Topic: Dimensioning Angles

[jonesy]

OK, this may be a dumb question, but normally we dont have much need for dimensioning angles.

We are currently working on a job that we do need to use this command.
What causes the text to be displayed on one side of the line sometimes, and on the other side sometimes? Someone here has started dimensioning this drawing, and sometime the text faces one way, but not on every dimension. Is there a variable to control this? 
How do we make sure all text faces the same way?
Many thanks

[Birdy]

could depend on the order in which you pick the lines that define the angle.

....or not.

[jonesy]

Thanks for your reply Jim. I've just tried your suggestion, but it doesnt seem to make any difference.

After playing with it for a while, I think it seems to only do that when the UCS is rotated close to where the text should be vertical, and then it does as it shows in the image in the first post.

[mjfarrell]

From the help file:

Enter options as needed:
To edit the dimension text content, enter t (Text) or m (multiline text). Editing within or overwriting the brackets (<>) changes or removes the calculated dimension value. Adding text before or after the brackets appends text before or after the dimension value.
To edit the dimension text angle, enter a (Angle).

You would need to decide on the Angle you want to use for the text....it's far from ideal.

[CAB]

I thought it was a function of the angle between hash marks.
Draw a line between the lower has mark & the upper has mark. If the angle is >90 deg the text is on the right otherwise the text is on the left.

[CAB]

Looks like Group Code 51 can be manipulated to get the text in the position desired but it's not straight forward.
It will require some calculations with OCS but here is a test routine to see the results of changing DXF 51.

DXF 51
All dimension types have an optional 51 group code, which indicates the horizontal direction for the dimension entity. The dimension entity determines the orientation of dimension text and lines for horizontal, vertical, and rotated linear dimensions

This group value is the negative of the angle between the OCS X axis and the UCS X axis. It is always in the XY plane of the OCS
 

                         

Code: [Select]

(defun c:test ()
  (setq e  (car (entsel))
        el (entget e)
  )
  (entmod (subst '(51 . 5.87097) (assoc 51 el) el))
  (princ)
)

[Dinosaur]

In your dimension style, are you selecting text position above the line or outside?  I solved most of these problems by using the outside option.

[jonesy]

I'm not sure about the dimstyle. I was going to play with that tomorrow. (I'm done for the day, but I'm happy to answer these posts as well as I can from home)

[CAB]

Look like "Outside" puts it on the correct side but does not rotate it. 

[dgorsman]

By "standard drafting rules", I think its techically correct.  At that angle the text is down when read from the bottom of the page but it looks bad because the text angle is so close to being vertical the tendency is to read it from the right side of the page where its in the wrong direction.  Looks like its one of those fuzzy grey areas in standards: is that text vertical or not?

[Birdy]

I use this handy routine quite a lot:

Code: [Select]

;;by David Kozina
;;via email 11-20-00
;;routine to flip text about dim line
(defun C:FLIPTEXT (/ ss i ent ele)
  (setq ss (ssget '((0 . "DIMENSION")))
        i  (1- (sslength ss)))
  (while (not (minusp i))
    (setq ent (ssname ss i)
          ele (entget ent))
    (entmod
      (subst (cons 51 (- (abs (cdr (assoc 51 ele))) PI))
             (assoc 51 ele)
             ele))
    (entupd ent)
    (setq i (1- i))))
;;;;

found here

[Jeff H]

I am pretty sure it is in dimension style maybe text placement?
JIS?
 
 
 
 

[Dinosaur]

I am sure there is a variable with a default value at least in the vertical civil apps that controls when the departure from vertical is reached for the text to flip for readability.  I think the default is 5 degrees.  I only have access to 2004 LT still and am having zero luck finding it but if any of you have a more robust program and can find something like this, changing the value to something like 2 degrees or even smaller along with that outside option may work for you.

[CAB]

Also found this:
http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=1417.msg17687#msg17687

[jonesy]

Also found this:
http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=1417.msg17687#msg17687

That one works perfectly, thanks for finding it CAB