2016 smart dimension settings

I'd say this is a question for Matthew Lorono.

I couldn't find anything about it in the What's New website, but there is some information at this blog post from Alin Vargatu: http://www.javelin-tech.com/blog/2015/11/solidworks-2016-dimensioning-pre-selected-entities-tutorial/ .

Hi Justin,

Unfortunately we do not have any option to disable automatic attachment of dimension on preselected sketch entities.

In SOLIDWORKS 2016 we introduced the new behavior to respect pre-selection of sketch entities which are selected for dimensioning. In  SOLIDWORKS 2015 we dismiss these pre-selections  and user had to reselect them after activating smart dimension command, however it’s a good suggestion to control this behavior through an option which will let user choose his/her preferences based on their modeling practices.

In this case, the workflow of adding sketch relation between two line by preselecting two sketch entities and the workflow for creating a dimension by preselecting two sketch entities is common which is creating this problem.

I noticed ER reported by Alin, which we are processing and will keep monitoring how many hits we get for this request to make further decision of incorporating this option.

Thanks Ravi

Hi Guys, A single left hand mouse click will de select items

Not saying its right, just how it is

Months later,

I recently made the switch from 2014 to 2017.  The inescapable inclusion of pre-selected sketch entities in smart dimensions is a smelly tumor in my workflow.  I am afraid I missed the boat to give meaningful feedback since this "feature" (read: grain of sand under the eyelid) was introduced a whole version ago, but it is so frustrating and so pervasive that I am compelled to speak out.

My workaround is to continue to be moderately inconvenienced and very frustrated about this minor issue, and to periodically search the internet for a fix or registry hack, only to end up back at this thread.

I'm pretty sure this menace is gone in 2017

No where have I ever seen any explanation of this behavior being added in 2016 or going away in 2017.

I found it to be one of the greatest time wasters ever.

It was useful about 10% of the time and caused 3 or so additional steps 80% of the time.

This is still driving me nuts.  Does anyone know the status of SPR 927745?  I can't seem to find any information about it.

Justin,

This has been resolved in 2018 SP0.1 via SPR#927745.  Here is the section from the What's New explaining how this now works in 2018.

Smart Dimension on the Context Toolbar

You can dimension certain entities from the Auto Insert Dimension tool on the context toolbar.

Previously, you could only pre-select entities and then use the Smart Dimension

tool to dimension entities.

The Smart Dimension tool on the context menu no longer supports pre-selection.

If you want to add a dimension to your selection, use the Auto Insert Dimension on

the context menu.

The Auto Insert Dimension tool automatically inserts the most appropriate dimensions

for sketch entities.

The entities supported by the dimensioning tools on the context menu are:

• Line: Linear dimension

• Arc: Radial dimension

• Circle: Diameter dimension

• Two lines at an angle: Angular dimension between entities

• Two parallel lines: Linear dimension between entities

• Arc or circle, and line: Linear dimension between line and center point

• Point and line: Linear dimension between line and point

• Arc or circle, and point: Linear dimension between point and center point

• Arc/Arc or Circle/Circle or a combination thereof: Linear dimension between center

points.

Regards,

Jeff Parker

SOLIDWORKS Elite AE | Senior Tech Support Engineer

GoEngineer