Tuesday, September 24, 2013

How to dimension a funky curved wall

This post isn't really template related, but I wanted to share it anyways. Some time ago I had to dimension several complex curvy corridors and it became quite an ugly cluster of dimensions with center points often landing far outside the building. In an effort to simplify this for the framer in the field, and to keep our drawings neat, I came up with the following setup:



The dimensions shown are actually line-based detail items with a tagged length parameter. The tick mark and arrow at the end of the dimension are nested generic annotations, so they will scale properly. The unit precision for the tag is set to the nearest 1/2".


I decided on a 4’ spacing and since a grid wasn't nearby, I created an arbitrary reference line (dashed line) to dimension from; the reference line was then dimensioned back to the closest grid. The fastest way to do this is to create a single instance with a tag and copy it over every 4’. Then you can use the extend multiple to align all dimensions to the face of stud.


On site, anyone can lay this out and connect the dots, but as always, I would like some feedback on this approach, especially from someone with more framing experience than myself.

The families can be downloaded from here (2013).


Edit: I recreated the family in 2013 and added a few new types as shown. I also added a double horizontal control to allow for flipping the direction when using the Arrow - Line type:



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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 25, 2013 at 8:44 AM

    I think its a nice solution, i'm wondering if it would be slightly more beneficial if you had tied back to more gridlines. it looks like grid 4 is the only one tied down, i'm thinking if you had offset to each side of the column lines with your 4' dimension. Also, i may have made the dash line at the center of the column on grid 4. just my 2 cents though. nice post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SamSeptember 26, 2013 at 6:33 PM

      Thanks for your feedback. Looking back at it, I would either add those extra dimensions or adjust the spacing.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousNovember 6, 2013 at 2:03 PM

    Great solution! Can you post a 2013 version?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SamNovember 8, 2013 at 2:44 PM

      I've replaced the original family with a 2013 version.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousNovember 8, 2013 at 3:52 PM

      Thank you so much. It works perfectly.

      Delete
  3. UnknownFebruary 16, 2016 at 6:25 PM

    hi does this work on a curvy floor plan

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSeptember 16, 2017 at 2:37 PM

    Sam Im in the drywall trade and this is a real game change for the field. Im an Estimator but sometime I go back to the field to take very difficulty layout work like curved corridors. Definitely this simple way as you are showing here, it will make thing better. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete