I'm a total newbie and totally flummoxed by the help screens of AutoCad.

I've had some help from members on this forum and I've drawn a four sided figure which has accurate dimensions, lengths and angles, for a building block.

So then I move onto dimensioning and do the best I can to follow the help screens. All they seem to do is extoll or list the wonderful things you can do without ever telling you how to do them.

So I created dimensions, on the Layout views as they suggested.

Now the dimension of the line I drew was 28.74metres.
Layout one gave me a dimension of 4.8676 metres.
Layout two gave me a dimension of 2.4422 metres.

What is wrong with this program?

Can anyone help me with this? How can I get the thing to display the lengths it already took in and drew?

regards,

ab :)

p.s. that is, I say they gave a length in metres but I suppose they didn't. Because they don't match. So maybe one was in feet and inches and the other in chinese li or something.
abrogard2009-09-20 06:24:38

if you are working now in paper space and want to see the same dimension you have in model space in paper space, you need to associate the dimensions, the proper command to do that is DIMASSOC, but i would recomend you to read a little bit about it you can search (Associative Dimensions) and it would indicate how to proceed properly.
Hopefully this work for you. 

Hi,

No, I'm not 'working' in Layout space (that's paper space?). I just went there because some of the reading I did said it would be better to do your dimensioning there.

That's part of what I mean by saying their help screens confuse me.

I'll try your DIMASSOC.

Reading a bit? I'm reading all the time. It just goes round in circles and leads off onto tangents and gets to dead ends without an answer....

That's why I ask in forums.

Currently I'm getting what I want because I dimensioned in working space and then I printed from there and I've got what I want.

regards,

ab :)

Dimensioning can be tricky.  You have to have everything set properly.  It is good practice to draw/model in Model Space.  It is also good practice to annotate (add notes/dimensions) in paper space.  Your model (or data) should be in model space and the items that will be on your drawing will go into paper space.  This is often debated back and forth and for good reasons.  Mainly just pick one and go with it.If you are dimensioning in Paper space then you need the setting (as mentioned above) DIMAASOC set to 2.  That will make sure that when you dimension objects in paper space that the true length is given regardless of the scale of your layout.  Also make sure your viewport scale is set to something logical, don't just zoom in /out until it fits.  That might be your issue here.

Try to do something in model space, like a square and put dims. on it, then when you finish doing that, go to paper space clicking on Layout1, automatically Autocad will take you to paper space and it will show the paper you are going to use and also the viewport with the drawing you made in model space, then in paper space if you set the dimensions with the command DIMASSOC <2> when you start dimensioning the drawing, dims. will be the same as you have it in model space no matter the drwg. scale you got in paper space. Try that to see how it works.
Hopefully it'll work.

I'll try all suggestions. I read a thread somewhere which indicated even very experienced users get problems with this aspect - model v layer dimensions.

As an outsider, off the cuff, I can't see why dimensions do not always default to the drawn dimension, wherever it might have been drawn.

My instinctive idea is that you draw in modelling space and what you've drawn is IT.

From there it should be a 'special' thing to get different dimensions to show in some view of the thing.

Defaults should be safe, fireproof and instinctive, I'd think.

:)
abrogard2009-09-23 00:49:51