3d dimensioning

[EngJW]

In a 3d sketch, is it possible to dimension the x,y,z location of a point from the origin, instead of the length of the line?

Thanks

 

[Theophilus]

I'm not positive, but I think if you draw construction lines on each axis from the origin, then snap your dimension from the construction lines to your points, that will give you what you need.




Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[JNR]

Problem is this is a 3D sketch, so what is "horizontal/vertical" etc. So point to point dims will not really help, but as Theophilus says if you put in construction lines on the axes, you can get a dim to align itself somewhat. That is because the dim then automatically wants to be perpendicular to the line - but it is still in 3 space 9the diagonal dim) in the other plane (example: Z axis line/X-Y plane) so it still may not help. You will problably have to put in a series of lines parallel to the axes and perpendicular to the top/right/front planes to get what you want. I just did a quick test, and you can't dim between the point and the planes directly which would be the obvious thing. Thanks a lot SW - this is a real deficiency in 3D sketches. What we do is type in the dims in the property manager box for the point, then fix it. To move , we just unfix, change the values and refix.

John Richards Sr. Mech. Engr.
Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics

There are only 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't.

 

[TheTick]

I do this all the time. Dimension from the principle planes, not from the origin. This will give you normal distances from the origin. Remember that three mutually perpendicular planes intersect at a single point. For the three principle planes that point is the origin.

In my template files, I have the principle planes renamed ("Front"=XY plane, "Right"=YZ plane, and "Top"(=ZX plane)). Also, I have three axes added, in X-direction through origin, Y-direction through origin, and Z- direction through origin.

side note:
Because we model "in car position", horizontal" is not always really square to our design frame of reference. Using horizontal and vertical constraints in 3D sketches often leads to headaches when part orientation changes. It is often better for us to dimension w.r.t. absolute X, Y, and Z axes for this reason.

There are two types of people in the world: the kind that believe that people can be categorized into one of two groups and the kind that don't.

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

 

[EngJW]

Thanks

The construction lines or typing in the point coordinates are something I didn't think of. 3d sketching does seem difficult to me, but I am still at the bottom of the learning curve too.