Advacne steel preferr for manual dimension Osnap setting

[johnjmbennett]

Hi,

i am asking for some support to my idea for the preferred for manual dimension snap point Osnap setting to be improved, as the point of actually setting in the System when you edit drawings,  in my view should stay turned on. 

I think that a lot of dimension issues seen when users add manual dimensions is that the this settings has become unset and the user does not notice that the preferred for manual dimension Snap (PFMD) setting has revert back,  They then add dimensions and it will pick up points in the element it cannot track via the PFMD, which lead so frustration in the dimension of the drawings if they are updated, with points being removed, add strings not correct.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/advance-steel-ideas/preferred-for-manual-dimension-point-snap-setting...

There are some MT options,  but turning of the track or erase dimensions is not the real solution, you need it set to use the model to drive the outputs.

cheers

[Drawtech]

I agree John, makes perfect sense.  The PFMD snaps often seem to turn off all by themselves, which is frustrating.

Also, another improvement:

I find it a pain that in order to create sloping dimensions you need to have other snaps turned on so that you can pick the alignment points.

...so generally I keep node snaps turned on as well as it is a pain constantly changing snap settings or right clicking for the extended snap menu etc.

So in addition to PFMD snap being "always on" for dimension commands, it would make sense if the PFMD snap could be used for selecting these slope alignment points as well as the actual dimension points so that you don't have to waste time with other snap settings.

[Sebastian_Eiche]

just an idea: 
I think it could be possible to create a lisp which turn on the snap points you want and then start the command for dimension. After this the snap point should be deactivate as before.
I'm really not firm in lisp, but maybe someone other...I could imagine this could be realized

[CHRIS_ASDL]

This would be a great improvement @johnjmbennett It’s very frustrating that such an important snap point is constantly turning itself off. Or as @Drawtech mentioned having to have other snap points on for sloped dimensions is just as much as a pain. 

Any improvement in this area would be great fully received. 

[Anonymous]

Hi John,

This is something I have been calling for now for a number of years. Why should there be an option to turn it on when the reality is there should be an option to turn it off in Management tools if required. Also expanding the options to include more osnaps should be looked at. These are the reason so many of our drawings have changed or moved dimensions after update.

[AleckGiles]

Hi All,

Further to other comments. The PFMD snap is a custom snap in AutoCAD and AutoCAD seems to get a bit confused with these. So it needs a bit of gentle persuasion. I find the following works reliably.

Never alter snap settings within a command if you want to keep them. Altering settings within a command only lasts to the end of the command and reverts back to previous settings. This is "as designed" in AutoCAD. So set the PFMD snap with no commands active.

Don't trust the pop up list for running snaps on the status line for the custom AS snaps. Always open the OSnap Settings dialog box and turn on the PFMD snap in there. I have often seen the pop up list state differently to the dialog and the dialog is the truth.

If the ONLY running snap you have active is PFMD (a custom snap) then AutoCAD seems to get confused and think there are no running snaps so disables snaps altogether. Therefore I cheat and turn on Parallel from the standard snaps too. This never interferes with dimensioning but convinces AutoCAD to keep the Osnaps on.

Finally PFMD has no effect on the modelling so it can be left on all the time. Then you can get away with just turning Node on and off as required in the pop-up list.

[Anonymous]

This has been an annoyance of mine for some time but I may have just found something of a solution.

I turned Osnap off altogether while I was re-positioning some labels. I then forgot to re-activate it when I started doing some dimensioning. I found that it was still snapping to preferred points! Just the preferred points, nothing else.

Now when editing drawings I turn Osnap off, just using the right click snap menu to select other snaps on the odd occasion that I need them (sloping dims etc.).

Side note, mapping shift to a button on my mouse makes the snap menu a few nano-seconds quicker to access 😀

[acbsdesign]

I thought this was fixed with AS2020, 

Turned off and on the OSNAP with PFMD on and it stays on. 

[acbsdesign]

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@acbsdesign wrote:

I thought this was fixed with AS2020, 

Turned off and on the OSNAP with PFMD on and it stays on. 

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Yes, it stays on, I kept an eye on this for a few days, so this must be have been fixed, at least for the US installation.