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Osama Amin
8aea665c4e
Drag out from a segment, corner, circle or arc to place a dimension; plain clicks pick two points or two lines. Radial dimensions on perfect arcs, picas, Away/Between and Left/Center/Right text placement. The Properties panel edits a selected dimension, with Apply to All (dimension.applyToAll) and Set as Default. Dimension Selected Paths, the Arc/R/Ø prefixes and the custom defaults are left out. The refresh returns at once in documents without dimensions (Document::dimensions); a linked dimension moved on its own keeps its place; modes, units, line types, arrows and text placement are enums; the tool has its own icon.
55 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
# Dimensions
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The **Dimension Tool** is in the Modify section of the toolbar. Its strip offers **Linear**,
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**Angular**, **Radial** and **Tool Options…** (double-clicking the tool opens Tool Options too).
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- **Linear:** hover a path segment and drag outwards: releasing places the dimension. Or click two
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points (anchors snap, Shift constrains to 45°), then click to place. A curved segment is measured
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from end to end.
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- **Angular:** hover a corner where two straight segments meet and drag outwards. Or click two
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straight lines that meet (or would, extended), then click to place.
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- **Radial:** hover a circle, or a segment that is a perfect arc, and drag: outwards gives its
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radius, inwards its diameter. Clicking it gives its radius. Ellipses have no single radius.
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- **Escape** or switching tools cancels a dimension being placed.
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**Tool Options** set the style of new dimensions: units (inches, millimetres, points, picas,
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pixels, centimetres, metres, feet, yards), precision (0–6 decimals), scale, the dimension and
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extension lines (weight, type, colour, arrows), and the text (font, size, colour, position and
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alignment). **Position** is **Away from the Line** (the label on the far side of the dimension line
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from the object) or **Between Line and Object**; **Alignment** is **Left**, **Center** or
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**Right** along the line. **Save** keeps them for new dimensions; existing ones don't change.
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Scale means **drawing : real size**, independent of zoom. At **1:10** a 1 in line on the page is
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labelled 10 in; at **10:1**, 0.1 in. It scales lengths, not angles or the size of text and arrows.
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**Properties** shows a selected dimension's units, precision, line, arrows, text size, colour,
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position and alignment; changing one changes that dimension. **Apply to All** gives every
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dimension in the document its style; **Set as Default** makes it the style of new dimensions.
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Measurements follow the art they measure through moves, scaling and anchor and handle edits,
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undo and redo included. Deleting the art, or changing its number of anchors or whether it is
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closed, removes its dimensions in the same undo step rather than attaching them to a different
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edge. A linked dimension moved on its own stays where it was dropped (its distance from the art
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changes); moved together with its art, it keeps its distance.
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Native `.vectorcraft` files keep the recipes and links. SVG, PDF and bitmap output contain
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ordinary paths and text, so exported dimensions look the same. Ungrouping a dimension leaves its
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paths and text as ordinary art. Pasted dimensions keep their geometry and drop their links, so
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they never bind to unrelated art in another document.
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## Commands
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- `dimension.create`: two points, or a source (segment, angle, circle, arc, points), the mode,
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offset and style; returns the group id and label.
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- `dimension.update`: restyle or move existing dimensions.
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- `dimension.applyToAll`: every dimension takes one dimension's style, in one undo step.
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- `tool.select {"tool":"dimension"}` and
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`tool.setOption {"tool":"dimension","values":{"mode":"linear","style":{"units":"mm","scale":"1:10"}}}`
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(`mode`: `linear`, `angular` or `radial`).
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- `tool.options {"tool":"dimension"}` opens the `dimensionOptions` dialog.
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Recipes live on ordinary groups (the node's `dimension` field); rendering and export use their
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generated children. Commands check options and bounds before changing anything. Linked
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dimensions refresh inside `Session::edit`, sharing the source edit's undo step; documents without
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any (`Document::dimensions` unset) skip that refresh.
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