Wish: _Dim with _Continue=_No

Hi…,

my customer writes, he is annoyed, that _Dim is not resetted, after the option _Continue was activated once with _Yes. I see this too.

Please can the standard _Dim buttons be changed to _Continue=_No.

Thanks

Michael
www.flexiCAD.com

Hi Michael -

I’m not sure what is being asked for here. The left mouse button action on that button is without continuation.

Apart from that, the Dim command remembering its options within a session was a frequent user request up to 2015 when that was implemented (RH-31444 - not public).
-wim

Hi Wim,

I think 95% of the time _Dim is used with _Continue=_No. When you switch once to _Continue=_Yes, you have always set this back manually with _Continue=_No. This is annoying.

In Rhino 5 the option was set internally allways back to _Continue=_No, but not in Rhino 6 and 7.

Or have I missed something?

Thanks

Michael

Hi Michael -

That is correct. As I wrote, RH-31444 changed this based on numerous requests.
This is the first request to the opposite since 2015. Both are valid; only one can win.
-wim

Hi Wim,

you are right, it is fine and consistent that _Dim and all commands remember their last options.

Nethertheless setting things back for most of the cases is annoying. So therefore the solution would be to add _Continue=_No to the standard cases.

Thanks

Michael

Hi Michael -

And I guess, that’s where I get confused. What is the standard case?
-wim

Hi Wim,

sure, I count one annoyed customer. :slight_smile:

Cheers

Michael

@Michael_Meyer , @wim I do not see any reason not to make the LMB macro explicitly set Continue=No. I should have done this for RH-31444 to begin with.
Wim, shout if you think this would mess existing workflows - I kind of don’t think it would but…

RH-64469 Toolbar: Set dim macros to Continue=No

-Pascal

1 Like

Thanks, Pascal!

I don’t think that would mess up anything, no. I see that I failed to understand that this was what was being requested here. Sorry about that, Michael.
-wim

1 Like

Hi @pascal,

thank you for adding _Continue=_No. Nethertheless _Dim seams still buggy to me. When I use _Dim _Continue=_Yes in Rhino 7.10, it continues the last created dimension, instead creating a new unlinked dimension.

Please can you take a look.

Thanks

Michael

@mary - is that the designed behavior, do you know?

-Pascal

Hi @Michael_Meyer,
Thanks for the discussion.

I was involved with this debate back in the Rhino 6 beta testing about 5-6 years ago.
It appears there were, and are still two camps here:

  1. Those that liked the Rhino 5 behavior where the Continue option in Dim was set back to No when the command completed.
  2. Those that requested the new Rhino 6 behavior where the Continue=yes was persistent until Continue=No was toggled.
    The issue was that Rhino 5 users did not like that if the command was ended in error like with an Enter, and they would need to start over toggling the Continue=Yes.

I was not sold on this behavior and wrote a bug up in Rhino 6 Beta testing. But the developer was confident that this was the best approach, so I decided to embrace the change with a Keyboard shortcut assigned to F4. It toggles the Dim continue setting and restarts the Dim command.

Keyboard F4: !Dim c Enter Dim

So whenever I start a dimension that is continuing (or not continuing), I tap F4 and I am are good to go.

I am doubtful that after 4 years we will be able to change this back now that many user have adopted the new behavior.
Let me know if this Keyboard shortcut works for you.

There may be a RhinoScript or plugin option that would give you a DIM2 that would duplicate the Rhino 5 Dimension behavior. But you will need to convince @dale to do this.

Sincerely,
Mary Ann Fugier

Hi @mary, and @pascal,

I am not sure, if we talk about the same thing. Try this:

  1. Do a horizonal continuous dimension with:
    ! _Dim _Continue=_Yes _Pause _Pause _Horizontal
    dim_hor_con

  2. Then do a vertical continuous dimension with:
    ! _Dim _Continue=_Yes _Pause _Pause _Vertical
    dim_ver_con

The vertical continuous dimensions (from point 2) stay still horizontal. I get confused.

In my opinion the continuous dimension should have never a link to the last dimension (as lazy person I even can’t remember my last dimension :wink: )

Thanks

Michael

Hi Michael,
Thanks for the images and the addition details.
Lazy is good! The path of least resistance is always preferred!
Yes- I see that. I will log a bug.

I also see this:

  • When Continue=No, then the LMB starts a new dimension and RMB continues from the last.
  • When Continue=Yes, (which is persistent now after you do one continue) these two buttons do exactly the same thing.

Do you see this as well?
@pascal Maybe the LMB macros should set the Continue=No for both the Horizonal and Vertical buttons?

Sincerely,
Mary Ann Fugier

I too have found this really annoying. It’s one of the annoyances that sends me back to ACLT for my 2D.

Hi Mary -
@mary
This is what we have now -

! _Dim _Continue=_No _Pause _Pause _Horizontal
! _Dim _Continue=_No _Pause  _Pause _Vertical

Does that look correct?
But what Michael describes looks to me like a bug - not a macro problem, is that right?
FWIW, the way Continue currently works looks wrong to me - a new run of the command should always start a new set of dimennsions and you should need the command line option to continue a previous one.

-Pascal

I agree. I will write it up, again.

Thanks,
Mary

@Michael_Meyer, @mary, @pascal, @wim,

I believe this is what is being looked for:

_Dim _Continuous=_Yes _NewChain

Let me know if I am confused.

– Dale

@dale - I would flip it around and never do anything other than start a new chain - in the command. The option would allow continuing an existing one.
That is, @dale , @mary I think I would change the command so that it never automatically continues an existing dimension if Continue=Yes. The only way to continue an existing dimension would be to use the ‘SelectDimensionToConinue’ option.

-Pascal

Yes- I see that @Pascal.
You made these corrections in Rhino 7 Sr9.

One suggestion for those that do not have these updated macros:
Run the ToolbarReset command and restart Rhino.