Inventor Forum

Placing MBD Diameter dimension on perpendicular plane to the face

Scottyos — Wed, 13 May 2026 19:37:38 GMT

Hi everyone,

Looking for some assistance with model based annotations. I have a part that's close to a cylinder and I'm wanting to call out the diameter of the end but have the 3d annotation perpendicular to the face of the diameter.

I've tried a few different things like right clicking and selecting plane, or creating a work plane that I'm trying to attach the dimension to. Or pressing space to try to change the plane at the time of placing the dimension.

I realize some dimensions like holes are fixed in where we can place the annotations within the part environment but was hoping there might be a way to tackle this diameter since it's created using the general annotation --> dimension.

The snip shown below has the 0.75 diameter in line with the end face. I'm hoping to be able to place this face along the visible work plane shown in orange.

Much appreciated any thoughts/comments associated with this.

Thanks!

Re: Placing MBD Diameter dimension on perpendicular plane to the face

kacper.suchomski — Wed, 13 May 2026 19:38:40 GMT

Check the style settings in S&SE (only available in the drawing file).

Re: Placing MBD Diameter dimension on perpendicular plane to the face

Scottyos — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:07:17 GMT

I'm looking through the dimension styles and standards editor, when I'm looking at the different tabs within the dimension standards, I'm seeing options for how the text aligns with relation to the face that it's on. In this case we could have the .75 reading horizontal or vertical, but it's still laid flat to the end view of the part (as if we had written on the end of the part). I'm looking to have the dimension showing when you're looking at the side of the part, so the circular face we'd be grabbing the dimension of would be a solid line as we'd be looking at the edge of the circle vs the front of it.

I'm not seeing anything in the styles editor that might accommodate which plane the text is applied to.

I don't think I'm missing anything but is the S&SE more for how the text is oriented on the plane the dimension is attached to?

Re: Placing MBD Diameter dimension on perpendicular plane to the face

kacper.suchomski — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:09:38 GMT

@Scottyos wrote:

I'm looking to have the dimension showing when you're looking at the side of the part, so the circular face we'd be grabbing the dimension of would be a solid line as we'd be looking at the edge of the circle vs the front of it.

Create two points and add a linear dimension.

Re: Placing MBD Diameter dimension on perpendicular plane to the face

Scottyos — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:13:19 GMT

I hadn't thought of doing that, but that makes total sense and is easy to complete!

Thanks for the suggestion/ answer!