Can't dimension certain areas of my drawing.

[Anonymous]

.dwg file won't let me dimension certain areas of my drawing. I can dimension some aspects, the 36" distance for example. But it will not let me dimension some other areas of the drawing. If i select my parameters for the dimension and go to complete the dimension, it shows me the edit dimension window like it always does, but when I proceed no dimension is left. And it's **** frustrating. Thanks for any help.

I select the bottom line (red) as my first dimension parameter.I select the second line from the top (red) as my second dimension parameter.I attempt to complete the dimension on the right of the drawing. But no dimension is left after a click to place.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I have heard of this behavior before but we have not found a persistent set of steps to reproduce it. The first thing to try is to use Inventor Reset Utility (go to All Programs -> Autodesk -> Inventor Professional xxxx -> Tools). After that, does it work better?

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Do you have the latest update installed?

Have you tried shutting down Inventor and reopening the file?

If that doesn't work, try restarting the computer and try again.

If that doesn't do it, then try the Inventor Reset utility as Johnson suggests.

[darryn_mott]

I had the same problem dimensioning an Autocad viewport in Inventor. I had other pages that had Autocad geometry in viewports that worked fine.   I found it was something wrong with the viewport Autocad created.  I copied a functional viewport from another page and it worked.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! That is a good hint. Inventor drawing view is fully associative true scaled drawing. The geometry you see in the drawing view actually came from the model itself. It is like you are looking at the model from a distance. So if the viewport is not true scaled (the geometry is scaled to fit the viewport), Inventor will not be able to dimension the geometry. Also, you want to make sure "MEASUREMENT" is set to 1 in the dwg file.

Many thanks!

[darryn_mott]

Johnson Shiue-  A couple follow up items.  What does the MEASUREMENT variable set to metric do to make Inventor like Autocad more?  Also I have found that the Autocad viewport in an Inventor sheet does not need to be any certain scale.  Inventor seems to know the scale of the Autocad viewport and will dimension it correctly.  However, I have (too often) run into the PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED WHILE SAVING THE DOCUMENT... error when I have inserted 2d geometry while in Autocad into an Inventor .dwg and then create a viewport on a drawing page.  I caution others inserting Autocad items into an Inventor .dwg because when this error occurs it corrupts the file leaving it worthless.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I could be wrong but based on how I understood ACAD and INV work, MEASUREMENT variable has to be set to 1. When it is set to 1, the hatch and linetype are Metric based, instead of English based. Inventor has a fixed internal unit. So the geometry is always true scaled regardless how you measure it. Unit is more like a display. 1 inch in length is always 25.4 mm. You cannot arbitrarily dimension something at will.

AutoCAD is different. You can draw geometry and assign dimensions. The dimensions can be overridden to any value. You can also change the scale or unit to alter the dimension. It is very flexible but it can be confusing.

Many thanks!

[IgorMir]

Check out that your Dimension Type is set to Projected. Just as it is shown in the attached image.

Cheers,

Igor.

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@Anonymous wrote:

.dwg file won't let me dimension certain areas of my drawing. I can dimension some aspects, the 36" distance for example. But it will not let me dimension some other areas of the drawing. If i select my parameters for the dimension and go to complete the dimension, it shows me the edit dimension window like it always does, but when I proceed no dimension is left. And it's **** frustrating. Thanks for any help.

[IgorMir]

Hi Johnson,

Yes, you have heard of this behavior before. 🙂 And it is easily reproducible. You and I discussed it here, on the forum.

Cheers,

Igor.

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@johnsonshiue wrote:

Hi! I have heard of this behavior before but we have not found a persistent set of steps to reproduce it. The first thing to try is to use Inventor Reset Utility (go to All Programs -> Autodesk -> Inventor Professional xxxx -> Tools). After that, does it work better?

Many thanks!

[bob.doughtyG43WZ]

I had a similar problem where just one part of an assembly in a drawing would not except a dimension. I overcame the problem by turning the offending parts visibility off then back on again in the model browser in the drawing view which would not allow the dimension.

Not dimensioning fix

[myerpaul]

I know this is an old post, but this was a very helpful solution.

Sometimes my students place drawing views in as isometrics and then come back to change them to front views, and they see this behavior.  I always had them delete and re-place the view.  I didn't realize this was a view setting, thought is was a dimension setting.   Thank you!

[temoRNQZB]

I've found that if you change the "General Dimension Type" from True to Projected, it tends to work.