Drawing Dimensions are Incorrect

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm missing something obvious here and cannot figure out what it is. Video is embedded to demonstrate what I'm seeing (you'll want to view full screen so you can read dimensions). 

I'm making a simple cube with units of inches. When I create a new drawing from design, the automatic dimensions (also in inches) do not match.

I'd appreciate any help! 

Thanks,

Brett

[tony.bellVKUA7]

Disappointing that it still doesn't work properly!

I came here because I couldn't find the switch between projected and actual dimensions, frustrated that the default was dumb!  And I leave here thinking about switching to another CAD package.

Thank you all for sharing.

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@tony.bellVKUA7 wrote:

... switch between projected and actual dimensions

And I leave here thinking about switching to another CAD package.

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@tony.bellVKUA7 

You can switch between projected and actual dimensions in a skewed view in Autodesk Inventor Professional.

[tony.bellVKUA7]

Thank you @TheCADWhisperer 

I am familiar with Inventor from a previous project that I worked on.  My current project doesn't have the complexity to justify Inventor, so I went looking for a less feature rich CAD product that was still professional.  Sadly Fusion360 isn't there yet.  My colleague suggest 'SketchUp' as a comparable product, that may be worth looking into.

See on the link below, this feature is in the 'backlog'.  I have used the submit button (in the link) to request this feature be prioritized and I suggest other readers here do the same.  For now, I can only hope that Fusion becomes useful for manufacturers one day.

https://app.mural.co/t/autodesk2145/m/timerahart2/1475171276107/0945259b7c22117012173ea2be3c9151fec1...

What is the point of a CAD package that can't accurately dimension models!

[atharva.batra200]

Thank You! It will be a real help.

[kostas_kritikos]

I have noticed that when I try to create drawings for a simple bracket with 1mm fillet on the edges, I get a dimensions 1mm less than the actual thickness of the bracket. Is this a bug? Any advice on how to fix this?

[jhackney1972]

Attach your model so others can evaluate your issue.  If you do not know how to attach your Fusion 360 model follow these easy steps. Open the model in Fusion 360, select the File menu, then Export and save as a F3D or F3Z file to your hard drive. Then use the Attachments section, of a forum post, to attach it.

[SheridanTech]

Hi...   Post your model here as suggested above/below,  is best option... 🙂

But maybe check that the 'line' you are dimensioning is on the same plane as the drawing view.  Otherwise, you will get the projected size, not actual/true size. 

It's not an error as such:  all views and therefore dimensions are of the projected features (ie projected onto the plane of the drawing view).  Its correct, in that it's the basis of orthographic projection. 

In contrast, if you were to use the Measure tool in 3D Design mode - the line you are trying dimension will always measure as 'True Length', because its a 3D environment.

If I recall, there's examples in the depths of this post...    Hope that helps in the meantime!? 🙂

[meredith.j.mccarty]

Just chiming in here to say that while I understand that the underlying backend for the drawing environment is different than that of the modeling environment, it is patently silly that a) you cannot dimension a part when viewed from a named view or isometric view b) the software will happily give you an incorrect dimension.

It has been years since this thread began, and there is no plans of rectifying this on the roadmap? This an expensive, professional CAD software that cannot dimension parts for drawings. That is on-its-face unacceptable.

[peterBVBJU]

Chipping in here as well. OP raised this in 2020, its now nearly 2024. Just exactly who is setting priorities on when this get fixed. The purpose is to produce drawings to give to manufacturing, and that needs/requires/demand accurate dimensions to be shown, otherwise what is the point of the drawing tool? And why am I paying for software with an embarrassingly broken and Im going to venture mostly useless feature? Where is the guy who said he was in charge of the Drawing Workspace? Whats happening with this? Why isnt it fixed? I dont care how difficult it is and shame on you for using that as an excuse, just fix it or give me a refund on my subscription as this drawing tool isnt fit for purpose.

[SheridanTech]

Yep. Mostly agree... AD should make this clearer.

However, Fusion is definitely capable of producing correct, orthographic, engineering drawings.  (Which might explain why its not a priority for AD??). 
Unfortunately, it is left to the user to restrict dimensioning (in drawing views) to the in-plane entities - assuming they want true lengths only.  Any out-of-plane entity is not going to give a true-length, just a projected length.   It's not faulty as such - though from many user's perspectives, I agree, it may well appear that way!  And yes, it could seem extremely frustrating!

Sometimes a drawing view does need the projected height for example (ie not a *true* length of any entity), so AD cannot 'disallow' this, but ideally it should be a user-option -  or at least made clearer that it's projected or true-length being shown.   Example: an elevation/side-view of a pitched roof. You need to use an auxilliary view to dimension the ridge.

Won't go any further into this - as it's covered in the various comments here me thinks  🙂

My tip, would be to always treat Fusion's Drawing views as a 2D projections (ie orthographic, aka outline, xray?) of the 3D model. Plus, dimensions will always relate to the 2D lines in the 2D view, they are not actively linked back to the 3D model.  Hope that helps...

@Anonymous:  Where's the fully automatic dimension promised 12m ago by the CEO? I think I saw it 'in progress' on the 'road map'  🤞

[r.z.mudie]

How is this not being addressed yet?

The only thing I've ever wanted to create a drawing for is to annotate a design with dimensions - you could literally remove EVERY OTHER FEATURE OF DRAWINGS and I wouldn't care - this is the first problem I come across... and it's literally made the entire feature almost worthless to me...

Could we at the very least have an option to add custom dimensions? I.e. I select my two points, the dimensions come up, then I'm able to manually enter what they should be? No massive "projecting dimensions" problem - just let me add a custom dimension without having to fudge it with TEXT annotations everywhere.

@r.z.mudie - this post has been edited due to Community Rules & Etiquette violation.

[tonberryhunter]

So my workaround to this lack of a feature is to print out the isometric view on paper then go back to the 3D space and measure my dimensions and draw them by hand into the print out.  Its pretty ridiculous the software cant handle this stuff.  Im just trying to make a simple drawing to help construct a wooden box.  Like the most basic of design tasks that should be easy for a fully featured CAD package.    

[CGBenner]

@ClintBrown3D Do you have anything to add to this discussion?

[ClintBrown3D]

Thanks for Tagging me @CGBenner 

I am tracking this feature request (Dimension isometric views), along with several others.

Every customer request that we get, from meetings, emails, forum posts, tech support calls etc. gets collected and categorised in our feature request database. This information is used to prioritise the features that we build. I've updated this record in our database with the current requests.

Please bear with us, we cannot build everything, all at once, and must prioritise features, based on numerous factors.  It's worth noting that sometimes a feature request can seem to take a lot longer than you might expect to get into the product. This is usually because there are other prioritised features in the queue ahead of it, or the feature itself is a large engineering effort that will take multiple teams several months to build.

Prioritization of features is based on many factors, but one of the largest influencers is the amount of customer requests we get (as outlined above). 

I'd like to invite everyone on this thread to meet with me to discuss our prioritization process, or drawings features in general, please book a Zoom session with me via my calendar link. You can also contact me directly by email. Feel free to drop me an email, Clint. Brown {a} Autodesk.com

[peterBVBJU]

I'm not sure why this is even under discussion of shall we/shan't we - whats the point of a drawing feature that fails in its most basic use case - to show measurements. You'd be better removing it until its actually useful so people dont waste their time trying to use it.

[SheridanTech]

Hi,

To get a 3D isometric-type 'picture with dimensions', I've had some success using Design mode:  showing sketches, with dimensions, and adjusting graphics display style as required. I think I mentioned this in a previous post...

I can then screen-shot the 3D 'picture', for pasting into documentation, or in messages to others etc, etc.  As already posted, it would be nice to do this in Fusion's Drawings system.  Saving the Design view can be useful btw.

On the other hand, to get an ISO standard engineering drawing in say orthographic format, you have to arrange Drawing views to match the parts/faces, so that dimensions (which are always projected) are true-length.  Those drawing-types are not that intuitive but have been a standard since drawing boards...    That said, the standards do cover 3D-style drawings views (don't think they cover dimensioning such views?).  

@tonberryhunter   I often find a hand-sketch and dimensioning to be faster and simpler for certain things, but also manually annotated screen-shots of the model in Design mode.  But for manufacture, orthographic projection drawings are still a must, but sometimes in combination with 'pictures' etc.  !!

TTFN

[CGBenner]

@RajkumarIlanchelian is there someone else who can address this question?

[thales_cames]

I still have the problem, it is 2024 now! The dimensions, NOT ONLY FOR ISO VIEW, do not follow the scale.

[ClintBrown3D]

Hi @thales_cames 

Please share your file with us to investigate.

The only known method to create a not to scale dimension on an orthographic view, is if a dimension is placed between view geometry and a sketch, in which case the dimension is shown as dis-associated.