Dimensioning Problem

[gautamrs]

Dear Friends
I have an issue with dimensions. Now when we were constructing our walls for the project, since the construction was wood, the wall types were created based on stud thicknesses and not finishes. Which means, that in cross section, a wall type has just one layer, that denotes the wood stud and no finishes. The idea was to add finishes later based on stucco samples picked up by the client. The reason being, area separation walls, demising walls, plumbing walls would generate more than 20-30 wall types and this would be unnecessary at the DD stage. Now we're in CDs. To that effect we were careful enough to draw walls using location lines based on core faces as well as setting up dimensions based on the same parameter. This was such that any additional layers extending beyond wall cores would not affect the wall locations and add unnecessary thicknesses to exterior wall conditions. Since yesterday I've been validating the wall finishes and even though the thicknesses append correctly based on outer limits, the dimension strings are moving and throwing off older dimensions. I've attached a jpg to be more lucid in my query. Please advice if there's a work around. Thank you very much!

Gautam

[twiceroadsfool]

Are you making sure that when you add the finish layer in the wall, that it is going outside the core boundary? Im not sure how dimensions play in to that. If the wall is dimensioned, i dont know if it ASSumes that the dimension is to the outside face of the wall... Which it may be doing...

[Andre Carvalho]

Í tried to reproduce the same thing you did, but here all works great. I tried changing all different options in the wall assembly, but it always works as it is supposed to do.

Can you post it? Maybe make a copy of your file and delete all but these walls and the dimension string.

Andre Carvalho

[gautamrs]

Hi Aaron,
Yes, I've made sure that the core boundaries stay within the finish layer. Only the stud layer lies within these and finishes are outside. I'm guessing that since the dimension strings were created using the surfaces, the program automatically jumps the string based on the new added layer. Unfortunately, its not smart enough to tell that the older surface is the core face. Thank you very much for the tip!

Gautam

[gautamrs]

Here you go Andre. Please take a look at the wall on the First floor plan that is highlighted with a circle in hidden lines. Now, that wall type is 5-1/2 exterior finish. if i change that to the very next one (5-1/2, stucco 3), the dimension changes. Please advice. Thanks again!

[patricks]

So I changed the wall to the one with stucco, and then just edited the dimension witness lines to make it go to the core face. Seems to me that would solve the problem.

When you have a wall that consists of a core layer only, it's difficult to determine if the dimension is going to core face or the finish face, since basically they are the same thing with only a single core layer.

So change your wall types and then adjust your witness lines back to the core layer and call it done.

BTW nice method for denoting fire walls. I may have to copy that! ;)

[gautamrs]

Thanks Patrick. I wanted to see if that step could be avoided! :lol: I guess it's not possible... And it makes sense that the program cannot determine which layer to use since there's only one. By all means, take the firewall rating method. I used to work with DGraue, another AUGI member & a good friend. He came up with that method. I agree, it's a really cool way to denote fire rating.

[Andre Carvalho]

Thanks Patrick. I wanted to see if that step could be avoided! :lol: I guess it's not possible... And it makes sense that the program cannot determine which layer to use since there's only one. By all means, take the firewall rating method. I used to work with DGraue, another AUGI member & a good friend. He came up with that method. I agree, it's a really cool way to denote fire rating.

I got it!!!

Before dimensioning, change your detail level to Coarse. Then you will see that there's a green dashed line that will show when you dimension the edge of the wall. If you use tab, it will switch between the green dashed line and the continuous line. The one you have to pick is the green dashed line. That means the core. If you dimension in Fine, that green line won't show, and then you have the problem.

That was tricky!

Best regards,

Andre Carvalho

[patricks]

Here's another caveat: normally you can click a dimension string and hit the Edit Witness Lines button to move, add, or delete witness lines.

However, if you change your wall type to add the finish layer, then move your dimension string back to the core layer, and then change the wall back to the core-only wall, you can no longer edit that particular witness line with the Edit Witness Lines button. If you click that button and try to click the wall edge to remove the witness line, it again thinks you want to go to the finish face and creates a 0'-0" dimension. So if you want to delete that witness line, you first have to move it to something else with the blue grips, and then use the Edit Witness Lines button to take it off. :roll:

[gautamrs]

Brilliant!
Andre, I realize that working with individual references while dimensioning in coarse view completely removes this issue and thereby any additions to wall layers do not affect the dimension strings....

Patrick, I saw that issue occurring too! Is it a bug?

Gentlemen, thank you very much for the help!

Best Regards,
Gautam

[patricks]

Not sure if it's a bug or just a by-product of single-layer wall behavior. It would be nice if you could Tab to pick either Core face or Finish face in medium or fine detail level views.