I’ve been working in Rhino for 12 years, and if there’s a command that does what I’m looking for, I haven’t found it yet. The Linear Dimension tool works along X, Y, or Z. The Aligned Dimension tool works in the XY, XZ, or YZ planes. What I need is a dimension that shows the true 3D distance—X, Y, and Z together.
I can draw a line and use the Length command, but I’d prefer the dimension to look like the others—clean and consistent. I could manually calculate the distance between two points and overwrite the dimension text, but that’s a clunky workaround I’d rather avoid.
Specifically, I’m dimensioning parts inside a boat hull, using a reference grid drawn on the hull surface. Since most of the hull is drafted 9–14° off the Z-axis, dimensions taken from the front view are off by 1–2%. Installers can easily pull tape along the surface, but vertical dimensions are harder—they need to use a level to project back to the surface. I’d like a way to place dimensions that follow the surface or show true 3D distances from point to point.
Your first version had the dimension style I wanted. In-line dimension rather than an leader dimension. My example was a poor example because I chose it on the grid.
My last drawing I exploded the dimensions and projected them to the surface which made it easy to understand and view, but the dimensions were horizontal dimensions not along the surface dimensions.
I’m now thinking I could do aligned dimensions in the yz plane and then explode and then rotate 3d so they are viewable in the xz plane. project to surface. A lof of steps. I’ll play around with your grasshopper first.
