Drawing Module, rotate dimension text?

[chmed]

I must be missing something simple.  I can't figure out how to rotate (90 degrees) the dimension text in the drawing module.  I'm guessing that maybe there is a setting when the sheet is first created that defines the orientation of the dimension text?  I sure hope that it can be changed after the fact and that each dimension can have a different orientation if necessary.  

btw, I've found a number of things in the drawing module to be less that intuitive.  Moving items and dimensions was a little tricky at first.  It doesn't seem to work the way it does in the tutorial video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duxBgi7M0PE#t=0.835149

The thing that I was missing was that there is now a set of grey square boxes that you must click in order to move things.  

[Anonymous]

If there is a way to rotate text and dimensions in Drawings, I missed it as well. I hope someone else comes along and tells me different.

I'd say the next step is to check the Idea Station. If a rotate text request isn't there, you should add it - I'd definitely give it a vote.

[lnonnato]

I don't know of any way to do that. It should be one of the many shortcomings of the drawing framework.

Luiz

[scott.price]

I'm making a quick edit to the original post

Hi @chmed - thanks for the note,

We still do not have rotate functionality in the Drawings workspace, however a generic object rotate it is in the works. This would allow you to select and rotate single or multiple objects.

This doesn't seem like it will be a solution to what you're looking for though, are you trying to flip a single dimension or multiple dimensions?

Also, if you get a chance could you tell me about the grey boxes with move, if you could upload a screenshot or a screen cast it would be really helpful. Thanks much.

Best,

Scott

[chmed]

I found a newer video (webcast recording) where the fella shows and talks about the grey handles for moving things.  I'm guessing it changed with an update at some point.  Here are 2 screen shots of a) my problem with the dimension text being oriented vertically instead of horizontally and b) the grey squares when I select a dimension.  

 

[scott.price]

Thanks for the screen capture @chmed,

As it stands in drawings, that dimension style is part of the ISO standard, where vertical dimensions have vertically oriented labels and horizontally dimensions have horizontally oriented labels. ASME dimension labels are always horizontal.

I'm also afraid our current Rotate work won't help in this case. Is creating an ASME drawing and using mm as your unit acceptable at this point?

As to Move, the grey boxes have always been there, the blue highlighting is relatively new which may make them more prominent - there are a couple ways to move objects. The Move command in the toolbar allows for object selection followed by a point to point move - there will be some enhancements to this in the upcoming release that we're hoping will make this more intuitive, it'd be great to get your feedback.

The grips are available on objects after selection, and allow you to either move objects/views or stretch leaders - is this working for you right now, any thoughts on how it could be improved?

Appreciate your time, and keep us posted on any issues you find or ideas you have - we have a large team working on improving drawings and community feedback is a huge part of that.

Best,

Scott

[Anonymous]

hi @scott.price

Not the original poster but...

I think that if we could just click and drag text, it would make my life a lot easier. Instead of click, grey boxes appear, click the box, click to place....just a simple click-hold-drag, let go where you want it. Maybe give an option for both...? If folks click-hold-drag then move the text, and if they click and let go, show the resize/moving handles?

Another thing I want to mention is sticky tools (basically, I wish Text and Call-outs acted like Dimensions, it kept working until I actively leave the tool) and the ability to copy/paste text blocks!

As it is now, if I want two text blocks to say the same thing, I have to:

-Click text tool

-Click start point

-Click end point

-Type text

-Close text window

-At some point, see I need another text block the same

-Edit original text block by double-click

-Choose text I want to copy

-Click text tool

-Click start point

-Click end point

-Paste text

I think I'd rather

-Click text tool

-Click start point (I wish we didn't have to define end point on creation but that is just me being weird)

-Type text

-Exit text block

- At some point, see I need another of the same

-Click text block

-Copy

-Click another area on drawing

-Paste (now I have 2 text blocks same size, same text! Please!)

Last but not least (definitely not least!) HOTKEYS! D for dimensions, T for text, C for callouts, something...I know it's in the works (I hope it's soon), but this is the biggest time waster in my drawings right now. Constantly popping open the toolbox and dancing up to the toolbar to select the same tool over and over because it exits when I use it once. When Drawings gets hotkeys, I will do a dance of joy.

Thank you!

[chmed]

"As it stands in drawings, that dimension style is part of the ISO standard, where vertical dimensions have vertically oriented labels and horizontally dimensions have horizontally oriented labels. ASME dimension labels are always horizontal."

Ah yes.  I was not paying attention to the rules of the standard I picked.  Thanks for pointing that out.  

"The grips are available on objects after selection, and allow you to either move objects/views or stretch leaders - is this working for you right now, any thoughts on how it could be improved?"  

I just went back to the video I linked to in the first post and sure enough, he is grabbing the dimensions by the grey grip.  But he didn't mention that's what he was doing (he just said he was selecting the text) and the grip was positioned in such a way that I didn't realize initially that's where he had grabbed it.  

I'm only playing with the drawing section at this point just to get an idea of what it can do.  I think I need to get back into it and experiment some more before offering too many more suggestions.  I will say that a few things were not obvious at first and my attempt to manipulate things left me with the impression that the drawing module wasn't ready for real use.  

Oh, one thing.  It took some interweb searching just to figure out how to get into the drawing workspace.  I would suggest that maybe it should be accessed in a different manner?  I'm not sure if it should be among the Model/Patch/Render modes but going to the file oriented menu area (at the very top of the window) wasn't an obvious place to look.  

[scott.price]

@Anonymous - Thanks for the list!

I hope you have your dancing shoes on. It's not an exhaustive list, but our first release of shortcuts is coming very soon. Hope you'll let us know if there's anything there you don't expect.

I'll start some conversations around sticky text, leaders and copy/paste improvements, thanks for the suggestion.

We hear you loud and clear on the click and drag - and it's been raised often. At this point it's a very large undertaking and we've prioritized increasing drawing functionality and tools above it. But it's absolutely on our radar.

Thanks again,

Scott

[scott.price]

@chmed - Thanks for bringing up the questions. It's always really helpful to get first impressions and opportunities to improve them.

We're currently really focused on increasing drawing functionality and tools to serve needs around Technical Drawing creation. But, we are consistently trying to improve the whole experience - so please keep posting as you continue to look through.

Best,
Scott