- [Instructor] We're staying
in our groundfloorplan.dwg file,
and I want to show you a really cool feature
when you're dimensioning
and adding dimension annotation in AutoCAD.
So you'll notice I'm in the Model tab
and I've performed a zoom extent
so that we can see all of the visible,
drawn objects in the Model tab at the moment.
Now, you'll notice I'm in the Annotate tab
on the ribbon there,
and you'll notice in the Dimensions panel
we have a Dimension command there.
It looks like a little sort of sun symbol
with a dimension above it.
That is also available in the Home tab on the ribbon.
There it is there in the Annotation panel, there.
Just be aware though,
that you need to make sure that you're utilizing
your dimensions layer as your current drafting layer
when you're working out of the Home tab.
In the Annotate tab, you can cheat a little bit
and use the dim layer override
and make sure that that is sent to your dimensions layer,
as well.
So let's have a look at this dimensioning tool here.
It's sort of like an automatic dimensioning tool.
It's really, really useful.
So I'm going to zoom and pan into the porch area here, like so,
with the green line and the circles.
So this is kind of like a porch
with some pillars or columns in it, like so.
Now the lovely thing about this dimension tool here is,
when I click on it and come into the drawing area,
I get the opportunity to select objects
or specify the extension line origins,
as if I was placing a regular dimension.
But if I just hover my crosshair over an object,
can you see that line there highlight?
And it's automatically picked out
the type of dimension I need,
which is, in this case, an aligned dimension.
So I click there, just drag across,
come down to that object snap there,
there's an intersection just there, left click,
that's nicely lined in.
So you can see how quick and easy it is,
but it keeps me in this automatic dimensioning,
this dimension tool.
If I zoom in a bit on one of the columns and hover there,
you can see there's a diameter.
Click there, like so, click again, there's my diameter.
If I zoom out again, you'll notice though,
I'm still in the dimension tool.
If I just zoom out a bit more and pan across,
I've got a door opening here.
If I zoom in I can still specify an endpoint
and an endpoint, like so,
and place a linear dimension, like that.
So I'm dimensioning my little doorway opening there,
and I can do the same again on a wall, perhaps here.
Endpoint, endpoint, and click,
and there's my dimension there.
When I'm done, I just press Enter to finish
and there you go, automatic dimensioning is finished.
Now, one of the other lovely things
about this automatic dimensioning is,
if I just click on it one more time
and come into the drawing area and I right click,
there's all these different types of dimensions
I can look for.
So if I'm doing all my angular dimensions,
I can tell AutoCAD I want automatic angular dimensions,
baseline, continue, and so on.
So there's all different ones available.
There's a great one there where I can change the layer,
and I can also undo the last dimension operation
that I performed.
So it might be a really good idea,
once you've done this particular video in the course,
to jump into that drawing and have a play around
with all these settings and see what they do
in your automatic dimensioning tool in AutoCAD.
I'll just hit Escape there to lose the menu
and cancel the command, and good CAD etiquette,
good CAD practice, just double click on the wheel
to zoom extents, like so.