Heya guys.
Seeing several improvements in 2016, but one thing is really bugging me and my partners at work.
The default behavior of the smart dimension tool in 2016 is rather different from the default settings in 2015,14, etc.
e.g. in 2016.. if a line or arc is selected in a sketch and i hit the smart dimension, the tool automatically tries to dimension the pre-selected object.
In 2015 this behavior was not present by default. Regardless of the pre-selected item, the 2015 smart dimension tool would not try to automatically create a dimension for that item. Once activated the smart dimension tool would wait for my input for which items to dimension, regardless of any items selected at the time the tool was activated.
The issue is that we often have items pre-selected that we do not wish to dimension.. We may have simply finished a task on the pre-selected item and wish to dimension something else in the sketch. The 2016 default behavior often forces me to have to escape out, deselect any selected items, then reactivate the smart dimension tool to dimension the object I actually intended to select.
I am certain there is some check box to disable this 'automatically dimension pre-selected objects' feature of the smart dimension tool. I just want to go back to the 2015 method of dimensioning, which, for me, entailed far fewer escape presses and mouse clicks than under the 2016 default regime.
Any guidance is appreciated. Thanks!
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