Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
[Mtext/Text/Angle/Horizontal/Vertical/Rotated]:
7. Move the mouse to generate the type of dimension you want, horizontal or ver-
tical, and then click wherever you want to place the dimension line.
AutoCAD draws the dimension.
When you're specifying the dimension line location, you usually
don't
want to object snap to existing objects — you want the dimension line and text to
sit in a relatively empty part of the drawing rather than have it bump into existing
objects. If necessary, temporarily turn off running object snap (for example, click
the OSNAP button on the status bar) in order to avoid snapping the dimension line
to an existing object.
If you want to be able to align subsequent dimension lines easily, turn on
Snap Mode and set a suitable snap spacing — more easily done than said! — before
you pick the point that determines the location of the dimension line. See Chapter 4
for more information about Snap Mode.
8. Repeat Steps 4 through 7 to create another linear dimension of the opposite ori-
entation (vertical or horizontal).
9. On the Annotate tab's Dimensions panel, click the lower half of the Di-
mension split button and choose Aligned from the drop-down menu, or type
DAL
and press Enter.
The prompt includes an option to select an object instead of picking two points
(you can use this technique with the Linear Dimension command, too):
Specify first extension line origin or <select object>:
10. Press Enter to choose the Select Object option.
AutoCAD prompts you:
Select object to dimension:
11. Select the line or other object that you want to dimension.
AutoCAD automatically finds the endpoints of the line and uses them as the exten-
sion line's origin points (that is, the
defpoints
), as shown in Figure 14-8. (The broken
extension line is created with the DIMBREAK command, which I describe in the sec-
tion “More fine tweaking,” later in this chapter.)
