| Help on version 1.4

Driving Dimension Entities

Driving Dimension entities are finite lines or arcs with length, angle or radius information allowing you to quickly and effectively manage the key dimensions of your model. By using Driving Dimensions you can control edge length, arc/circle radius, angle or distance between two geometric entities precisely. To create Driving dimensions, use the Driving Dimensions Tool.

A Driving Dimension entity’s text displays the value you set. By changing the driving dimension value you rule the length of the edge, the radius of the arc/circle or the angle between the edges associated with that dimension.

Driving Dimensions Toolbar

You may access the tools offered by the Driving Dimensions from either the Driving Dimensions Toolbar or the "Tools–>Driving Dimensions" menu.

Placing Driving Dimensions

Driving Dimensions are based on a 3D model. Existing vertices, edges, faces, arc curves and circles can be used to set the driving dimensions. To set a dimension in your model:

1. Select the Driving Dimension Tool.
2. Depending on the dimension type you wish to apply, perform the following actions:

To dimension the...	Click...
Length of an edge	The edge.
Angle or distance between two edges	Two edges.
Perpendicular distance from a vertex to an edge	The vertex and the edge.
Perpendicular distance from a vertex to a face	The vertex and the face.
Angle or distance between an edge and a face	The edge and the face
Angle or distance between two faces	Two faces.
Distance between two vertices	Two vertices.
Radius of an arc or a circle	The arc or the circumference.

3. Move the cursor to pull out a dimension string.



Note — Press the Esc key at any point during the operation to start over.
 

4. Click the mouse again to fix the position of the dimension string.

Note — Placement of the dimension label affects the way the angle is measured. For example, an angle between two perpendicular edges can be either 90° or 270° depending on whether you put the label «inside» or «outside» the angle.

Tip — You might need to occasionally rotate your model, as you dimension, to position the dimension to the proper plane.

5. A dialogue box appears — type the desired value in and hit «OK».



6. Later, you may re-position the dimension leader by dragging the dimension value (the Driving Dimension Tool should be active to enable such dragging).

Changing Driving Dimension Value

Activate Driving Dimension tool. Double click on the driving dimension, a dialogue box appears, change the value of the dimension and click «OK» or press the Enter key — the dimension changes length, distance, angle or radius value for/between the associated geometric objects.

If the length/distance/radius/angle cannot be recalculated due to a conflict with other dimensions the Driving Dimension is displayed in red.

Note — editing driving dimension text label with the built-in SketchUp tool will take no effect.

Removing Driving Dimension

Activate Driving Dimension tool, select a dimension you are going to remove, click right mouse button and select «Remove Driving Dimension» from the context menu.

Update Geometry and Update Dimensions Values

Since it is possible to edit geometry by tools other than Driving Dimensions, the geometry does not always satisfy the values set in driving dimensions. To correct this, click one of the following buttons:

Update Geometry will update your model according to the current values of the dimensions.

If some of Driving Dimension values cannot be satisfied, those dimensions will be displayed in red.

Update Dimensions Values will update the values of the dimensions according to the current geometry of your model.

Sometimes, this is impossible, as in cases when the edges dimensioned by a distance are no longer parallel. In such cases, no appropriate value for the dimension can be suggested, so the old value is kept and the dimension label remains in red.

Hide/Show Driving Dimensions

Use the Hide/Show toolbar button to hide/show all driving dimensions.

Fixate Objects

Activate Fixation tool, select the entity you are going to fixate, move the mouse and click left mouse button where you want the fixation label to be displayed.

Options

Click this button to open the options window.

Inferred Dimensions – manages automatic generation of Inferred Dimensions.

  "Generate Inferred Dimensions" switches on/off both following options at once:

• Rectangle: when a rectangle is created with a standard SketchUp tool, generate a couple of parallelism constraints for the opposite edges, a perpendicularity for two adjacent edges and a couple of edge length dimensions
• Push/Pull: when Push/Pull tool is used for the first time for a given face, generate perpendicularities between the base face and the newly created edges, edge length for one of those edges and parallelism of the given face to the base face

Update Mode – defines the way the LGS solver will be called to update your model.

When "Update geometry after editing Driving Dimensions" is checked, the Driving Dimensions engine will try to solve the model immediately after a dimension has been created or modified, otherwise, the solving will be performed only when you press "Update Geometry" button.

By choosing the option in "After Geometry Editing" radio button, you set the direction of automatic update after the model has been modified by tools other than DrivingDimension.

• Do nothing: no automatic action. However, you may force the update manually by pressing either "Update Geometry" or "Update Dimensions Values" toolbar buttons.
• Update Driving Dimensions values: automatically update dimensions' values according to the geometry
• Update geometry to satisfy Driving Dimensions: automatically update geometry according to the dimensions' values

Show full Driving Dimensions names – includes argument types into the dimension label text.

Limitations of the free version

Driving Dimensions for SketchUp is available in two versions - free and Pro - sharing the same functionality. With free version, you cannot create new driving dimension entities when there are already 25 driving dimensions presented in the model. However, you can change values of already existing driving dimension parameters even if their total number exceeds 25. Thus, you should be able to load any model created in Pro version and play with it.