It is a fact that Shapr3D produces superb 3D Designs in a manner that the great majority of users find to be intuitive and absolutely delightful to use.
Any User not falling into the above category possibly needs to review appropriate educational features that are abundantly available via the App or Shapr3D.com.
After a Design is created it is often taken to a stage that will turn it into a Physical Product.
Seldom is the latter going to come to fruition without a means to communicate specific detail regarding Fabrication.
A picture [read:- a very nice S3D presentation] may be worth the touted ‘thousand words’ but it will be very difficult to put into words the detailed Dimensions involved.
Users of S3D have wide ranging needs and the software accommodates a very wide spectrum.
So the Dimensioning System needs to be flexible enough to provide satisfactory output for a vast range of uses.
I am a newbie to S3D so it is likely that some things have been overlooked or not fully understood.
My goal is to produce 3D images, and that is an absolute joy with S3D, that can be dimensioned sufficiently for fabrication in the workshop. A Design that can include Dimensions and Annotations would be a full bells, whistles and cloud 7 production.
The existing Dimension Indicators are absolutely excellent for the purpose of producing Sketches of accurate Bodies, however the image below is the result of a macOS ScreenShot Exported to PDF:
Dimensions 6.pdf (394.4 KB)
It is possible, with caveats, to produce detailed fully dimensioned Sketches on one or more Planes within the Apps. However it seems that these Dimensions remain in the App and only available within those particular Sketches? Capture with the Shapr3D ‘Take Screenshot’ removes the Dimensions before capturing the image, as does any attempt to create a Body or similar actions. It does not seem possible to display the Dimensions of two Sketches [on different Planes] at the same time. The Objective in attempting to do this was to effectively show a Plan and Elevation at the same time.
It is possible to produce a full set of elevations to convey the full details but of this should not the objective when such accurate information already exists within Shapr3D. Hopefully possibilities exist to use the presently available Dimension Information?
There is a need for Dimensions to be printable enabling essential communications, both examples below were created in SU:
Dimension 1.pdf (153.1 KB)
Note that the above, and that below, have been deliberately modified to show the Dimensioning possibilities available in some Apps. The ability to alter the Text within any specific Dimension, e.g., Placing Dimensions ‘outside ✿’ the Dimension Line when space is too tight, Omitting Units, Decimal places where values permit, Enlarging and Emboldening if deemed necessary or useful, etc.
IMO the above is easier to read because it is far less ‘busy’ compared with the first Sketch.
✿ Some Apps utilise a Callout where the Dimension Line has a connected Line that in turn points to the Dimension Detail usually in the closest available space.
When a Design contains only whole units dispensing with the Decimal Places and Units makes the job of Dimensioning easier, the ‘lack of Units’ can be covered by an on drawing note to the effect that ‘All Dimensions are Millimetres’ or appropriate units of course.
The key factor for consideration should be User Flexibility to enable clear dimensioning in limited space. Many individuals, even companies, do not have the luxury of late format printers or with the produce PDFs that require endless scrolling to view all of the essential information.
My aim is to work from a detailed Design direct from a Tablet.
Users working with larger projects also need to be considered:
Dimensions 2.pdf (212.0 KB)
It is appreciated that the constraints of Development time will dictate what can be done within a reasonable time frame. Ideally Dimensions should graduate toward featuring:
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Visible or Invisible by a software Switch
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Be capable of being applied to 2D Sketches and to 3D Designs
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Positioning Dimensions relative to the Dimension Line need to be User selectable
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Font Size/Styles and Indicator Styles [Arrow Heads and Line Ends] need to be User selectable
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If possible Actual Dimensions should reflect changes in the Scale of the Drawing and adjust when the Drawing size is changed
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Colour can be useful in some Dimensioning situations
To meet my needs investigations into Overlay Apps is underway. The object being to add Dimensions over an existing Design by drawing on a Transparent Layer provided by an Overlay App.
If a Dimensioning App, that will expedite the inserting of automatically inserting Dimension Lines between chosen points, exists I would be happy typing in the measurements. Affinity have made this easier with the advent of Arrow Heads and a good range of other Line Endings but it is still a lot of work.
IMHO some form of printable Dimensions should be high priority, unless iPadOS has some, at present, hidden features waiting to surprise us.