Drawing environment again: Views

[OrjanB]

When making production drawings with dimensions and comments, parts/assemblies are placed on the sheet.
Each part/assembly consist of several views, thus resulting in lot of views scattered on the sheet.
During work/dimensioning I have focus on one view at a time and go back and forth between the views.
In this process some views overlaps making it difficult to access lines/endpoints for a specific view when dimensioning.

My main solution, found during years with Alibre, is to find the wanted view in the explorer, mark/activate it there, and then go on with dimensioning.
But sometimes this does not help, especially when projected views (2 or 3) are generated during the inserting of the part on the sheet, and sometimes put closer together.
Here one view can be «hidden» by a neighbouring view and direct access is difficult or not possible.

I then have to move the views (i.e. 3 connected views) out of the sheet (drawing frame) - move the connected views apart (make distance) to get access - do the dimensioning - put the views closer together again - move all views back to the intended place on the sheet.

A very annoying process - totally disturbing a good and efficient workflow.

Alibre-team: Please fix this, thus lowering my bloodpreassure and making me live longer……

I suppose I am not alone with this problem.

Orjan

 

[HaroldL]

I think I understand you frustration with the overlapping view issue. With the first 2D CAD program we used at work you had to activate the view before you could add dimensions or notes/callouts. Very time consuming and if you didn't activate a view then the dimension or note wasn't associated with the view, if I recall correctly, and if the view was moved the dim/notes were left behind.

To some degree it is the same in Alibre in that you activate sketch in view to apply dims/notes etc. and those annotations remain with the view. However, when dimension a drawing I am careful to not select a view before I select the dimension or not command. I can then move from view to view and dimension as needed. I can also apply local notes and callouts. IF a view needs to be moved the dimensions. notes, etc. move with the view and I don't have to be conscious of which view is "active" when applying annotations. That process has been working for me and I haven't seen any issues with it.

 

[OrjanB]

Harold, thanks for comments.

You say that you are careful not choosing the view before activating the dimension tool.
Usually I do it as you describe and mostly it works.

The problem is that if I do it this way the view I want to dimension sometimes is out of reach.
It is hidden by the neighbour view.

But even then I can often (but not always) choose/activate the view in the explorer and start dimensioning.
However, my opinion is still that this is something Alibre should have looked into.

New users will struggle - these problems should not occur in a CAD-program claiming to be professional.

 

[DavidJ]

Are shaded or draft views being used? - these can sometimes have a larger bounding box than a standard view (especially for isometric views). This can make the overlapping of views more likely on the sheet.

Position of Notes and callouts affects the bounds of a view. Care placing such items can minimise view overlap issues.

Temporarily hiding a view which overlaps the one you need to access, may be a better option than moving views and having to move them back again.

Are your drawings unusually 'busy' or congested?

 

[OrjanB]

David:

My drawings can sometimes be well populatet in order to simplify the documentation (less sheets).
I use lines (sketch on sheet) for keeping the parts visually apart. This has worked well for years.

I also usually show the part as shaded and in angular view for illustration in addition to the standard drawing for production.

From your comment I now learned something new: I have overlooked the possibillity for hiding the views.
As you indicate I can temporary hide a view if it overlaps and make problems.

This solves my problem (I hope).

Thank You.

 

[DavidJ]

Note (as mentioned above) isometric shaded views usually have larger bounds than the equivalent standard view - I'm told that isn't something that is easy to change, it's to do with how shaded views are derived. So these are more likely to overlap other views. It may make sense to leave switching the isometric view to shaded, until after you have finished placing dimensions.

 

[jfleming]

Dealt with this yesterday on my "Detail A" on the Lower Left. Had to drag it off of the page every time. It is annoying. Moving the view away from the other view each time has been the most efficient "work-around" each time for me. Trying to locate the view in the tree and hide it every time... more cumbersome and time consuming.

 

[idslk]

Trying to locate the view in the tree and hide it every time...

if you select a view with the left mouse button click, it will be highlighted to get easily found.



Or hover over a view with the mouse pointer and use the right mouse button to select hide a view



select first view with left mouse button and than last view with left mouse button and shift, then RMB and select hide again to show all views.



Regards
Stefan