Custom dimensioning

[fjmpereira]

Hi there.

I would like to know if there's a way to add extra customization to dimension styles; The way I use dimensions, I always assure that I have at least two decimal digits, but I work with 3 decimal digits; When I have a dimension that has mm (i work in meters), it shows the third decimal digit, but if it's a zero, it supresses it; However, I don't want it to supress the second decimal digit if it's a zero, because I've figured out in my experience people make more mistakes in the construction site if I do. I end up using a 3 decimal digit plot style, and then changing manually to 2 digits when the last the third one is a zero, but it's a time consuming process. Is there another way to work this? Something like, supress trailing zeros after the 'N'th decimal digit.

Other thing I'd like to do, because people read dimensions easier that way, is to have the third decimal digit smaller and higher than the other digits. I do this when I handsketch and most workers read those dimensions better. I know it's technically not the correct way of representation but it works so I'd like to use it in AutoCAD.

See the attached jpeg for exemples of how I'd like to be able to set upa a plot style.

Anyone knows a way of doing this? Can it be done through scripting? Thanks

[RobertB]

Personally, I think the superscript is a terrible idea. How is someone supposed to interpret the superscript if it happens to be a "2" or "3"? Do you intend it to indicate an area (10²) or a volume (10³)? Too many chances for misinterpretation, IMHO.

If you are going to show 3 decimal places for everything other than zero I would say that you just ought to do the same with anything ending with a zero and dispense with the "two decimal place only in this case" idea.

I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult to write some code to loop thru all dimension objects and create an override on any dimensions that meet the criteria. It could be tied to an event handler even.

[fjmpereira]

It will be used for dimensions only, not areas or volumes. And anyway, these are drawings to be read by the construction workers themselves, so I'm pretty sure no one will interpret "10,15²" as 10,15^2. It's common to represent that way in hand drawing, even if not technically right, and it's proven to lead to less mistakes than the regular version. Same goes for the third zero supression; Since we think in terms of three units when we read numbers (meters, centimenters and milimeters) - and we actually read numbers like that very often (ten meters, fifteen centimeters and two milimeters), that representation actually makes quite sense. Representing 10,50 as 10,5 sometimes leads to people falling in the mistake of reading it as "ten meters and five centimeters" (trust me, it happens), as using the third zero also makes confusion. Remember these are drawings for workers who read hundreds of dimensions a day, so they must have the easiest representation possible. And I've also seen engineers fall in the same mistaske to be honest (though I've never seen them interpret one of my hand drawings with a "10,15²" as "10,15^2"

I can do some research on coding, but must it be dependent on an override? There is no way of having dimensions show like that as I place them in the drawing? I like to control visually all I add to the drawing as I draw, and overrides sometimes lead to not noticing mistakes. Also, if it's override, will the dimensions be editable afterwards, or will it require another override if I change something afterwards?

Thanks

[RobertB]

You are going to need either two or more dimension styles or overrides. No way around that.

And the superscripts will only be possible by totally overridding the true dimension string. Which is a bad idea.

[apostolosgadris533841]

Hallo,
is there any solution to this problem mentioned above?