Creating reference lines in drawings - how to?

[MikeHenry]

For a part drawing I'd like to create reference or construction lines that will allow ne to show and dimension a bolt circle and an angular offset from (say) the X-axis to one of the holes. What's the best/quickest way to do that in V24?

I was on a much older version before and seem to recall that it was easier to do this in the old version, but I'm still discovering new ways of doing things in V24.

 

[HaroldL]

Click in the drawing view and select Manage View then the Green plus to add Centers.

 

[MikeHenry]

Thanks Harold, but I probably didn't explain my want very well and the above doesn't quite do what I want. I'd like the circular line that corresponds to the bolt circle to be displayed with a dashed line or some other line type that distinguishes it from the standard solid line type. I'm also having problems finding where the constraint system is for drawings in V24. I need access to that to constrain the bolt circle dimension reference line to one of the bolt centers and to constrain an angular offset line so that it starts at the center of the bolt circle and extends through and is coincident with the center of a bolt hole.

In previous versions of Alibre there was a sidebar that had some of these functions but that seems to be gone in V24 and I don't see anything on getting it back in the Alibre help system.

Basically, I'd like a simple way to create reference or constructions that are dashed in Alibre and a way to constrain those line to other drawing features. Where would I look for info on those subjects and what search terms should be used to find them?

 

[NateLiquidGravity]

You can change the layers settings for circular hole patterns in the drawing properties under View > Detailing -

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By "Sidebar" you must mean Toolbars. By default they are off.

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[HaroldL]

Along with the articles that Nate linked, here is a short video on changing the line type and sketching in a drawing view:

ChgLineStyle.mp4

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Here is a link to some training videos for drawing documentation, one of them is creating a custom drawing template. These vids are a bit dated, I think they might have been made with Alibre v8 but the process is the same even if the dialogs have changed some.

2D Drawings and BOMs Reference Videos | Alibre 3D CAD

Alibre created a reference video about 2D drawings and BOMs for our community to utilize when using Alibre CAD Software. View our full archive of reference videos.

www.alibre.com

 

[MikeHenry]

Thanks Nate - that got me most of the way to what I wanted.

Alibre allows the use of Reference Figures in 2D sketching but it looks like that is not possible in Drawings - am I missing something? It's been a while, but I thought that drawings had that capability in a previous version. I'm getting around the (presumed) lack by changing the layer to a dashed style, but clicking on Reference Figure in a menu or toolbar is faster.

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[albie0803]

If you build your bolt pattern by inserting 1 hole using the hole tool and then patterning it, when you create a drawing from it and add centre lines as in Harold's post you will get the pcd circle and centre lines just like in Harold's picture.

 

[MikeHenry]

That didn't work on this project, possibly because I'm working with an imported STEP file and the bolt hole features are pairs of semicircles. Seems odd that it doesn't seem possible to create reference figures in drawings from scratch.

 

[HaroldL]

Mike,
Try right clicking on the arcs/circles in the drawing and select Insert Center from the pop up menu. That should apply a center line on that arc/circle.

To dimension the holes as DIAMETERS instead of Radii, hold the Shift key down while placing the dimension.

Here's a short video:

Centerlines on STEP file drawing.mp4

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[MikeHenry]

Thanks Harold, for making the video - that makes things a lot clearer. One problem I had was that I didn't actually know what the bolt circle diameter was. I know that I can get it by dimensioning from the center of the bolt circle to the center of one of the bolt holes but thought it would be more efficient to draw the bolt circle at a random diameter, constrain the diameter to the center of one of the bolt holes and then dimension it. Looks like Alibre can't do that. I'll load up my old version on a different computer and see if that version has the features I *thought* I remembered.

 

[HaroldL]

Here's another tip for placing a bolt circle sketch without knowing the diameter.

Adding BoltCircle Sketch.mp4

Shared from Screencast.com

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[NateLiquidGravity]

You can change the layer of anything you sketch in a drawing after you sketch it.

 

[MikeHenry]

Here's another tip for placing a bolt circle sketch without knowing the diameter.

Adding BoltCircle Sketch.mp4

Shared from Screencast.com

www.screencast.com

Thanks again Harold for putting that together. Unfortunately it looks like Alibre makes this particular task a bit more onerous than other CAD to which I have access.

 

[MikeHenry]

To dimension the holes as DIAMETERS instead of Radii, hold the Shift key down while placing the dimension.

That works well enough, but I wanted the diameter dimension to be drawn the way that a radius dimension is drawn, with a single arrow to the outside of the circle and with the dimension preceded with a diameter symbol (Greek letter phi?). I couldn't figure out to do that and am thinking Alibre can't do it.

 

[HaroldL]

Here's a short How To for suppressing diameter dimension arrows and lines.

SuppressDiameterArrowsAndLines.mp4

Shared from Screencast.com

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[MikeHenry]

Thanks - that technique is new to me and should work. If @Max or @DavidJ is reading, please add me to the request for this a built-in feature with a quick way to implement it. Also, the help system could address this better. I've searched v24 help for assistance with several small issues lately and usually am unsuccessful as I was with this one. I've been using Alibre since V6 (2003?) and while I don't use it daily, I'm finding V24 to be pretty frustrating so far as figuring out to do things that have changed since V2019.

 

[DavidJ]

Logged for consideration as EN-493.

I've just recorded it as making the dimension line suppression available as part of a dimension style - though I suppose there might be other ways to achieve this.

Has anyone checked whether this way of indicating a diameter is standards compliant?

 

[HaroldL]

Has anyone checked whether this way of indicating a diameter is standards compliant?

In my copy of ASME Y14.5M-2009 it doesn't specify, in fact there are illustrations that show both methods of dimensioning a circle. So I would think that both are valid. I know that when I was working and used SolidWorks we had the dimensions set to end in a single arrow for both radii and circles.

 

[Larry]

Not sure if this is what you're requesting, but here's an earlier thread on this.

Alibre Forum

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www.alibreforum.com

 

[MikeHenry]

I do appreciate all of the help, but another CAD program that I have access to handles this issue, as well as a few more, much easier than Alibre does so I'm doing the project with that package.

@Max and @DavidJ - still interested in seeing usability improvements with Alibre in this area as I use Alibre for other projects and would like to continue doing so.