Someone else brought this up in the 2004 group but didn't get an answer. There used to be a way to dimension an arc length. You could cycle between degrees and length by pressing space. Why this was changed, I don't know. There is a setting in the dimension style to have it do length or angle but that seems stupid as you would need to setup a dimension style for each. I found a key-in command that does exactly what I'm looking for but I haven't been able to find the button to do it. DIMENSION ARC SIZE
Anyone have an answer?
Unknown said:There used to be a way to dimension an arc length. You could cycle between degrees and length by pressing space. Why this was changed
In MicroStation /J, the tool Dimension Arc Size or Dimension Element was used to dimension an arc. The (Angle) Units, which sets whether the degree measurement or the length is dimensioned, is set in the Dimension Settings dialog box - specifically the Unit Format category. There was no option to toggle between the length and degrees via the space bar.
Having said that, you could use the space bar to cycle between a variety of dimension orientations by using the space bar - but only when using the Dimension Element tool. For arcs, this included dimensioning the radius, radius extended and length.
In MicroStation V8, the concept of icon bars in the tools setting box made it's debut. This resulted in change to how the the Dimension Element tool operated and rather than pressing the space bar to toggle between the various orientations, you simply selected the orientation via the icon bar. This made the operation of the Dimension Element tool consistant with other tools that also use icon bars such as Pattern Area. In MicroStation V8 2004 Edition, the Angular Dimensioning tool included an icon bar to dimension an arc's length.
As noted (even as far back as MicroStation /J), the units that determine whether the arc is dimensioned in degrees or a length measurement is a dimenion setting. As you've seen this needs to be set in a dimension style which can easily be seleted when you use the dimensioning tool of your choice. Or, if you prefer you can put this keyin strings on a pair of function key or custom buttons:
dimstyle active arclength;dimcreate angular arcsize
dimstyle active arcangle;dimcreate angular arcsize
Hope that helps.
Inga,
the more I think about it, you didn't hit the space bar but you would right click and it would cycle between dimension radius and degrees I think, but maybe you were right that it was the spacebar.
Even when I have it set to length or degrees, I can't get the dimension element to dimension the length. It wants to do a radius. If I key-in Dimension arc Size, it goes into the command I want, but I'm looking for the icon for this command and can't find it. I would have thought that the dimension element command would switch to this for arcs, but it goes to radius. The dimcreate angular arcsize does it also but in a different order.
Unknown said:Even when I have it set to length or degrees, I can't get the dimension element to dimension the length. It wants to do a radius.
What is the 8-digit version of MicroStation you are using. See Help > About.
Please provide a dgn file that clearly shows what's not working. Add notes and labels as needed.
Note that I had a typo in my original keyins. The post has now been corrected and is shown in action in the following video.
For years I was hoping that Bentley included this in Microstation... And all the time it was hidden in key-in commands... once again.
Why doesn't this just jumps out of the box to a button inside dimension??? Just like many others things like this:
http://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/microstation_v8i/f/19565/p/62282/153425.aspx#153425
José