The 'break lines' dimension property stopped working on my sw 2010

[merz38]

The break lines feature on SW 2010 stopped working. It was working properly last night.

Anyone have any idea how to fix this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JMirisola]

What have you already tried? Have you restarted SolidWorks? Your computer? What did you do between last night and today? Any updates to Windows or SolidWorks?

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
Design Manager/Senior Designer
M9 Defense
My Blog

 

[fcsuper]

What in the image isn't working? Extension lines are only supposed to on or near arrows.

Matt Lorono, CSWP
Product Definition Specialist, DS SolidWorks Corp
Personal sites:
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Shouldn't a leader line be broken when crossed by a dimension line?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I thought the extension lines should be broken, but according to

http://help.solidworks.com/2011/Eng...w.htm?id=55ce49749d1b482692669e3491390b34#Pg0

Is that per the ASME (or any other) standard?

 

[Enginerd9]

WHOA... wait a tick! In the image you have "break lines" selected and it's not breaking the lines? Did you originally have "use document gap" selected? If so, try making it smaller than .9 inches because I think that makes it physically impossible to produce a break.

Or, try entering a different number... say, .015 inches and see if it works better.

Yes, there is a standard. ASME Y14.5 2000 Drafting Standards will take care of the particulars. Also, yes... you don't want to break extention lines. Break the line with the arrow head on it which crosses the other extension lines.

If guns kill people, cars drive drunk.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

After a quick test, it seems SW allows either the extension line or the dimension line to be broken. It depends which dimension the break is applied to.

It's good to have the choice.

 

[fcsuper]

ASME 14.5M-1994 states, "Where extension lines must cross other extention lines, dimensions lines, or lines depicting features, they are not broke. [HOWEVER] Where extention lines cross arrowheads or dimension lines close to arrowheads, a break in the extension line is permissible."

On dimension lines, the standard states, "Crossing dimension lines should be avoided. Where unavoidable, the dimension lines are unbroken."

ISO 129:1985 states, "Intersecting projection (extension) and dimension lines should be avoided. Where unavoidable, however, neither line shall be shown with a break."



Matt Lorono, CSWP
Product Definition Specialist, DS SolidWorks Corp
Personal sites:
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion

 

[merz38]

Actually I figured this out, there was an option buried in the document properties that makes it so that the dimension lines only break around the arrows, which in my opinion is totally useless.

The great people at Dassault do a wonderful job of hiding settings that should be on the most topical level, as I just wasted about half an hour of my life.

Anyway, problem solved. If anyone is curious about where this is buried I could take a screen shot later.

 

[fcsuper]

merz38,

Did the Help for this topic not specify the location of this setting? Also, do you have a better location that you'd like to see it placed?

Matt Lorono, CSWP
Product Definition Specialist, DS SolidWorks Corp
Personal sites:
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources & SolidWorks Legion

 

[merz38]

Ideally, If I were a programer at Dassault, I would place as a check box either before or after the space where you fill in the size of the line break, in a conspicuous place, and not as some hidden setting under document properties.

You can change many of the properties of the dimensions themselves on the menus that open when you select a dimension. By this same logic, a setting like that should be on those menus.

Also to answer your question, I thought it was a computer glitch because the lines would break in some documents but not others. I didn't even think to check the help section because I was not aware that this was a 'setting'

 

[Enginerd9]

"Ideally, If I were a programer at Dassault, I would place as a check box either before or after the space where you fill in the size of the line break, in a conspicuous place, and not as some hidden setting under document properties."

The same could be said about ProE regarding conspicuously placing simple commands rather than hiding it under layers of garbage. lol

Regardless, you DO have a check box near the place where you enter the dimension for the size of the break. It's in the original picture. I promise break lines aren't that complicated, and I've never had to go into any kind of system setting or document property to make them work. It's unfortunate that those of us who grew accustomed to digging that deep into the software to make it work are assuming they have to do it with SolidWorks as well. The great thing is the programmers at Dassault eliminated the need to do such extensive "behind the scenes" programming for their software to work properly. If you're accustomed to it, and you dig in thinking it's necessary, you could easily create a setting which inadvertantly makes the system do silly things... point is, you don't need to dig that deep for line breaks if you haven't somehow dug that deep before and accidentally changed a setting. By default, SW understands how to create a dimension break... just click the check box called "use break lines" as shown in the picture, you can "use document gap" or enter your own in the dimension box right next to it. Click "check" and done.

If the dimension value in your document gap box is LARGER than the space available in the dimension lines themselves (as is the care from the original picture) it cannot physically place the line break. Make that number smaller, start at .008, and you'll see it appear. SW is really good at doing things intuitively when they're physically possible.

If guns kill people, cars drive drunk.

 

[Enginerd9]

Specifically, yes you do have to set up a "settings" profile to tell the system that you want to use [Insert Standard here] as your drafting standard. You can use the ASME, ISO or whatever default you want. Also, you can create your own... it'll tell you "you've made your own drafting standard as a modified [insert default standard here]." You can save that. It's really easy. You don't need to learn syntax or anything to set up your system, it's in plain english within the Tools > Options menu. Pretty standard for any Windows program, so why is it so horrible here, huh? lol

Simple thing: spend that half hour wasting your life by setting up your system to perform the way you want. That's pretty standard across the board no matter what system you're using, at least (imho) SW makes it super easy and intuitive to get this part done. Once you've got your settings the way you want, use the SETTINGS WIZZARD from your Start > Programs > SWXXXX menu. It will automatically and efficiently create something resembling a "config.pro" type file, place it in the appropriate spot on your hard drive, then you never have to worry about it again. It's even portable! You can take it with you to your new job, or whatever. Same process except this time you're using COPY SETTINGS WIZZARD and you don't even have to spend that half hour wasting your life again. Just copy your old settings and done!

This will also let you do cool things like placing buttons on your toolbars, placing your toolbars left, right, top, bottom, etc. and loading your non-default "add-ins."

So, back on topic... sorry you have to make some drafting settings make sense, but you'd have to do that no matter what software package you were using. If I had SW in front of me I'd give more examples of the Tools > Options you can play with but unfortunately this company went to the Dark Side because the cookies were supposed to be awesome.

If guns kill people, cars drive drunk.