Autocad | 7 Dimension tricks

Hi, How’s it going?

Today I’ll be showing you how to do Dimension using shortcuts.

So I have a row of boxes here to dimension Usually beginners will dimension this way.

You’ll go and click dimension and then turning on Object Snap, you will click each point

one by one, making sure that they are aligned, and this is really time consuming.

So I want to show you some shortcuts that will save you a lot of time especially doing

construction drawings and blow up plans.

So lets delete this.

Now the shortcut for Quick Dimension is

QDIM.

Let’s say you want to dimension this whole row, only this top edge.

QDIM, Spacebar, Select the edge that you want to dimension and before you click anything

after you have just selected, hold your mouse wherever direction you want your dimension

to be. Let’s say it is this top end.

You press Spacebar, it will automatically generate towards that direction.

Let’s put 1m.Let’s do it again.

Quick Dimension.

Click the edge that you want, Hold the mouse cursor where you want the dimension to be,

press Spacebar and that’s it.

The next trick I’m going to show you, is Continuous Dimension.

Let’s start with Continuous.

Continuous Dimension, How do you use it?

You have to start with a regular dimension for this one.

So Quick Dimension.

QDIM, Spacebar.

1m, Ok, Let’s do continuous dimension, DIMCONT.

So once you clicked the command, Once you have pressed Enter, It will automatically

generate Continuous Dimension from the edge of the first dimension you have created.

So just click on the next point that you want you dimension to end, and then just, continue.

This is useful for Setting Out Plan where you have, heaps of dimension to put out for

the contractor to build.

So this is Continuous Dimension.

Next trick is Baseline Dimension.

DIMBASE.

Oh, for this command you need to create a regular dimension first.

Ok, DIMBASE.

So what it does is, it will generate from the starting point of your first dimension.

Generate dimension continuously on top of the previous dimension.

This is also good for setting out plan and construction drawings.

All the dimensions are overlapping.

What do you do?

How do you adjust it so that it is just, the spacing is just nice.

There’s a trick in dividing this exactly so that it doesn’t overlap.

The trick is, Dimension Space.

DIMSPACE.

Spacebar.

Select the Base Dimension, Select the dimension you want to space out.

Spacebar.

Leave it as auto mode.

It will automatically space out the dimensions nicely for you.

The next trick I’m going to show you is, Dimension Break.

Now what is Dimension break.

Sometimes your dimensions and your leader annotations, overlap.

What do you do?

Now this is where Dimension Break comes in.

The shortcut is DIMBREAK.

Spacebar.

Select the dimension line that you want to break.

Go for Auto, auto is fine too.

I prefer manual.

Anyway, Auto and then Spacebar.

It will automatically break, the point where it overlaps.

If you want to use manual, DIMBREAK, Select this dimension.

Go for manual.M, Spacebar.

Click the first point that you want to break and the second point and it will break the

two points that you have clicked.

Got it?

Ok, what else?Hmmm..Dimension style, Oh, If you want to generate Baseline Dimension which

automatically space out evenly, Let me show you.

Let’s say you want to do Baseline Dimension again and it goes ahead and overlap again

and you’re really annoyed by it and you want to change so that it doesn’t overlap, you

don’t have to do the dimension spacing.

What you do is you go to Dimension Style.

DIMSTYLE.

Spacebar.

Modify it.

Go to Lines.

Increase the, maybe 4.

Try out whatever distance that you prefer.

ok.

Let me delete this.

DIMBASE.

Spacebar.

Yup.

So after you have changed all the spacing of your Baseline Dimension will be on top

of each other.

If you put a higher figure, it will be further.

The next trick I’m going to show you is, Dimension Ordinate.

Now I have a plan here of a table that I have drawn of a 5m by 2m . So I want to, let’s

say I want to start all the measurements from the centre.

Centre of the drawing.

So this is my central point.

So I have prepared a ruler here to help us understand this method easier.

Let me check that it’s actually the center.

Yup. ok.

Now that we have the ruler we can delete the reference point.

You don’t have to use this ruler but its for tutorial purposes.

It’s easier to understand.

So let’s go ahead and activate the command.

Now before we activate the command.

We need to change our origin point to this point.

Because right now if you use this command, DIMORDINATE Click this point and 16246.

What number is this?

We have no idea what number is this.

Our origin point is not starting from the center of the table, it’s actually starting

from the centre of this point.

So what you’re reading is, the distance between here and oh sorry.

The distance between

this point and this point.

So 16246, here 16246.

Now we don’t want to measure from that random origin point.

Let’s move our origin point to the center of the table.you type UCS.

Spacebar.

And the click, make sure you click on this intersection point.

Have your snap point on.

Object snap on.

F3.

Click, when once you click the origin X and Y axis will be still moving freely so you

need to first click the end point of X axis and then Click the end point of the Y axis.

You need to do this 3 Clicks to fix the origin point.

Now you can save this location at UCS Manager.

UCSMAN.

Spacebar.

You can rename it.

Now it’s called unnamed.

You can rename it as Table origin.

So next time if you come back to this drawing and your UCS…Oh there’s a duplicate.

Name, Table Origin 2.

If you come back to this drawing and your UCS is not where it is, you don’t have to

redo it.

You just have to..

Oh in order to reset it, UCS Spacebar, Spacebar. and you want to go back to table origin just

click this one and it will snap back.

And then if you want to …Ok, let’s use our Dimension Ordinate, come back to our Dimension

Ordinate.

Now we want to measure the distance of this point.

Have your Ortho On.

This one, Command L or F8.

It can only measure from X or Axis.

It’s great for things with only right angles tables, squares , rectangles and when you

have your Ortho On, it will snap to either X axis of Y axis.

So when you click on this point.

Just pull out and click.

This is measuring along the Y ruler.

So it’s 2150.

2000 is here, so it’s just after 2000.

Next is, measuring using the X ruler, so the point is actually here.

Using the X ruler.

Let’s do the same for this.

Using Y ruler.

If you want to fix like, sometimes, you move your mouse around it will change to X and

Y readings.

You want to fix it to Y just type Y enter.

Or Y Spacebar.

If you move to the X axis, it will still stay at, it will still stay using the Y ruler.

and just click.

Repeat command Spacebar, click and Let’s use X ruler.

See even if I move down here it doesn’t snap to the Y ruler, and just click.

Same thing here.

Still changes, but I don’t want it to change anymore.

Y Spacebar.

So it doesn’t change the ruler it measures from . So this is simple enough.

I hope you understand my explanation and not confuse you instead.

And let me know if you find it useful.

Thank you.