solidworks 2010…fractional & ordinate dimensions

Today’s preview of new functionality is not quite as sweet as the last 2 days but still deserves mention because they may be useful in some certain circumstances.

Fractional Dimensions

In the next release of SolidWorks you will now be able to decide whether or not you would like to see the double prime symbols (“) added to fractional dimensions.  This is more of a company by company basis I would imagine.  I can see some users what them and some don’t so in order to make everyone happy the option has been added.

To access this option go to Tools > Options > Document Properties > Dimensions > Fractional display.  Please note that these are document settings so they do not carry over from document to document.  If you would like this to be a global setting you can change this option in your template and you should be set.

Ordinate Dimensions

A little bit cooler addition that may be more widely used is the ability to continue ordinate dimensioning on a detail view.  As you can see below I have my “0” point set at the bottom of the model and when I add a detail view based off of this view I am able to add an ordinate dimension that is referencing my “0” point.  This works no matter where you place the dimension on the drawing.  This is going to be very nice.

So like I said at the beginning, these are not as big of changes to preview as the last 2 days but they are still very nice and useful.