Dimensions and text

Dimensions and text labels explain a model to whoever reads it next. Both are part of the model: they’re saved with it, show in File → Save to Image, and are selected, moved, copied, hidden and erased like geometry.

Dimensions

Dimension shows the distance between two points.

1. Click a start point, then an end point. To dimension a whole edge, click anywhere along it instead.
2. Move the pointer to offset the dimension line from the points, and click. To place it an exact distance away, type the distance and press Enter.

The label shows the length in the model’s units and updates when the units change.

A dimension follows its geometry. When you move a vertex it’s attached to, for example by moving an edge or scaling a box, the dimension stretches with it, in the same undo step. Erasing the geometry leaves the dimension where it was. A dimension only follows geometry in its own context: one drawn in the model doesn’t follow geometry inside a group.

Change a dimension’s text

Select a dimension and type in the Text field of the Properties panel, then press Enter. <> stands for the length, so Width <> shows Width 2.400 m. Clear the field to show only the length again.

Text

Text places labels.

• Click a point, an edge or a face, then click where the label goes. A leader line joins the label to the point. The label starts as the point’s coordinates, the edge’s length or the face’s area.
• Click the same point twice to place the label on it, without a leader.
• Click empty space to place screen text, which stays at that place on the screen however you orbit or zoom.

Right after placing a label, type to replace its text. Backspace deletes a character and Enter finishes. Typing is part of the same undo step, so one Undo removes the label.

To change a label later, select it and edit the Text field in the Properties panel. Like dimensions, labels pinned to a vertex move with it.

3D text

3D text is geometry: letters made of faces, which you can paint, move and extrude like anything you draw. Choose Edit → Add 3D Text…, then set:

• the text, with a new line for each Enter,
• the height of the letters,
• the depth to extrude them; 0 leaves flat faces,
• whether the letters Stand upright, facing the front view, or lie flat on the ground.

Click Place, then click where the text goes. The start of its first line lands on the point you click; press Escape to cancel. The text arrives as a component named 3D Text, so you can move it whole or open it to edit its faces.