Tutorial: dimensioning the plan

In this tutorial you dimension the plan from the previous tutorial and label the rooms. You create a dimension style for plotting at 1:50, draw chains of dimensions with DIMLINEAR and DIMCONTINUE and write text with TEXT.

Open plano.dwg. As before, press Enter after each typed value.

1. A dimension style for 1:50

The drawing is in millimetres and will be plotted at 1:50. The Standard style has text and arrows of 2.5 units: at 1:50 they would come out 0.05 mm high. The overall scale of the style multiplies all those sizes.

Enter DIMSTYLE (or D). The Dimension Style Manager opens.
Click New.... Create New Dimension Style appears below.
In New Style Name: type Plan50; in Start With: leave Standard. Click Continue.
Modify Dimension Style opens. On the Fit tab, set Overall scale = 50.
On the Primary Units tab, set Precision (decimal places) = 0: measurements will show in whole millimetres (8000).
Click OK.
In the manager, with Plan50 selected, click Set Current and close the dialog.

With a scale of 50, the 2.5 text is 125 mm high in the drawing and 2.5 mm on paper.

2. Dimension chain along the lower façade

Make the Dims layer current in the layer control.
Enter DIMLINEAR (or DLI).

Specify first extension line origin or <select object>:

Type 0,0 (corner of the wall).

Specify second extension line origin:

Type 1000,0 (first jamb of the door).

Specify dimension line location:

Type 500,-600: the dimension line sits 60 cm below the wall. It measures 1000.
Enter DIMCONTINUE (or DCO). It starts from the last dimension drawn.

Specify a second extension line origin or [Undo/Select] <Select>:

Type 1900,0 and then 8000,0. Each point adds a dimension next to the previous one: 900 (the door) and 6100. Press Enter to finish.
Add the overall dimension outside: DIMLINEAR, 0,0, 8000,0, 4000,-1200.

If a point in the chain goes wrong, type U (Undo) in DIMCONTINUE: it removes the last dimension without leaving the command.

3. Dimensions on the left side and the upper façade

Left side: DIMLINEAR, 0,0, 0,6000, -1200,3000. As the location is to one side, the dimension is vertical: 6000.
Upper façade, with the windows: DIMLINEAR, 0,6000, 2000,6000, 1000,6600.
DIMCONTINUE, 3500,6000, 5900,6000, 7400,6000, 8000,6000 and Enter. The chain measures 2000, 1500, 2400, 1500 and 600.

4. Interior dimensions

DIMLINEAR, 250,2000, 5000,2000, 2625,2000: the clear width of the living room, 4750. The dimension line runs inside the room.
DIMCONTINUE, 5100,2000, 7750,2000 and Enter: the partition (100) and the bedroom (2650).

5. Room names

Make the Text layer current.
Enter TEXT (or DT).

Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]:

Type J (Justify).

Enter an option [Left/Center/Right/Align/Middle/Fit/TL/TC/TR/ML/MC/MR/BL/BC/BR]:

Type MC: the text is centred on the point, horizontally and vertically.
Specify the point: 2625,1500.

Specify height <…>:

Type 200 (4 mm on paper at 1:50).

Specify rotation angle of text <…>:

Press Enter to keep 0.

Enter text:

Type LIVING ROOM and Enter. The command asks for another line below: press Enter on the empty line to finish.
Repeat for the bedroom: TEXT, J, MC, 6425,1500, 200, Enter, BEDROOM, Enter, Enter.
Add a title under the plan: TEXT, 0,-2200, height 250, Enter, GROUND FLOOR - 1:50, Enter, Enter.

6. Saving

Press Ctrl+S (QSAVE): the drawing is saved to plano.dwg, in the same version.

Notes

Dimensions are drawn with the current style and on the current layer. To change the style of a dimension later, select it and change it in the PROPERTIES palette; when a style is modified, all its dimensions are redrawn.
DIMBASELINE makes chains from a common origin, each dimension further out than the previous one.
To change the text of a dimension (for example, to add a prefix), use DIMEDIT.
TEXT always proposes 2.5 as the height: type the one you want for each text. For multi-line formatted text, use MTEXT.