CE - Using multiline text above or below a dimension line

Question

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?

Lorys · Answer

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

Carl Myhill · Answer

This has been requested previously and there is an outstanding Enhancement Request 767417 filed .

Lorys · Answer

MaryB said: I edit the dimension text to be just a space, and place my multiline text (one single text node for both above and below text) at the dimension as desired. 
 that is what I do.. see video I uploaded today works as intended NEVER USE HARD RETURNS always edit primary dim text then edit secondary dim text and remember to keep * where you want real dims and associations to auto update when elements are modified

Lorys · Answer

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> * 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

CE - Using multiline text above or below a dimension line

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