CE - Using multiline text above or below a dimension line

CE version is in my signature block.

Ok, a similar question was asked back in 2012, but there were no replies.

communities.bentley.com/.../editing-dimensions-with-show-secondary-units-enabled-issues

When adding dimensions to typical sections I often need to have a dimension above the dimension line and a descriptor below. I am able to do this by using Secondary Units with the primary units.

The issue arises when I need one of these units to use multiline text. Once you introduce multiline text. either the primary or secondary units, the other unit disappears. In the screenshot I edited the 15' (*) in the text editor to read VARIES 15' TO 25' (using a hard return after the (*)). This also leads to the text justification using top left rather than Center Bottom, which is the text style being used by the dimension style. To further complicate the issue the text weight becomes 0 (zero).

I would really like to be able to place these dimensions so that I can have multiline above the line, below the line or both without having to place independent text for one or the other. The text would need to honor the settings of the dimension style (in this case all dimension lines are weight 1, but text is weight 3) and the text would need to honor center justification.

I understand that this is a dimension element and it is not like a note with a leader where the leader is a dimension element and the text is annotation. Why can't dimensions be similar so we can apply text settings to the text?

Is there any type of solution that currently exists to resolve this issue without dropping the dimension & without the need to add an independent piece of text?

Parents
  • can  you  post sample dgn  of the  first  screen shot  and a picture of what you want it to look like after editing .. I think I have a work flow and dim style that would work but I need to do tests with your actual data 

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

Reply
  • can  you  post sample dgn  of the  first  screen shot  and a picture of what you want it to look like after editing .. I think I have a work flow and dim style that would work but I need to do tests with your actual data 

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

Children
  • Attached is a sample file with a step by step process showing what I need to accomplish. The solution will need to be straight forward and not needing to jump through hoops. If it is too difficult users will not want to go through the process. This needs to be geared to users who may not perform dimensioning tasks on a regular basis. There are already a lot of settings being changed for a multitude of scenarios, which are not complicated, but can be frustrating. This has been an issue even with v8i, but I never submitted any type of SR.

    I am currently working on training documents and videos for our staff to instruct everyone on how dimensioning works, what our formats will be, and how to place/modify dimension elements without dropping them down to individual elements.

    MULTILINE_DIM.dgn

    Microstation CONNECT - 10.17.2.61

    ORD - 2021 R1 10.10.1.3

    ORD 2022 R1.1 - 10.11.3.2

    ORD 2022 R3 -  10.12.2.4

    Microstation v8i SS 10 - 08.11.09.919

    Power InRoads v8i - 08.11.09.615

    ProjectWise - 10.0.3.453

  • OK ..first I checked your dim style in the file you sent .. I had to modify it to give US survey Feet with the  '  symbol it was doing  inches ...

    Next  I dim parallel ie the first dim tool this gave me  15 ' and 15 ' secondary

    Now I just edit the dimension you did the second line first  the order doesn't matter. .I did the first  line edit first ( NO HARD RETURNS EVER!) 

    double click the top 15 and you see * for true dim, to keep the true dim place a space in front and start typing the text  you want then  jump over the * and add the extra text in your case  would be VARIES < space> * <space> TO 30' and data point to accept

    then double click the second line  delete the* and add the new text TRAVEL LANE and data point to accept..Done

    The format and text format doesn't change but it needs to be two lines primary and secondary you need to save this dim style as  a unique name like MULTILINE TEXT so you can use it only when needed..If you had a  single line dim style object done and needed to change it to multiline later you would use the match dim change dim to to the new active dim MULTILINE TEXT dim. then edit the dim text as needed...

    I made a little video no sound and also saved the dgn file so you can see it better and see the dim style changes .. the steps are really the same as any dimensioning edits the important thing is to keep the * intack with a space either side  if you want to to always measure true.. even if you modify the object I associated a line to the dim it will update and keep true and  not change your manual text addition ie the VARIES stays and so does TO 30'.. I did it  in V8i  but the process is identical and the tools identical.. just easier for me in V8i

    also the dgn I modified the settings to is here too

    3108.MULTILINE_DIM.dgn 

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

  • But what we are talking about would be something like two lines of text above the dimension line, and two lines below the dimension line. A single line of text over and a single line under is easy to accomplish with secondary units. Extra lines beyond that (with a hard return!) do not behave as well or as predictably. That is what we are discussing.

    MaryB

    Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918
    Power InRoads 08.11.09.918
    OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2

        

  • As MaryB stated, single line of text above and below is fine. We need to be able to add multi-line above and below. Either hard returns need to be enabled or the text needs to have a built in word-wrap function.

    Microstation CONNECT - 10.17.2.61

    ORD - 2021 R1 10.10.1.3

    ORD 2022 R1.1 - 10.11.3.2

    ORD 2022 R3 -  10.12.2.4

    Microstation v8i SS 10 - 08.11.09.919

    Power InRoads v8i - 08.11.09.615

    ProjectWise - 10.0.3.453

  • ok my  bad I thought you had trouble with  2ndry dims one line top and one line bottom.. I believe we are all using the same method  below...but I dont use multiline text in dims...  but Karls  option looks interesting

    to get 2 multilines above and below I edit the * with spaces top and bottom, then I add the independent  text manually as text and I use the align tool to make sure they line up and  justification to suit but they dont measure true after that and I like to group them  as graphic group...  a while ago a  poster made a vba to add text favourites from a list but it drops the dimes to elements and then adds the presaved text from a  pick list...

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me