Can anyone explain to me what is happening with my dimensions? Here is a basic issue I’m having among other weird things.
I can’t seem to control my dimensions in 3d space like I could in the past. It’s like they’re projecting and also ortho constraining themselves when I don’t expect it.
In the attached image, I expect the dimension to be attached to the curves I just selected, not project to zero plane. I just can’t quite understand what is happening.
Hello - dims are always projected to the current plane as far as the dimension number itself goes - is that what you mean, or is the dimension object being projected, or? (Check the Project setting on Osnaps as well as the Planar setting in the status bar)
Rhino 6 only puts that angular dimension on the cplane. Rhino 5 puts the angular dimension on the object you are clicking on. That’s a pretty big deal. I don’t feel like I should have to change my cplane for every dimension I add to an object in 3d space. Is there a setting somewhere or a bug?
Please note that the Dimaligned command does not output what the name implies - aligned dimension along two points or vertices. This makes it impossible to dimension a 3D model, which is pretty useful for fabrication or CD purposes. Also, note that the dimension shows ~4’ measurement on the 5.72’ edge because of this issue.
Dimensions in Rhino are 2D objects that need a plane to lie in. The two points you pick are not sufficient to determine a plane (you need three) and the limitation of Rhino is the third point always gets projected to the active CPlane. DimAligned will create an aligned dimension correctly, but only in the current Active CPlane.
The solution to this is therefore to create a custom CPlane that is parallel to the direction you want DimAligned to measure, then you can place the dimension as you wish. In the file below, there is a custom CPlane named Aligned1 which was used to create the aligned dimensions on the right.
I think current behavior is counterintuitive, usually if you use aligned dimensions you want those dimensions to be aligned to those points’ direction. Having to change the current CPlane is cumbersome and not easy understandable for newbies.
If what you want is to have those dimensions projected to cplane, you could always activate Project Osnap.
Not only counter-intuitive, not any newbie limitation: I use it a lot to show gaps and features as I get then on 3D scanned meshes of curved organic parts, which come from the scanner alignment with no hope whatsoever to have any plane candidate to Cplane. This information is used to make decisions on tool modifications and corrections.
Rhino 5 would do the job with flying colors by just giving me the straight direction point to point sqrt(dx2+dy2+dz2) using _dimaligned.
I lost an important tool when I purchased this upgrade to Rhino 6 because now I’m forced to create endless constructions to get what was already there working great.
I just updated to 6.16.19190.07001 (had 6.4.18124.12321) hoping the bug mentioned by Pascal was fixed but still, same behavior.
Can’t we have our good old _dimaligned back if only as a different entry in the menu, keeping the current one (Rhino 6) for those users that approved the change?
Hi - Bug RH-45722 was fixed, yes. Angular dimensions are no longer created on the CPlane.
The CPlane is still used as required input for the calculations. But as far as I can see, that was also the case in Rhino 5.
-wim
Can’t wait for the aligned 3d dimension to be implemented in the next Rhino 6 SR or in Rhino 7. It will be also very useful for taking vertical dimensions on buildings, furniture etc directly in the Perspective viewport.
While waiting for “McNeel” to create a proper 3d dimension tool usable in the Perspective viewport, I ended up making my own macro for this very reason. However, my custom dimension tool does not allow me to rotate and snap the dimension to a target point with a 3rd mouse click, which is shown in the image I posted above. Instead, it only uses a temporary CPlane to orient the dimension to the target surface, then it reverts to the last Cplane. Still, it’s very usable for creating vertical or aligned dimensions in the 3d space.
PS: Just figured out that I can do a modified macro that sort of does what I previously requested, though it will ask me to pick the 3d rotation axis AFTER the dimension is already built (ideally, the axis should be determined by the end points of the dimension, saving two mouse clicks):
i never understand why they cant make this sort of improvements which are seemingly no hardcore stuff. its basically better UI for existing functionality.