Dimension length

Use this forum to ask questions about how to do things in QCAD.

Moderator: andrew

Forum rules

Always indicate your operating system and QCAD version.

Attach drawing files and screenshots.

Post one question per topic.

User avatar
Husky
Moderator/Drawing Help/Testing
Posts: 4931
Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 9:25 am
Location: USA

Re: Dimension length

Post by Husky » Mon Dec 12, 2016 1:48 am

TSG wrote:Hi Husky et al

Even though the last hint with the "Block definition from a dimension" is a little older its very tricky and it helps me so much in my daily work.
It's worth to say that it is very helpful not even for beginners but also for advanced QCAD-Users to browse through the forum.
Thanks to all and keep on discussing.

Thomas
You are welcome! We are here to share our experience and ideas and if it is helpful for some user ..................... even better :wink:
Enjoy the holidays!
Husky
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

riverbuoy
Senior Member
Posts: 121
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 5:37 pm

Re: Dimension length

Post by riverbuoy » Tue Dec 13, 2016 4:13 am

Hi All,

First, I should explain that I come from an architectural background and have never measured parts of boats nor used any CAM equipment of any sort. Therefore I could be missing something, or misunderstanding the problem, in which case this may not be useful.
Frank60 wrote:My drawing process may differ from yours. I first take measurements of existing objects (parts of boats) and then make a 2D drawing of them to be able to reproduce them on our router. That means sometimes that I have to draw a line, circle, rectangle, whatever at xxxx.xx mm from a point, line, object, whatever. I then first draw a dimension, change it to the required length (only graphically now with a lot of zooming in and out and scrolling the screen to read the value) and then draw the line through the endpoint of the dimension. I also use construction lines to do this and I miss these in QCAD too.
To take your last point first. Recent versions of QCAD now have construction lines. They are, perhaps not obviously, part of the Line command. When you start the Line command, you will see the following three icons in the Options Toolbar.
ConstructiuonLineIcons.png
ConstructiuonLineIcons.png (1.67 KiB) Viewed 2982 times
The left hand icon is a line segment (the default), the middle icon is an infinite line (XLine) and the right hand icon is a Ray. If you wish to draw construction lines, select the appropriate icon, and place the construction line in your drawing.

This brings up the problem of locating points in a drawing. I would like to suggest using Point entities to identify points through which to draw lines, circles etc.

Assuming you know the distance (xxxx.xx mm), then I think the easiest method is, first to set relative zero to the point you are measuring from. If relative zero is not already at that point, then you can set it using the menu option 'Snap -> Set Relative Zero', or use the two letter shortcut 'RZ'.
Next, choose 'Draw -> Point' (shortcut 'PO'), and when prompted for position, enter a relative polar coordinate in the command line. This is the distance and angle from the relative zero point. (i.e. '@xxxx.xx<angle' ). The command then places a point at the given distance and angle from relative zero point. (You could also use the 'Restrict to angle and/or length' option button in the options toolbar).

To make the points more obvious on screen, use the menu option 'Edit -> Drawing Preferences -> General -> Point Display'. (Note: This only changes the appearance on screen. When printing, only a dot will be printed).

Using this method you can place all the points you need to draw your entities. You can then use the dimension tools to add the dimensions to the drawing if required.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards

riverbuoy

Post Reply

Return to “QCAD 'How Do I' Questions”