Dec 19, 2025, 10:09:19 PM
|
Sweet Home 3D Forum » List all forums » » Forum: Features use and tips » » » Thread: Can't get dimension lines to work » » » » Post: Re: Can't get dimension lines to work |
Print at Dec 19, 2025, 10:09:19 PM |
| Posted by Grant_Edwards at Mar 25, 2009, 3:59:00 PM |
|
Re: Can't get dimension lines to work >In Sweet Home 3D, no item is connected to an other one, except >for a set of walls created together. There's no way to add to a wall after it's created? That's probably why my walls keep coming apart when I try to modify them. >That behavior simplifies the management of modified and >deleted objects because they aren't bound to other ones, and I >don't feel like users complain that much about that. On the >other side it gives users the full freedom to do what they want >with each item in the plan. It makes dimension lines far less useful than they are in other floorplan/CAD packages. In other packages a dimension line represents the dimension of an object. When the object changes, the dimension line changes correspondingly. Likewise, if you want a specific dimension, you click on the dimension line and enter it. Having things not "connected" also makes it difficult to adjust wall positions without creating gaps that have to be manually closed up. Other packages understand that walls are connected to each other, and when you move one end of a wall, the other end stays connected to the same wall it was previously connected to (though by default that connection point generally slides to maintain right-angled corners). >The length of walls is measured between their connecting points >(the points with a little arrow at each end). So lengths are measured along wall center-line to the center-line of adjoining walls. Unfortunately, that's the one dimension that you usually can't physically measure in the real world. >I know that it may not be the length you're interested by in >real life, but Sweet Home 3D has no mean to guess if you prefer >to display the length between the connecting points of the >current wall, the length on its left side or the length on its >right side. Right. That's what dimension lines are for: to show you the lengths you _are_ interested in. It appears my problems result from my expectation that SH3D act more like a CAD system and less like electronic paper/pencil. I realize it would be more work to make dimension lines work the way I'm used to having them work, but they don't seem nearly as useful the way they are now. >It depends on the thickness and the angle of a future wall that >you didn't draw yet! Again, that's why one adds dimension lines to drawings -- to tell the system what dimensions we want to see displayed and to allow us to specify those dimensions. >Conclusion : you should create dimensions for documentation at >the end of your project. In other CAD/floorplan packages, dimension lines can be used to get things in the right places while the project is being constructed. They're a fundamental part of a project and its objects. Dimension lines aren't just decorations tacked on at the end. In other packages I can start with a rough sketch and measured dimensions. I set up the walls, add dimension lines for the dimensions I've measured, and then use those dimension lines to get the walls to the right places. The approach SH3D seems to assume requires a lot of work -- you have to sit down and manually calculate all of the wall lengths along center-lines based on wall thicknesses and the various known dimensions. [The same way you would do it if you were doing the drawing with pencil and velum.] In other packages you can just draw the walls, set up dimension lines, and then either enter the measured dimensions, or nudge the walls/doors/windows around until the displayed dimensions match the measured ones. Perhaps I just don't understand how to properly use it, but SH3D seems unsuited to drawing a floorplan based on measured dimensions unless you want to draw a floorplan and pre-calculate the center-line length of all of the walls before you start work in SH3D. Am I missing something? |
|
|
Current timezone is GMT Dec 19, 2025, 10:09:19 PM |