I love the Dimensions tool though it is still in its infancy. I want to suggest the following but thought I would hear feedback from Illustrator users before submitting the Feature Request.
Auto Scale feature--currently there is a list of scale models you can choose from, but seldom have I found any artwork that uses any of those scales. Even artwork from Architects uses a custom scale not listed. I would like to draw a shape whose real-world dimensions I know and double click the dimensions tool in the tool pallet to open tool settings. From there, the dimensions in document units (usually pixels) would be displayed. I would enter the real world dimensions and from there it would calculate my scale. So if I have a map from another program in Illustrator and it has a legend that shows 1 mile=1 inch, I could draw a box that was exactly the size of the legend (1 mile) but it would be 300px wide. So when I opened the settings the 300px wide would be the document units, I'd simply enter 1 mi and it would automatically know the scale and calculate everything relative to it.
Position Origin feature -- since I need more than just the dimensions of elements scaled, I also need their position scaled, it would be nice to setup a point of origin on the page. I could select the frame of the map I wanted and in the settings, click SET ORIGIN. It would show tha the map was locked at 213 x 96px (hard to manage) but the it was the origin so the Scaled Position was 0,0. Then, selecting any other element would show how far from the origin it was, making things much easier to operate at scale.
Property Panel Dimensions -- The scaled position and size of a selected element should be displayed in the properties panel. Then, I could draw a boat, for example, on the lake and position it 30ft x 50 ft from the origin point by setting the x and y values. It would use the scaled units and calculate the position on the screen automatically.
Unit Styles collection -- Like Graphic Styles or Character or Paragraph styles, a "Unit Styles" collection would be great to have. This would allow us to configure all of the settings regarding how the units are called out. The text would be styled using the existing text stylesheet options. Together, these settings would allow you to change the style of the Units labels easily by changing the predefined Unit Style from the list of styles.
These are the ideas I want to submit to feature requests, but was hoping to get some input before I did. If you like the ideas or need clarification on what I am saying, or especially if you don't like the idea, let me know. Once I get some feedback, I 'll submit a feature request.
Thanks in advance for any discussion about this.
Jase
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