Creating Aligned Dimensions by Picking Points

Nine times out of 10, you will be picking two points to create the dimension. Usually in Revit this is quite simple—until you get into a situation where the walls are at an angle that is not 90 degrees. In a moment you will explore that issue, but for now, let’s add some straight dimensions:

1. 1. Zoom in on the northeast portion of the east wing, as shown in Figure 5.6.
2. 2. On the Annotate tab, click the Aligned button.
3. 3. On the Options bar, choose Individual References from the Pick menu, as shown in Figure 5.6, and do the following:
   1. a. Pick the north wall marked 1 in Figure 5.6.
   2. b. Pick the horizontal wall that ties into the radial wall, illustrated as 2 in Figure 5.6.
   3. c. Place the dimension about 8´ (2400mm) to the right of the vertical wall, marked as 3 as shown in Figure 5.6.
4. 4. With the Aligned Dimension command still running, pick the north wall again and do the following:
   1. a. Pick the outside face of the northern wall.
   2. b. Pick the centerline of the door, as shown in Figure 5.7, but do not press Esc or terminate the command.
   3. c. Pick the horizontal wall that ties into the radial wall, illustrated as 3 in Figure 5.7.
   4. d. Pick a point inside (to the left of) the first dimension illustrated as 4, as shown in Figure 5.7. This places the dimension string and finalizes the session.

   

   You will now see that the actual dimension values are blue. Also, you will see a blue EQ icon with a dash through it (refer to Figure 5.7).

5. 5. Click the blue EQ button, as shown in Figure 5.8. If the door was not exactly centered, this will force the door to move to an equal distance between the two walls.
6. 6. Press Esc twice or click Modify.

Sometimes you may want to display the dimensions rather than the EQ that Revit shows as a default. To do so, follow along:

1. 1. Select the dimension.
2. 2. Right-click.
3. 3. Choose EQ Display, as shown in Figure 5.9.

The dimensions will now show an increment.

Pretty cool. There is one last item involving Aligned dimensions that we should address: how do you dimension along an angle?

Dimensioning an Angle

No, not an angel, an angle. Adding this type of Aligned dimension is not the easiest thing to do in Revit. This is why we need to address the process as a separate item in this book. Here are the steps:

1. 1. Zoom in on the corridor area (the link area between the east and west wings).
2. 2. On the Annotate tab, click the Aligned button on the Dimension panel.
3. 3. On the Options bar, be sure Pick is set to Individual References.
4. 4. Zoom in close to the intersection of the two walls, shown in Figure 5.10.
5. 5. Hover your pointer over the core intersection, as shown in Figure 5.10.
6. 6. Tap the Tab key until you see the square grip appear.
7. 7. When the square grip appears, pick it (left-click), as shown in Figure 5.10.

   

8. 8. Move to the other intersection of the angled wall.
9. 9. Hover your cursor over this core intersection, as shown in Figure 5.11.
10. 10. Tap the Tab key until you see the same square grip.
11. 11. Pick the square grip.
12. 12. Now the dimension is following your pointer. Pick a third point about 8´ (2438mm) away from the angled wall, as shown in Figure 5.11.
13. 13. On the left end of the Ribbon, select the Modify button. This ends the command.

Unfortunately, you had to dimension to the core of the wall. This is the last place you would ever need to take a dimension from. At this point, the dimension needs to be “stretched” to the outside, finished face of the brick, as you’ll see next.

Editing the Witness Line

Every dimension in Revit Architecture has its own grip points when selected. This is similar to most CAD applications. Two of these grips control the witness line. The witness line is the line “attached” to the item being dimensioned. Because you had to take this dimension from the core of the wall, the witness lines need to be dragged to the outside face of the brick:

1. 1. Select the angled dimension. Notice the blue grips appear.
2. 2. On the left side of the dimension, pick and hold the grip in the middle of the dimension line, as shown in Figure 5.12.
3. 3. Drag the blue grip to the outside face of the brick. You will know you are in the right spot because you will see a small dot appear, as shown in the magnified segment of Figure 5.12.
4. 4. Repeat the procedure for the other side.

Trust me—this is worth practicing now, before you get into a live situation. If you have already run into this situation, you know exactly what I mean.

You need to look at one more procedure for tweaking an Aligned dimension: overriding a dimension’s precision.

Overriding the Precision

When you dimension a wall at an angle such as this, the dimension usually comes out at an uneven increment. In most cases, you do not want to override every dimension’s precision just for this one, lone dimension to read properly. In this situation, you want to turn to the dimension’s Type Properties:

1. 1. Select the angled dimension.
2. 2. In the Properties dialog, click the Edit Type button, as shown in Figure 5.13.
3. 3. Click the Duplicate button, as shown in Figure 5.14.
4. 4. In the Name dialog box that opens, name the new dimension style Linear – 3/32˝ Arial – 1/4˝ precision. For the metric users, it is Linear – 2mm Arial 10mm precision. Click OK.

   

5. 5. Scroll down to the Text category. There, near the bottom, you will see a row for Units Format. Next to the Units Format row is a button that displays a sample increment. Click it (see Figure 5.14).
6. 6. In the Format dialog box, deselect the Use Project Settings option.

   

7. 7. Choose To The Nearest 1/4˝ (To The Nearest 10) from the Rounding drop-down menu (see Figure 5.15).

   

8. 8. Click OK twice.
9. 9. Notice that the dimension is now rounded to the nearest 1/4˝ (10mm). In this case, it is rounded to a whole number.

Although Aligned dimensions will bear the brunt of your dimensioning, there are still plenty of other dimension types waiting for you to use.