On all of my proofs, I have been drawing the drafting lines and measurements manually and noticed the dimensions tool. Works great but when I shrink the layout for proofing the measurements change. Is there a setting that I can select that will keep the actual measurements of the drawing no matter how I resize it for proofing?
You can Highlight everything and break the Dimensions Apart. To do so press Control + K on your keyboard.
Doing this will keep all the measurement values.
There's an easy way of doing this (keeping the values unchanged) in both Corel DESIGNER X4 and CorelDRAW X5.
Take a look at the Property Bar with the Dimension tool active. There's a "Dynamic dimensioning" button that controls whether or not the dimension text gets updated when changing the dimension or the assigned object(s):By turning the dynamic dimensioning off you will keep the previously created dimension text when changing scale, resizing objects or doing any other modifications like that.
I'm not sure if this feature is available in CorelDRAW 12.
Regards,Klaus.
The control + K worked fine and the dynamic dimensioning tool is great. That was easy.
Now, How can I set a default placement of dimension units to center instead of it being justified to one side?One last thing, Can I change the appearance of the lines (i.e dotted,dashed, arrows). I am trying to use the corel12 help, but I can't find the tools they are referring to in the Dimension Tool help section. Can these dimension lines be arranged to front of layouts? I am trying to specify certian item measurements in the layout and the dimension lines are to the back by default. I have been in this business for 15 years and now I am trying to do this...I guess I'm a little late to the party.
Hi Jon,
sounds like you're looking for some more advanced dimensioning features. CorelDRAW X5 includes quite a few enhancements in the Dimension tools (that had been developed for the technical illustration package Corel DESIGNER Technical Suite; a portion of it is provided to CorelDRAW users as well now).
The dimension settings (i.e. dimension text position) are specified in the Properties Bar (tool bar above drawing window) with the dimension object selected. You can change the line attributes (incl. arrowheads) in the Properties docker.
Comment on the order of elements: In the Object Manager docker you should be able to move objects in front or behind other objects. And you can also use layers to separate dimension objects from the rest of your design (and have them on the top layer, in front of everything else).
Great! Thanks for the help Klaus.