Dimension Leader?

[ColinPearson]

Hello world. Looking for a bit of help here on these dimensions... Most are radius dimensions and one is a diameter, all have the same dimension style. I snapped a ray from the vertex of one leader and then snapped each dimension's grip to that ray so they all line up (cause I'm OCD like that). Anyone know why some have the horizontal portion of the leader and some don't?

 

Thanks!

[Dana W]

The nearest I could ever figure is that AutoDesk apparently thinks there is a minimum angle below which the leader "landing" is visually useless. You will notice that the landing'less leaders are all the flattest angles. It is just a guess, because this behavior is not an adjustment in the style editor, at least not that I could ever find.

 

Another thing that happens is that below a certain length, the leader arrowhead disappears.

[RobDraw]

As demonstrated in the sketch below, the start of the landings appear to have been lined up. It looks like the text for some of them was moved closer to the left but the landing was not.

 

My OCD tells me that the text should all be lined up with landings all the same size. Similar to what you have done for the left side.

[Dana W]

As demonstrated in the sketch below, the start of the landings appear to have been lined up. It looks like the text for some of them was moved closer to the left but the landing was not.

 

My OCD tells me that the text should all be lined up with landings all the same size. Similar to what you have done for the left side.

On second look, yes. The landings are not a fixed length, which can be fixed in the editor. This will cause them to disappear when the text is moved too close.

[ColinPearson]

Hmmm. Thanks for your input here folks. I see the fixed length in the dimension style editor Dana was talking about, but that does not seem to be fixing it for me. It does seem to really depend on the angle. I think I'll let this one go today... sometimes the box behaves and sometimes it doesn't.

[RobDraw]

I do a lot of leaders and am still not associating them with text. I find it just as fast to create two entities the way I need them as it is to fumble with styles, settings, grips, and justification. That is me and others would disagree strongly.

[rkent]

I do a lot of leaders and am still not associating them with text. I find it just as fast to create two entities the way I need them as it is to fumble with styles, settings, grips, and justification. That is me and others would disagree strongly.

 

You only need to fumble with styles one time, from then on it is easy sailing and way faster than leaders and text. I have about 10 different mleaders I use and with the ribbon it is very easy to pick and choose a different style needed.

[RobDraw]

You only need to fumble with styles one time, from then on it is easy sailing and way faster than leaders and text. I have about 10 different mleaders I use and with the ribbon it is very easy to pick and choose a different style needed.

 

10 styles is too many in my book. I work in a place with many users on a variety of skill levels. Each one is going to do it differently. Keep it simple and show them how it is supposed to look is what works around here.

 

Here is a typical scenario:

 

Shift the position of text. Leader and justification changes.

 

Make grip adjustments or change style?

 

Grip edits don't give you what is expected.

 

What style?

 

That one is close with just minor adjustment. Minor adjustment throws everything our of whack.

 

It's just so much more simple and predictable with separate entities.

[rkent]

I should say I only have one 'standard' note leader, the others are speciality leaders.

 

I have to say I never have the problems you refer to, must be in the style settings, but as you say to each their own.

[ColinPearson]

Ha! Rob, I do the same thing most of the time

[RobDraw]

Ha! Rob, I do the same thing most of the time

 

Thanks for your support!

[Dana W]

I use mleaders w/ text or blocks because two entities to me are one too many. The trick to mleaders is keeping them simple. Use a fixed length landing and a fixed length landing gap, with only ONE maximum leader point. landing attached middle left top line, and middle right bottom line. Text justified top left, which auto changes to bottom right when the text is dragged more than 90 deg, left of the arrowhead. My landings do not disappear, even at 0 deg., because the landing and landing gap distances cannot be altered.

 

You want OCD? The client template I am using at the moment requires paperspace (hate 'em) dimensions and mleaders, so I have developed the habit of using the edge of my viewports to snap my mleader text box to so I don't have to erase it. OCD has also required me to learn some uncommon methods to align viewports vertically and horizontally so the mleaders on every viewport align with each other. Once the leaders are aligned, I may or may not move the viewport boundary to expose just the right amount of the model.

 

Even with OCD, in architecture (Orlando, FL entertainment industry type) they still come out looking like a rats nest when one is forced to fill in most of the information on one view, ostensibly for proof of concept in this first iteration.

Personally I think the theme park gods just like to make us normal humans draw the same stinking scene 4 or 5 times, and then rip it all down in 5 years to make way for the next blockbuster movie theme. At least most of the doors and windows are inoperable, and nothing is exposed to weather.

 

Nothing much lines up in that drawing because I had nothing but the following sketch and a deadline to go by, so I traced it to the nearest 1/2 inch. The sketch was how a revision to the door trim and adding a stained glass window was presented to me.

test shot.pdf

test shot two.pdf

Edited November 7, 2015 by Dana W

[ColinPearson]

Dana, I'm laughing/crying with you talking about tracing a sketch... I can't tell you how many times I've cobbled together some drawing with Google Maps, county GIS aerial photos, scanned paper surveys, etc and done some "engineered tracing" to get a plan view drawing of a site to start working with. And they'll still end up better than the site drawings provided by the client LOL.

[Dana W]

Dana, I'm laughing/crying with you talking about tracing a sketch... I can't tell you how many times I've cobbled together some drawing with Google Maps, county GIS aerial photos, scanned paper surveys, etc and done some "engineered tracing" to get a plan view drawing of a site to start working with. And they'll still end up better than the site drawings provided by the client LOL.

Yeah, but at least you are dealing with stuff that actually exists in real life.

[Dadgad]

I do a lot of leaders and am still not associating them with text. I find it just as fast to create two entities the way I need them as it is to fumble with styles, settings, grips, and justification. That is me and others would disagree strongly.

 

That was how I enjoyed doing them, you likely recall the spline leaders which I favor.

Now we are using ProSteel, and they make me nuts, because I can't tweak them like I am used to doing.

I have had to give up on making them look great, it just isn't in the cards.

They used to look great!

[RobDraw]

I do remember. They were quite nice.