X1.3 dimension lock

**05uurx** · 10-05-2007, 10:52 AM

I was doing some research on whether or not chief could "lock" and automatic dimension line, so when you re-dimension, it "knows" which layer of a particular wall to dimension to. I found some threads that suggested this, but the threads were pretty old. Mostly V10 i think.

Does anybody know if this is possible in X1.3? Or if there are any recent threads on this already? I do some stuff with manual dimension lines too, but, it would be nice if auto dims could be trained in certain circumstances...would make life easier (for me)

Also, on dimensioning...why is it that when you have, say...a 28 X 40 rectangular plan, and you auto dimension you get the 28' dim, and the 40' dim on the outermost string. but you when you add a breezway, or wing, or garage or anything, and you re-dimension, you loose it and the overall house dim gets blended away. I use a manual dimension line to get it back. Unless i'm missing something...

**Doug Park** · 10-05-2007, 01:56 PM

Breeze ways were really bad for automatic dimensions in V10 and earlier. Duplicate overlapping dimensions were one thing that would often occur. In X1 you don't get overlapping duplicate dimensions. In cases where this would have occured in V10 the dimensions are combined into a single dimension.

There are likely cases where we could do better. If you could send a plan to support that has manual dimensions set up exactly like you would like the automatic dimensions to generate, we can then put that in our system for future consideration of improvements. That way we will know what we should generate.

**Glenn Woodward** · 10-05-2007, 03:29 PM

05uurx (or whatever your name is),

If I understand you correctly, you can't lock an auto dimension, but you can flag it as a manual dimension so that when you redo auto dims, the original dimension is not deleted.

Open the dimension string's dbx and on the Dimension tab, uncheck Automatic.

**05uurx** · 10-06-2007, 04:18 AM

The only probelm with flagging a dimension string as manual after chief has auto-dimensioned, is that if you make a change later on, and re-dimension, chief retains your now manual string and places another automatic dimension line over the top of it.

To be a little more specific than before...what i would like to see is a way to "lock" 1 handle along a dimension string. so if i have 1 6" wall in a group of several partitions, and i want to dimension the outside or inside framing layer instead of center on just that one wall; I'd like to be able to shift the dimension handle to the outer or inner framing layer and then "lock" it, so when i re-dim, it somehow remembers where i told it to stay. Chief treats every wall between 2 exterior walls as interior partitions, to be dimensioned to center, no matter what wall type it is...

And again, the overall dimensions are important too...if i have a 40' house, a 12' breezway, and a 28' garage. Chief should be able to include (somewhere in the dim. strings), an overall 40' dim, a 12' dim and a 28' dim...and if you were to ask me where, i think they should go on the 2nd to outer most string, between the partition string and the big-daddy overall dimension.