Working with an Angular Dimension Object on a Draftsman Document in Altium Designer

Parent page: Draftsman Objects

A variety of Angular Dimensions applied to a Board Assembly View.

Summary

The Draftsman document Angular Dimension is an automated dimensioning graphic that reports the relative angle between two object faces, such as the sides/edges of a component or board drawing view. The dimension graphic style and its text content can be set to a range formats in the Properties panel when a placed Angular Dimension is selected.

Availability

The Angular Dimension feature is available when a graphic object, such as a Board Assembly View, has been placed in a Draftsman document. Its placement is accessed from the Draftsman Editor as follows:

• Choose the Place » Angular Dimension command from the main menu.
• Click the button in the dimension objects drop-down on the Active Bar located at the top of the design space. Click and hold an Active Bar button to access other related commands. Once a command has been used, it will become the topmost item on that section of the Active Bar.
  
• Right-click in the drawing design space then select Place » Angular Dimension from the context menu.
• Click the  entry in the dimensions menu () on the Drawing Annotations toolbar (View » Toolbars » Drawing Annotations to enable).

Placement

When the command is launched, the cursor will change to a crosshair indicating Angular Dimension placement mode. To dimension the angle between two object faces, the placement steps are:

1. Hover the cursor over an object face edge (or Center Mark crosshair line) and then click the highlighted line to select the first angle reference.
2. Hover the cursor over another object edge/line and then click the highlighted line to select the second angle reference.
3. Move the mouse then click to set the position of the dimension text and the style of the angular dimension lines (see Graphical Editing below).

To cancel the placement mode, press Esc or right-click in the design space.

► Placement demonstration.

Graphical Editing

The Angular Dimension can be graphically modified by selecting any part of its graphic representation and then dragging its editing handle to a new location. During the repositioning (and during initial placement of the dimension) the arrowed dimension lines will automatically adjust their drawing mode and/or add extension lines to best match the current text position.

Select and drag the dimension's editing handle to a new position.

Non-Graphical Editing

Properties page: Angular Dimension Properties

The non-graphical method of editing an Angular Dimension is available in the Draftsman Properties panel, which provides a comprehensive range of editable properties, options and design content settings for placed Draftsman objects that are currently selected in the design space.

The Properties panel when Angular Dimension is selected.

To open the Properties panel and access the properties of a placed Angular Dimension:

• After selecting the Angular Dimension object, select the Properties panel from the Panels button at the bottom right of the design space or select View » Panels » Properties from the main menus.
• Double-click on the Angular Dimension object in the design space.
• Right-click on the Angular Dimension then select Item Properties from the context menu.

If the Properties panel is already active, click on the Angular Dimension object to access its properties in the panel.

Editing Multiple Objects

The Properties panel supports multiple object editing, where the property settings that are identical in all currently selected objects can be modified.