Tag: rapid dimension manipulator

Rapid Dimension Manipulator (Part 1: …of Mice and Pies)

SolidWorks 2010 saw several cool interface improvements that may have been prematurely included.  One of these was the Rapid Dimension Manipulator (or as I like to call it, the Dimension Pie; it’s just easier to say).  The Dimension Pie appears at the mouse cursor location when the user inserts a dimension in a drawing view.  It allows the user to quickly place dimensions along a chosen side at evenly spaced intervals.

The Problem

Although the Dimension Pie does speed up certain dimensioning activities, it also burdens the user by being in the way a lot.  This prevents the user from quickly making additional selections by requiring a mouse dance.  In case you’ve not upgraded to SolidWorks 2010 yet, a mouse dance is when the user is forced to move the mouse cursor away from one location and to bring it back again just to dismiss some pop-up.

As I see it, the shape and size of the pie take up too much real estate on the view pane.  The pie shape is just the right sort of shape to be equally annoying in almost every situation.   In my opinion, a rectangular bar shape would’ve much less intrusive.  Another problem is that there is no way to quickly banish the Dimension Pie or to turn it off completely.

Temporary Solution

As of right now, SolidWorks 2010 SP3 (and SP3.1, I presume) allows for the use of a registry key to turn off the Dimension Pie.  If someone is interested, this key is posted somewhere in the SolidWorks Forums (search for “Rapid Dimension Manipulator”).  I’m not providing that solution here because I just don’t like it.  It requires the use to upgrade to SP3 and then to apply the registry key.  A permanent solution is planned for SP4 anyway, so if you haven’t already upgraded, you may wish to wait a week or two.

SolidWorks 2010 Rapid Dimension

Adding dimensions to parts on drawings is now quicker in SolidWorks 2010 with the addition of Rapid Dimension.  Once the user enters the Dimension command, Rapid Dimension allows the them to quickly position dimensions (almost automatically) as they are added.  Not only will dimensions automatically space out correctly as they are inserted, they will be inserted at the correct location, even without that location in view.

Now, each time a dimension is added to a drawing, SolidWorks will pop up with a pie, divided into two pieces for linear dimensions or four pieces for radial dimensions.  (Technically, these pies are called the rapid dimension manipulators.)

Linear Dim Pie Radial Dim Pie

Each piece of the pie represents the direction (which side of the part) that the user can choose to place their new dimension.  When the user selects the half or quarter, the dimension is placed in the correct location on that side of the part within the drawing view.

Rapid Dimension in Action

Two methods can be used to select the dimension location using the pie.  The user can simply LMB click on the portion of the pie in the desired direction.  The user can also use a mouseless method, by pressing tab to toggle between the pieces of the pie; then press the spacebar to select.  Additionally, the user can choose the ignore the choices offered by the pie to manually place the dimension, just as they would in previous versions of SolidWorks.

The auto-spacing between dimensions is determined by the user’s settings in Tools>Options…>Document Properties>Dimensions within the Offset distances field.  The ability to set default dimension line offsets has been in SolidWorks for quite some time, but it’s never been quite so useful as it is in Solidworks 2010.

Offset distances field

Within a few minutes of using Rapid Dimensions, many users will likely become instantly addicted to the new function, as it promises to be a major time saver when detailing drawings in SolidWorks 2010 and beyond.

Deleting Dimensions

One additional item about dimension placement is SolidWorks behavior when a dimension is deleted.  If the user deletes a dimension or even just removes text from a dimension, SolidWorks has the ability to automatically realign the spacing of the neighboring dimensions to get rid of gaps caused by that deletion.  The user has the option to turn this ability on by going to Tools>Options…>Document Properties>Dimensions to select the Adjust spacing when dimensions are deleted or text is removed checkbox.