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Dimension Angular

The DimensionAngular command places an angular dimension arc annotation on the drawing. It measures and labels the angle between two lines, the span of an arc, or a sector of a circle.

How to activate

Click the Dimension Angular toolbar button in the Markup panel, or type DimensionAngular in the terminal.

Three input modes

The first click determines which mode is used:

Two lines

  1. Click the first line. The cursor position determines which side of the line is used.
  2. Click the second line. The two lines must intersect (the intersection is computed automatically; it does not need to be visible on screen).
  3. Click to place the dimension arc. Move the cursor to choose the radius and which angular sector is labelled — the annotation follows the cursor to whichever side of the vertex you are on.

Parallel lines cannot form an angular dimension; the command ignores the second click if the lines do not intersect.

Arc

  1. Click an arc. The dimension is created immediately from the arc's start angle to its end angle, using the arc's center as the vertex.
  2. Click to place the dimension arc at the desired radius.

Circle

  1. Click a circle. The first angle endpoint snaps to the nearest point on the circle.
  2. Click a second point on the circle to define the second angle endpoint.
  3. Click to place the dimension arc.

Keyboard reference

KeyAction
EscapeCancel and return to the first pick

Behaviour details

  • The dimension arc is always drawn on the side of the vertex where you place it — move the cursor across the vertex to flip to the supplementary angle.
  • The measured angle is shown in degrees and updates live as you move the cursor during placement.
  • The resulting annotation is a full DimensionAngular entity stored on the current layer. Its appearance properties (arrow size, text height, extension line length) can be adjusted in the Properties panel.
  • Angular dimensions are included in JSON export but are not supported by the DXF exporter.