Dimensioning a Drawing

Pingendum 2D dimensions are measurement annotations: you draw geometry first, then dimension it to record its size on the drawing. A dimension reports what's already there — it never moves geometry to match a typed value, and it never uses up a degree of freedom.

That's the reverse of how a parametric CAD sketch usually works, where you'd type a value and watch the geometry snap to it. Pingendum 2D is a drafting product in the same tradition as AutoCAD, DraftSight or QCAD: you dimension what you drew, the same way you would on paper.

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Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that:

• You've completed Drawing Basic Shapes and have some geometry — a rectangle is a good example — drawn in an active drawing.

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The Dimension Tools

Dimension commands live in the Annotate menu, and in the Dimension partition on the second row of the command bar. Every one of them is also reachable by name from command search (Ctrl+Shift+P).

Tip: Smart Dimension is usually the quickest route

Instead of picking the exact tool each time, Smart Dimension (D) reads your selection and applies whichever dimension fits it — length for a line, radius for an arc, diameter for a circle, angle for two lines. Reach for a specific dimension tool above only when you want to force a particular reading — a circle's radius rather than its diameter, say.

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Applying a Dimension

1. Select the geometry the dimension applies to — one line for Length, a circle or arc for Radius/Diameter, two lines for Angle, and so on.
2. Choose the dimension tool, or press its shortcut.
3. The dimension is placed immediately, showing the geometry's current measured value. There is no value prompt to type into — pick, place, done.

Applying the same kind of dimension to the same geometry a second time doesn't create a duplicate or raise a conflict. It selects the existing dimension instead, and the status bar reads "This dimension already exists; selected the existing annotation."

Note: how dimension labels read

Labels carry a prefix that says what kind of dimension they are: a radius reads R25.00, a diameter ⌀50.00, an angle 45.00°. Plain lengths and distances have no prefix — just the number.

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Where a Dimension Lands, and Moving It

A newly placed dimension sits beside the geometry it measures, offset just enough to be legible, with any nearby dimension it might collide with nudged clear. It doesn't reach across the whole drawing to line up with unrelated dimensions on a distant feature.

Drag a dimension's label to reposition it. Once you've dragged one by hand, Pingendum remembers that — the label stays where you put it rather than being recomputed automatically the next time the drawing changes. Radius and diameter leaders use the standard drafting placement by default; an angular dimension's rays clear themselves of the lines they measure.

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The Properties Panel

Select a dimension and the Properties panel (Ctrl+1) shows its Constraints and dimensions section:

Select several dimensions at once and you get only the fields they share; where values differ, the field reads Varies.

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What a Dimension Does Not Do

• It never moves or resizes the geometry it measures — dragging that geometry changes what the dimension reports, not the other way around.
• It never lowers the DOF count in the status bar, and never appears among the rows File → Validate drawing lists — a dimension isn't a constraint, so it has nothing to report there.
• It doesn't affect a DXF export's geometry, and dimensions aren't themselves carried into the exported DXF.
• While you're dragging the geometry a dimension measures, the label keeps showing its value from before the drag started — it only re-measures once you release the mouse. A number that looks stale mid-drag isn't a bug; let go and it updates.

Note: this is a drafting product, not (yet) a parametric one

Pingendum's roadmap includes a full parametric product where dimensions can drive geometry — type a value and the shape updates to match — alongside geometric constraints like Horizontal, Vertical and Coincident. None of that is part of the current 2D drafting release. If you open a drawing that already carries driving dimensions or constraints from elsewhere, they keep working; you just can't author new ones here. See Degrees of Freedom and Auto H/V for what that means for a sketch's DOF count.

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Dimensioning an Ellipse

An ellipse gets its own trio of dimensions, since "radius" doesn't mean anything for it:

Rather than applying Major axis and Minor axis separately, the Ellipse axes command (in the Modify group, or the object's right-click menu) places both at once: select the ellipse, run it, and both dimensions appear together with the message "Major and minor axis dimensions ready. Drag either label to position it." Object snaps reach the tips of both axes while you're placing other geometry against an ellipse.

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Next Steps

You now know how to:

• Apply Length, Radius, Diameter, Angle and the other dimension tools, or let Smart Dimension pick for you
• Recognize that a dimension measures rather than drives, and why that means it never changes the DOF count
• Reposition a dimension's label, and toggle the Reference display style from the Properties panel
• Dimension an ellipse by its own axes

When several dimensions collide, or a size just needs checking without adding anything permanent to the drawing, Measuring Geometry covers the query-only alternative.

Next: Diagnosing Sketches