Is dimensioning functionality problematic?

[xretsim]

So I’m trying to produce a design for use by a person doing some woodworking for me, and I want to include dimensions. The UI and what I can find around the web and in these forums suggests that the functionality should be achievable by locking dimensions and exporting to .dwg. So, I created an image and locked the dimensions I cared about.

–upload://cXY6p2ZOJOvy6iBFb1bQzYi6TRu.jpeg–

I then exported in DWG, but the results have not proved satisfactory or useful. The resultant dwg isn’t useful in any of the three viewers I’ve tried, the last of which is AutoDesk’s viewer for iPad:

First one has numbers that are way too big, fractions formatted in way that would promote error, and bizarrely, all numbers mirrored
–upload://nD0JnZ0tbaRBm14z92tyJcTXLNh.png–

Second one has numbers too big (but not mirrored), various elements however, are out of place, especially all the curves, which are 180degrees rotated from where the should be.
–upload://75CNGGLPxMfac6PN2Cw2l6UOb5T.png–

Autodesk app for ipad shows results that are the same as first viewer. (numbers that are way too big, fractions formatted in way that would promote error, and bizarrely, all numbers mirrored)
–upload://fxQAq01VxSIXD1J1sH00fCWtfSR.jpeg–

IMHO, these are all pretty useless.

So, when I took the initial screenshot, the app helpfully suggested that I could take a screenshot without the UI, which sounds good, but when I do that, the screenshot tool strips out all my dimensions, which is in fact, the only thing I need a screenshot for.

So, the best i’ve been able to come up with is to

1. Turn off the grid
2. take a screenshot without using the screenshot tool
3. crop out the UI elements that I can. (thus lowering the resolution of my image)

This gets me:

Which is probably adequate for my purposes, but still has real problems. The one I’d like to call attention to is that the little Vertex dots obscure parts of my sketch. On some of my larger pieces, they obscure entire corner bevels so that you can’t see them.

I feel like such a good app should be able to do better. (I’d also like to be able to put dimensions on the 3d models of my design, so that I can show how pieces that aren’t connected in the sketch attach together, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to do that at all.)

Am I missing something? This feels like a really underthought feature.

[Gelphyn]

@xretsim
Welcome to the Forum.
You have clearly tried very hard to get the results you need.
Type ‘dimension’ into the Search facility at the top right of the page and you will realise that many users have similar needs to yourself. Reading through the Results will reveal that Dimensions are in the Development Plan. As a Subscribing Member, and definitely not an official response, it appears that the answer to your Title Question is ‘Yes’.
Although the situation is disappointing, to me personally, I still think S3D is a superb Package that the addition of Dimensioning and Annotation features would be the ‘icing on this particular cake’.

[xretsim]

Thank you. Maybe it’s just that it’s soooooo close to being able to do what I want that frustrates.

I mean, that’s pretty close to what I want, right there on the screen, but there’s no way to leave it on/export it as a pdf/hide the sketch leaving just the dimension showing/etc. And while I can get multiple dimensions to show at once for a single sketch, if I have dimensions on different sketches (for instance sketches on the different surface planes of my model.) I can’t get all of them to show at once.

(Maybe I’m just unnerved because it appears to have been a Dev Plan feature for more than a year. Which makes me worry that, realistically, a good fix isn’t about to appear.)

[DanielR]

Hi - thanks for bringing this our attention. Unfortunately I can’t see the pictures, also, could you please send the files to daniel@shapr3d.com and let see what we can do with the implementation of the feature.

Yes, a more complex version of this has been planned for a while. Some crucial basic interaction features were / are prioritized over this, but this is still among our top prios in the future.

Let’s see if we can fix a couple of things with this current implementation, the exported files (along with Shapr workspaces) would be appreciated.

[xretsim]

Yeah, apparently as a new forum user, I am only allowed one image per post. I’ll send you what I’ve got in an email.

[DanielR]

Got the files - we will have a look, and see if we can make improvements on the dxf/DWG export. Thanks for the help

[DanielR]

UPDATE

We have found an issue with this particular file that can be beneficial for everyone to know about.

When you export a drawing in DXF, with the dimensions switched on, the size of the labels will be defined by the size of your drawing. In this particular case, there was a line further away from the original sketch, which confused our system.

SOLUTION: If you notice that the dimension labels are big in your DXF exports, make sure you don’t have unwanted lines somewhere in your workspace.