Angled Wall Dimensioning

[rookwood]

I know this issue was discussed several months ago, prior to the release of Revit 7, but has there been a fix for dimensioning angular walls?

I can't imagine trying to prepare a set of construction documents and NOT being able to dimension the lengths of angled walls. In my opinion, this is as basic and necessary as any other annotation and it is not conceivable that the Revit team either missed or cannot FIX this huge problem. I don't see workarounds on this issue as an acceptable option if Revit wants to be serious and play with the big boys.

I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it was fixed and I am just the stupid one today and cannot find the Easter egg.

Frustrated and on a deadline!

[Scott D Davis]

What can't you dimension? Would you post an example?

[rodneyf]

Rookwood,
It has not been fixed and I like yourself find it frustrating that it can not dimension non-orthogonal walls. I have told everyone in my office to use an invisible line at the intersection of stud walls (either wood or metal) and they will be able to dimension to them that way. I have also told the users in my office that they don't have to use invisible lines on walls that have a masonry core, because it will find the intersection of those wall types. I know that does not help but you are not alone.

[rookwood]

Rodneyf:

How have you created an invisible line style?

Scott:

Rodneyf had a better description than mine: non-orthogonal walls. The dimension tool wants to locate from a parallel or perpendicular surface and ignore any reference to angles. I notices also that the temporary dimensions are absent when creating angled walls.

[Scott D Davis]

can you post a graphical example? Either a JPG or even a RVT file? Here's an example of some dimensions of non-orthagonal walls. Any of these represent something close to what you are trying to do?

[rodneyf]

I went to Line Styles under settings and then proceeded to create a new line style named Invisible-Drafting and then selected from the line types the invisible type and then changed the color of the line to white and that way it will not print. Also upon further investigation I have found that you can dimension to the core of a non-orthogonal stud walls but only if you have the location line set to core face exterior. See attached image. Hope this helps.

[JamesVan]

How do you typically dimension angled walls in your CD's? I've created some examples of the way you can dimension these types of walls in Revit now. Are these what you're looking for?

Edit: Oops. Need to stop getting distracted while replying to posts! Man, this forum is efficient.

[aaronrumple]

I went to Line Styles under settings and then proceeded to create a new line style named Invisible-Drafting and then selected from the line types the invisible type and then changed the color of the line to white and that way it will not print. Also upon further investigation I have found that you can dimension to the core of a non-orthogonal stud walls but only if you have the location line set to core face exterior. See attached image. Hope this helps.

Check your witness lines - I don't think they are going where you think they are. (I know they aren't going to the intersections of studs...)

[Merlin]

Rookwood,
It has not been fixed and I like yourself find it frustrating that it can not dimension non-orthogonal walls. I have told everyone in my office to use an invisible line at the intersection of stud walls (either wood or metal) and they will be able to dimension to them that way. I have also told the users in my office that they don't have to use invisible lines on walls that have a masonry core, because it will find the intersection of those wall types. I know that does not help but you are not alone.

I've been able to dimension an angled ( or non-orthogonal) walls, however, whether some would call it satisfactory is debatable.
I drew reference planes perpendicular from the points/corners of the wall in question. The linear dimension worked on these and looked like just some dashed extension lines to these corners (which wasn't so bad for clarity)
The debatable part is that to delete or even make these planes non-visible made the dimension go as well. So if there was an occasion where I would really like NOT to have these planes showing, I'll be stuffed.
I should make myself clear. Though the reference planes show on the plan and on the plan view on the drawing sheet, they DO NOT print, but the non-orthogonal dimension does

But otherwise, it works just fine and quite quick.
HTH
John Mc

[Rhythmick]

Mitering the corners will help, doing a 'shift tab' will usually find the intersection point quicker if it recognizes it at all. In non orthogonal I still have problems with Revit not recognizing the intersection point of the core in a lot of cases where it finds the intersection of the finish. I really think if Revit had the capability to set up views to work with just the wall core and ignore the finish, when it comes to CD production it would solve this issue as well as others. I have yet to have worked with a set of CD's that were not dimensioned based from the wall core. Is anybody else spending a LOT of time zooming in on all the dimension grabs to make sure you don't flinch enough to throw it off the core when you hit the mouse button. I do not have a lot of confidence in the core preference setting! How about a "core only" setting?

[rookwood]

JamesVan:

The 9'-2 7/32", 11'-4 1/2" and 11'-7 1/2" dimensions are the ones I can't get. Revit wants to snap to the horizontal or vertical walls, therefore giving me dimensions with only horizontal or vertcal witness lines. The dimensions I need are the lengths of the non-orthogonal walls.

I am using Revit 7.

[Rhythmick]

JamesVan:

Revit wants to snap to the horizontal or vertical walls,
.

Are you using the 'Tab' key to cycle through pick options whith your cursor over the intersection till it highlights the intersection "point"?

[rookwood]

genuinehomes:

No...and I just did and that works. Somewhat tedious, but fortunately I don't use too many angles, so I can deal with it.

BTW: Is there a way to set the dimensioning settings to autosnap to points?

Thanks!

[JamesVan]

BTW: Is there a way to set the dimensioning settings to autosnap to points?

Don't think so. You can set your object snaps to Points, but there are only four options for dimension preferences: Wall Centerlines, Wall Faces, Center of Core, Face of Core. Guess you can add that one to the wishlist.