Configuration

The library reads the variables below when it is included. Set the ones you want before the include line. A value assigned after the include is ignored.

SCALING_FACTOR = 100;
LINE_COLOR = "MidnightBlue";
include <DraftSCAD/dimdraft.scad>

Variable	Default	Sets
SCALING_FACTOR	1	A multiplier on line width, height and spacing
LINE_WIDTH	0.025 * SCALING_FACTOR	DIM_LINE_WIDTH, the width of every line
HEIGHT	0.01 * SCALING_FACTOR	DIM_LINE_HEIGHT, the Z thickness of lines
SPACE	0.1 * SCALING_FACTOR	DIM_SPACE, the spacing unit
TEXT_SIZE	7 * DIM_LINE_WIDTH	DIM_TEXT_SIZE, the height of label text
LINE_COLOR	"black"	DEF_LINE_COLOR
TEXT_COLOR	"black"	DEF_TEXT_COLOR

These names are plain global variables. If your own code already uses HEIGHT or SPACE at the top level for something else, the library will pick that value up.

What follows from line width

Unless you set TEXT_SIZE, everything else is derived from DIM_LINE_WIDTH.

Constant	Value	Meaning
DIM_TEXT_SIZE	DIM_LINE_WIDTH * 7	Height of label text
DIM_FONTSCALE	DIM_TEXT_SIZE / 10	Scale applied to label text
DIM_HOLE_CENTER	DIM_LINE_WIDTH * 6	Length of the marks drawn by circle_center()

Text is drawn with OpenSCAD’s default size of 10 and then scaled by DIM_FONTSCALE, so by default its height is 7 line widths.

Text size

Set TEXT_SIZE to size the text on its own, without changing the lines:

TEXT_SIZE = 0.3;
include <DraftSCAD/dimdraft.scad>

dimensions(length = 4);

It applies to the labels drawn by dimensions() and leader_line(). The gap a label needs follows the text size.

Title blocks do not follow it. Their layout is written in line widths for text 7 line widths tall, so their text stays that size.

With the defaults:

SCALING_FACTOR	DIM_LINE_WIDTH	DIM_SPACE	Text height
1	0.025	0.1	0.175
100	2.5	10	17.5

Setting LINE_WIDTH on its own changes the line width and the text size. It does not change DIM_SPACE, which follows SCALING_FACTOR only.

Choosing a scale

Pick SCALING_FACTOR so the text is readable next to the part. The two example drawings give a starting point:

• The Canny Machines part is 3.53 units long and uses the default, 1.
• The Don Smiley part is 400 units across and uses 100.

DIM_GRID_SPACING, the default grid pitch for draw_sheet(), is fixed at 50 and does not scale. At a small scale, pass grid_dim yourself.

Title blocks are sized in line widths, so they grow with the scale. See Title blocks.