CHAPTER 24 PRECISION DRAWING AND DIMENSIONING This chapter describes precision drawing tools and techniques that can help you create scale drawings, floor plans, architectural designs, and other types of technical drawings. This chapter explains how to •    display size information as you draw •    set up the scale for scale drawings •    add dimension objects to illustrations •    use Smart Mouse to align objects Some of the techniques described elsewhere in this book also apply to precision drawing. For information on document setup and using rulers, refer to Chapter 3, “Document Setup.” Setting up a document’s measurement scale Canvas offers a variety of options for creating scale drawings. You can set up a ruler to control the scale of an entire document. You can also customize scale settings for individual dimension objects. Other settings affect the format of measurement and position data. The following settings affect the measurement of objects in a docu- ment: Rulers You set up a document’s overall drawing scale using the Rulers command and Rulers dialog box. The ruler scale affects all object measurements, including those made with the dimensioning tools. The ruler scale also affects data in the Object Specs palette and status bar. See “Setting up rulers and the drawing scale” on page 11.125. Number Form A setting in the Preferences dialog box affects the format of data in the Status bar and other displays. This option con- trols the precision of data and the number format (decimal or frac- tions). See “Units preferences” on page 15.236. Dimensions You can create custom scale settings for dimension objects using the Dimensioning dialog box. You can customize indi- vidual dimension objects, or set a custom scale for all dimension
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