Two lines at an angle: Angular dimension between entities.The entities supported by this tool on the context toolbar are:
And after pressing Enter, the dimension is applied to the selected entities. The Modify dialog box appears, so you can type a dimension.
Then, on the context toolbar, Auto Insert Dimension is selected. In the image below, the two vertical lines are pre-selected with the Ctrl-key. Starting from SOLIDWORKS 2018 you can dimension entities with the Auto Insert Dimension tool on the context toolbar. To compensate this, another setting was added. So this setting has been undone in SOLIDWORKS 2018, which brings back the SOLIDWORKS 2015 behaviour for Smart Dimension. But quite some people found this setting annoying, because in some cases the dimension was placed at a previously selected and unwanted location. From this version you can preselect sketch entities and then use the Smart Dimension tool to add dimensions to the entities. SOLIDWORKS 2016 introduced a new way of adding dimensions in a sketch. Smart Dimension with lightning speed – Method 2: And probably this will save you a lot of frustration. So the program will only add dimensions when a value is entered. In short: When you use the option Enable on screen numeric input on entity creation, I advise you to also select the option Create dimension only when value is entered. Also the risk for over defined sketches is high in this case. This is great, because during “freehand sketching” you don’t want dimensions for every line. When this option is selected, the sketch entity will only be dimensioned if you enter a value and press Enter or Tab. Create dimension only when value is entered.The downside could be that a dimension is added to everything you sketch. This is a very helpful option, because you don’t need to exit a sketch entity tool to dimension it with Smart Dimension. With this option enabled, numeric input fields will display during the creation of sketch entities. Enable on screen numeric input on entity creation.So, with SOLIDWORKS opened, go to Tools – Options and select the following two options for Sketch:Ī bit of clarification of these two options: The first method is only available if the right options are activated in the SOLIDWORKS Options menu. Smart Dimension with lightning speed – Method 1: In this tech blog I want to clarify two methods, which are quite unknown to most of the SOLIDWORKS users I meet. But there are even faster ways to add Smart Dimensions to your sketch. So experienced users often use a shortcut key or mouse gestures to start it. But this needs quite some mouse travel to select it. Beginners often start the command by selecting it at the Sketch toolbar of the CommandManager. One thing SOLIDWORKS users use every day is the Smart Dimension tool during sketching.