Quick way to dimension circles and arcs
Here is a tech. tip on Rod Rodriguez’s blog:
This tip deals with dimensioning circles and arcs. Let’s say you have two circles and you would like to dimension to the farthest outside edges of those circles. The original method of handling this in SolidWorks was a little cumbersome. You would select the “smart dimension” tool and click both circles which would give you a dimension from center of circle to center of circle. Then you could right click the dimension, select properties and set the end conditions (min center max) for each circle. This method worked (and still does) fine except it required some extra clicking. Luckily someone at SolidWorks came to work with their thinking cap on one day and wrote a little code to make our lives easier (whoever you are..thank you). The new method for creating this dimension is much simpler. Start with the same two circles, using the “smart dimension” tool hold down the SHIFT key and select the circles near the quadrant you would like to dimension too. For this example we would hold the SHIFT key and select the quadrants the furthest apart from each other (see slide above). As you pull the dimension you’ll notice it’s attached to the circle in the locations we selected. Click to place the dimension and you’re done. This tip works when your trying to dimension a circle or arc and some other form of geometry (line, edge, etc). The slide example shows this tip being used in a drawing but it works just as well in sketch mode while you’re modeling.
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