Hello, in the sketchup manual from NL, on page 5 there is the following "I used the text tool (shortct key N) to indicate mortise depths, and any other notes you want to communicate to the shop floor."

In the example.skp file I downloaded from the NL website, there don't seem to be any dimensions in place for the mortises in timbers. Is this a setting I need to turn on? Also, is there an easier way to populate a model with dimensions other than creating them for each object one at a time?

Thanks for putting out this manual btw. Great resource.

Miles

All dimensions in shop drawings need to be added using the dimension tool. I realize this is tedious. But the code isn't smart enough to know where the reference face is, or how much detail you need on your shop floor based on the experience level of your joiners, etc. The SU dimension tool is really smart though. Once you get a rhythm going, it goes pretty fast.

One hint for you: You probably want the dimensions on your shop drawings to be smaller than on the main model. The font for dimensions on shop drawings is inherited from the main model, so you may want to change the dimension font (window | model info | dimensions) before you create all your shop drawings from the model. Also things like sky and ground, etc all get inherited from the main model. CB.

When the dynamic components of SU are used, will they create the dimensioning or is it the same issue?

If they won't, could a solution be to add the mortise to the adjoining timber, just like you currently add the tenon to the end of the timber?

Just had another thought. I don't have alot of experience using the "rubies", but believe the mortise is created in the adjoining timber.

Could the dimensions be added to the joinery in the ruby library, so when you picked a tenon for instance, not only would it be added to the end of a timber, but it's dimensions would come with it?

Or maybe as you suggested, timbers could come with a "reference edge" and "reference face" so that when you picked a timber, you also had to orientate it.

Anyway, because I don't know enough about these programs, just hoping those that do can come up with a "self dimensioning solution".

Thanks for your efforts and now I will shut up!

Tom:

I think Mike is working on just such a system using Dynamic Components. CB.

Yes, dimensions from the latest test of dynamic components translate to the female joinery... the trick is to size the dimensions so as to not make the shop drawing unreadable - especially it there is more than 1 connection at a specfic level on the timber.

-Mike

And - having done some tests... I see a need to add a few more dimensions so they transfer to the housing on the timber face... would be helpful to get the mortise offset and the housing width to transfer to the post. Will make a few changes and report back.

-Mike