Yes, it’s painstakingly slow to add dimensions for client approval. It’s rare but does happen when diagonal dimensions are needed and would be nice to not need rely on the inaccurate measure tool and info panel for a reading.

I agree with Mike and Marty "They have a lot of plugins at Astute that should be standard features" they should be standard features and we should not have to pay extra for them.

Some people are limited by their employers purchasing policies that for various reasons will not permit the purchase of third-party plug-ins.

I have been using I6 for architectural plans details and 3D simulations and dimensioning scaled drawing with a minimum amount of math conversions using a simple matrix for architectural dimensions.

CAD tools are not as intuitive and are not as natural to use as analog rulers. I have templates that are digital scales that I use also very accurately I might add.
The pen tool is my WAND we make magic!

@Eric I also use Fusion360 & Ai almost exclusively in my workflow and have been begging both Adobe & Autodesk for better integration between the two (KeyShot has a "Render in KeyShot" Fusion plugin, I don't see why there can't be a similar Illustrator plugin).
If you have time I suggest posting on the "Fusion 360 IdeaStation" forum and request they add this feature along with improvements to 2D Drawing mode. 2D tech specs are fundamental in manufacturing yet Autodesk always seems to put it on the back burner with bare minimum features.

oh, and can we get the measure tool to snap to lines, anchors, guides, intersections etc... or is that a different request?

I would use this feature at least weekly if not a lot more. I use fusion 360 and illustrator the most in my workflow, and fusion does dimensions but sometimes I just want to add dimensions to illustrator. I do it manually at this point, so putting in some automatic dimensioning would be huge.

Regarding your comment Joe. I was not advocating to use CAD Tools what I meant was that Adobe should copy the CAD Tools set up and incorporate this into AI as part of the already expensive package.
We shouldn't have to rely on 3rd party plugins.

I'm a state school teacher, we pay for Ai site licences from our very limited resources. Ai is great but unfortunately we need to use, teach and pay for other software for dimensions which I use to get from CorelDrawV11 way back in the nineties. Plug ins are not an option given price and our network controls. We'd like basic functionality - L x W, centres, distance between centres, angles, radii, true length, quick areas etc. Simple stuff given all the other bells and whistles Ai offers but which I don't use. Thank you.

You're missing the point. We already have CadTools, and yes, it's OK at serving our needs. But considering the amount of money we give to Adobe every year to pay for the Creative Cloud, surly they could include notes and dimensioning in the base product, instead of all these other tools Adobe develops that we don't use.

We can't use Illustrator to get our work done without CadTools, and it shouldn't be that way. If Adobe needs to buy out HotDoor, then they should do that. If HotDoor won't sell, then put them out of business by writing the code yourself.

This has been going on for years, and I can't figure out why Adobe has not included this tool, unless they are somehow profiting off of the HotDoor Cadtools somehow.

And every time there is a new update for Illustrator CC, Adobe directly emails our end users, they run out and install the new version because they think there will be something useful included, and all it does is break CadTools, which they actually need.

Adobe, listen to your end users and give us the tools we need to do our work.

As I have mentioned previously, just take a look at HotDoor CADTools, this covers what is needed from my point of view. We need to add dimensions to all the label proofs, including curves, angles, etc.

Love it, do it! I've been looking for something like this in Adobe Illustrator for a while. I also work in the sign industry. If it could also measure angles and the length of a curve plus measure/display the distance between one line and another for client and in-house visuals that would be fantastic.

Really, really want dimensioning ... pretty please Adobe

The ability to set multiple scales within the same document would be ideal. I know CadTools allows this by allowing a scale to be set per layer. I found this to be really cumbersome because I don't typically use layers in Illustrator and also do a lot of copying and pasting within the document. I would suggest being able to set a scale on a group. This would allow for a much more efficient workflow. For example, I could have an elevation of a sign design at 1"=1' scale and on the same artboard I could also create a detail drawing of a different scale by creating a group and setting a different scale.

Just repost this... very useful ! The best free alternative I've found so far !
Thanks to Kyle !
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Kyle commented · September 10, 2019 12:33
LMP
have you tried this script yet? I discovered it the other week and while not perfect it's free and does all I need: https://adamdehaven.com/blog/dimension-adobe-illustrator-designs-with-a-simple-script/

On another note these kind of basic features really shines a light on how well Adobe knows Its customers... aka we're not all graphic designers

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@Jonny / To delete measurement, just unlock the layer "spec". Yep, It's that easy !

Would be great. If you do this please make sure we can set a scale on the document i.e... 1/10 Scale versus Full size. :)

Give dimension tools for Illustrator, so i can draw easily a dimension without using any product out of Adobe product.

This would be a really awesome feature.

This would need to be in illustrator. They would need to be 'live'.

Regarding what dimension types and settings are appropriate, the 3rd party plugin CadTools would be a good baseline.

The problem with cadtools is the buggyness and unexpected results/ crashes that i am sure adobe could get rid of if writing the code native to their system.

YES PLEASSSSSSSSSSSE

I too was desperately looking for that feature. This plugin, costing $ 25,–, is quite useful for me: https://o2creative.co.nz/shop/Add_Dimensions_PowerScript_for_Adobe_Illustrator
I hope it helps.

tried the scrip below but can't delete measurements....is there a solution.