Solidworks drawing Dimensioning

[Adrian2]

Dear Folks;

I have modelled a bent railroad track in solidworks 2003 shaped like a giant "C". While I was measuring the existing piece in the field I took a measurement on the rail centerline from one end of the C shape to the other.

Having drawn the piece I would like to duplicate that dimension for checking purposes. But I have not been able to get the solidworks dimension to snap to the intersection point of the rail centerline and the end of the rail. I have had to use autocad to do that.

Is there some way to exercise more control over what SW dimensions snap to. Or am I overlooking some basic drawing techniques here.

Best Regards

Adrian D.

 

[Theophilus]

Adrian,

You can dimension an arc by selecting its end points and then the arc itself.

You probably know how to dimension a straight line.

A spline is more complicated. Fortunately, meintsi posted a link to solve this in anoter thread:

http://www.dynabits.com/sw/spliner.htm

This is a free download that plugs into SW. By the way, I found the on-line instructions for this to be a tad vague. Unzip the contents of the downloaded Zip file on your hard drive somewhere. Grab the *.dll file and drop it on your SolidWorks.exe file. My SW opened, then closed. Then I was able to open SW and choose the Tools > Add-ins and find spliner in the list.

Hope this helps,




Jeff Mowry
DesignHaus Industrial Design

http://www.designhaus-i-d.com

 

[jbknudsen]

Jeff is right, and there should also be an arc over the dimension indicating that the dimsnison is arclength. Additionaly (angle x dia. x pi) /180 will give you the arc length. There should also be a pointer icon that looks like a thin line "X". This symbol indicates that you are hovering over an intersection. Just curious, are you trying to take the dimension while in the part and using the measure tool, are you in the sketch or are you in the drawing?

Hope this helps

Best regards,
Jay

 

[Timelord]

Dimensions won't snap to a midpoint. The work around is to insert a short construction line and mate it to the midpoint. The dimension will snap to the construction line.

Timelord

 

[Adrian2]

Thanks Timelord;

Thats exactly what I ended up doing, now, is it possible to hide that line so it wont show up in the final drawing ?

Thanks Jay and Jeff for your input but perhaps I did not make myself clear, I don't need to dimension any arc's or splines.

I am just trying to replicate the dimensioning practices that have been used on railroad drawings for decades.

Best Regards

Adrian D.

 

[metman]

Adrian,

In the 3D model, right click on the sketch and choose Hide Sketch.

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

 

[Timelord]

Adrian,

I understood that you were in a drawing file, so there is no 3D model or sketch listed in a feature tree to hide, only drawing views.
I simply put the line in an area where I can drag the extension line completely over it, or grab the endpoints of the line and move it under the extension line so it does not show.

Timelord