Accurate dimensioning problem.

I'm having difficult drawing in accurate dimensions. If I use any of the snap functions, they interfere with suitable placement of the final dimension. In the case of diagonal dimensions, the snap makes it impossible.
How do I draw in accurate dimensions without use of a snap function?
Or how do I do them with snap function and with the ability to place them where I want them on the drawing?

you may want to type in coordinates by command line (activated by spacebar)

http://wiki.librecad.org/index.php/LibreCAD_users_Manual#Using_Command_Line

Hi Jim,
this is just my opinion. I would like to hear other people and more from your difficulty.

If an element on the drawing is vetorial, there is no chance of mistakes when dimensioning.

The snap function may catch an other element, close to the right one. Hatches, for example, do it. If so, try disabling layers view.

Thanks for the replies maurov and dxli.
Turning off unneeded layers helped in most cases. I'm able to do (mostly) accurate dimensions now that way. Where difficult due to the snap interfering in complex drawings, I can do the dimension and then move it to a more suitable position using the "move" function. It can be positioned by eye, which is good enough as the dimension figure is accurate.

One difficulty I'm still having is drawing in accurate diagonal dimensions. In this case, of a trapeziod shape. Same problem with a rectangle. Any snap function settings seem to make the dimension snap to the vertical or horizontal instead of diagonal.

Can you post a simple test case with misplaced dimensions please?
Maybe this helps to understand where the problem is.

Armin

Jim:

You are using "Dimension->Linear" instead of  "Dimension->Aligned" ?

dxli wrote

you may want to type in coordinates by command line (activated by spacebar)

http://wiki.librecad.org/index.php/LibreCAD_users_Manual#Using_Command_Line

 Yes dxli, I am using the command line to draw with. The problem is not that the drawing is inaccurate, it's the diagonal dimension that I take off it without one of the snap options enabled. When I turn on the snap, it defaults (snaps) to either a horizontal dimension or vertical dimension.
How do I know it inaccurate? Because I have to rely on clicking on the corner by eye and each time I do it, I can get a slightly different figure.

Rallaz,
I'm using the diagonal dimension option "dimension -linear" as you suggest.

Lord of Bikes,
Ok, I will do a screen shot and post here.
I am unable to do one now - my file sharing site is not loading. However, it will just look like a simple rectangle with a horizontal dimension drawn in! The explanation above is what is required to understand what the problem is.

Jim,

you can upload the test file with you post. Click on Reply and use the More button on top of the post editor. There you find the "Upload a file" tool.

It is better to upload the DXF file instead a screenshot, then we can zoom in and out as needed.

Armin

Rallaz wrote

Jim:

You are using "Dimension->Linear" instead of  "Dimension->Aligned" ?

Bingo!  You have solved it for me. That was the problem.
I'll now edit the post as "solved".
Thanks.

Rallaz wrote

Jim:

You are using "Dimension->Linear" instead of  "Dimension->Aligned" ?

Bingo!  You have solved it for me. That was the problem.
I'll now edit the post as "solved".
Thanks.

Added to wiki manual, see: http://wiki.librecad.org/index.php/LibreCAD_users_Manual#Dimensioning_and_text

Thanks for that post notifying me and others about the wiki page on LibreCad. I did not know it existed.
I'm even more exited to see that there is two separate entries for splines, which I have been looking for a tutorial on for some months now. I'll be studying them in the next few days.

Thanks again.

Jim.