{"id":1395,"date":"2010-06-15T05:10:40","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T13:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=1395"},"modified":"2010-06-23T21:09:26","modified_gmt":"2010-06-24T05:09:26","slug":"rapid-dimension-manipulator-part-1-of-mice-and-pies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=1395","title":{"rendered":"Rapid Dimension Manipulator (Part 1: &#8230;of Mice and Pies)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SolidWorks 2010 saw several cool interface improvements that may have been prematurely included.\u00a0 One of these was the Rapid Dimension Manipulator (or as I like to call it, the Dimension Pie; it&#8217;s just easier to say).\u00a0 <span> <\/span>The Dimension Pie appears at the mouse cursor location when the user inserts a dimension in a drawing  view.\u00a0 It allows the user to quickly place dimensions along a chosen side at evenly spaced intervals.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Dimension Pie\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fcsuper.com\/images\/Blog\/pie3.jpg?resize=352%2C140\" alt=\"\" width=\"352\" height=\"140\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>The Problem<\/h3>\n<p>Although the Dimension Pie does speed up certain dimensioning activities, it also burdens the user by being in the way <em>a lot<\/em>.\u00a0 This prevents the user from quickly making additional selections by requiring a mouse dance.\u00a0 In case you&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>As I see it, the shape and size of the pie take up too much real estate on the view pane.\u00a0 The pie shape is just the right sort of shape to be equally annoying in almost every situation.\u00a0\u00a0 In my opinion, a rectangular bar shape would&#8217;ve much less intrusive.\u00a0 Another problem is that there is no way to quickly banish the Dimension Pie or to turn it off completely.<\/p>\n<h3>Temporary Solution<\/h3>\n<p>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.\u00a0 If someone is interested, this key is posted somewhere in the SolidWorks Forums (search for &#8220;Rapid Dimension Manipulator&#8221;).\u00a0 I&#8217;m not providing that solution here because I just don&#8217;t like it.\u00a0 It requires the use to upgrade to SP3 and then to apply the registry key.\u00a0 A permanent solution is planned for SP4 anyway, so if you haven&#8217;t already upgraded, you may wish to wait a week or two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SolidWorks 2010 saw several cool interface improvements that may have been prematurely included.\u00a0 One of these was the Rapid Dimension Manipulator (or as I like to call it, the Dimension Pie; it&#8217;s just easier to say).\u00a0 The Dimension Pie appears at the mouse cursor location when the user inserts a dimension in a drawing view.\u00a0 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=1395\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Rapid Dimension Manipulator (Part 1: &#8230;of Mice and Pies)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,16],"tags":[1124,826],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-complaints","category-drawing","tag-dimension-pie","tag-rapid-dimension-manipulator"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - 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