Overview

Dimensions are a key part of technical drawing and drafting. You could almost say that dimensions are the reason we produce CAD drawings in the first place, since they convey critical information about our designs. Before the days of AutoCAD, we used dimensions to communicate specific proportions of a design. But now we can use dimensions to help keep track of critical measurements in a drawing. We can use temporary dimensions to help in this effort.

Adding dimensions to your drawing is fairly easy. The first half of this chapter discusses the types of dimensions available and how to apply them to your drawing. One of the trickier aspects of dimensioning in AutoCAD is understanding scale factors. Just as with text, you have to apply a scale factor to your dimensions before they appear properly in the Model tab of your drawing.

Finally, since there are many standards and styles of dimensioning, AutoCAD provides many options that let you set up dimensions just the way you want. But with so many settings, you might feel just a bit lost when you want to fine-tune the appearance of your dimensions.

Topics in this chapter include the following:

• Understanding the Parts of an AutoCAD Dimension

• Dimensioning in the Model or Layout Tab

• Drawing Linear Dimensions

• Dimensioning Nonorthogonal Objects

• Adding a Note with an Arrow

• Using Ordinate Dimensions

• Adding Tolerance Notation

• Editing Dimensions

• Setting Up the Dimension s Appearance

Understanding the Parts of an...