DimensionX 4.

1 Release Notes
1. Overview
DimensionX 4.1 is the latest release in the Dimtronix range of world-class on-screen measurement
software. It features several new important measurement functions and provides support for new
technologies and formats such as 64-bit operation, Unicode for international character sets, IFC 4 files and
3D PDFs.

2. Drawings
Add Multiple Drawings Simultaneously
Multiple drawing files can now be added simultaneously from the Open Drawing dialog. The process for
adding multiple drawings is as follows:

 Click the Add Drawing… button on the ribbon

 The file open dialog will appear. Use the Ctrl key to select multiple individual drawings or the Shift
key to select groups of drawings and then click Open.

 The Drawing Properties dialog will appear to allow some of the properties of the added drawings to
be set:

 All selected files that are in a supported format will be added. If files that are not in a supported
drawing file format were selected, they will not be added.

 If a drawing contains multiple sheets, all sheets of that drawing will be added. The Name Prefix will
be the name of the file.

 Where the name that would be used for a drawing would conflict with an existing drawing or
another drawing being added at the same time, the name will be shortened if necessary and a
number added to the end to make the name unique.

 The Drawing name field has been increased to 250 characters.

 Multiple Aveva PDMS drawings cannot be added simultaneously.

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 DimensionX 4.1 Release Notes

Show Quantities and Units on the Legend

The Legend button in the Show group of the Dimensions tab on the ribbon, now displays the quantities and
units of the selected dimension groups along with their colours.

Folder grouping for drawings

Drawings may now be grouped into folders and by including a backslash character (\) in the folder name,
folders can be displayed as subfolders. Drawing names will still need to be unique. The folder field has a
limit of 250 characters.
New drawing icons have been introduced to make the folder levels visually clearer.

3D PDF files with BIM support

DimensionX now supports the U3D 3D PDF format commonly used by Plant CAD software.

IFC 4 support
DimensionX is now able to load IFC4 drawing files.

PDF improvements
Significant Improvements to PDF drawings in terms of speed, memory, usage and display.

Enable white background for 3D drawings.

For 3D drawings the background was previously only available in a medium grey gradient. It is now possible
to set the background to a very light gradient by clicking the White button on the ribbon.

Support for IfcCalendarDate Properties

Support for IfcCalendarDate properties have been added to allow properties of this type, such as those
created for COBie, to be viewed.

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 DimensionX 4.1 Release Notes

3. Measurement
Measurement with multiple Dimension Groups selected
This new feature allows measurement to be undertaken in one Dimension Group whilst simultaneously
displaying other selected Dimension Groups.

The new Dimension Groups tab:

Select the Dimension group to be measured into, and the Dimension groups to be viewed, by using the Ctrl
or Shift keys. The Current: box shows the Group which will be measured into. Use the drop-down menu to
display the required Group.

The new Dimensions Tab:

The previous Dimension Filters buttons (Current Zone and Current Drawing) on the Dimensions Ribbon
have been replaced as part of the improved and expanded Dimensions Tab features.

The Dimensions Tab now lists dimensions grouped under their Dimension Group.

There is also an option to have a Dimension Group column in the dimensions list.

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 DimensionX 4.1 Release Notes

The columns can be sorted by clicking on the column headings, and the headings can be dragged to change
their order.

Dimension column headings can also be dragged up to create a tree structure for sorting of dimensions.

A Click to Filter button above the dimensions list allows the list to be filtered by Current Drawing and
Current Dimension group.

The Zone Filter is now a filter icon button to the right of the Zone drop down selection list in the Dimension
section of the Dimensions Ribbon.

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 DimensionX 4.1 Release Notes

Additional Colours and Hatching for Dimensions

Dimension Group properties have been extended to provide a range of colour and hatching options. The
labels “Positive Colour” and “negative Colour” have been changed to “Positive Dimensions” and “Negative
Dimensions”.

CSV imports of Dimension Groups can support the new hatching patterns. An extra column for the hatching
pattern should be added. The Column Order (left to right) for CSV files is:

Folder, Name, Measurement Type, Default Display, Default Height, Add to GFA, Weight Unit, Custom 1
Name, Custom 1 Unit, Custom 2 Name, Custom 2 Unit, Custom 3 Name, Custom 3 Unit, Positive Colour
Name, Negative Colour Name, Positive Fill Style, Negative Fill Style, Include by Default, Notes

The values to be entered for fill styles are: Solid, Vertical Bars, Horizontal Bars, Crosshatch, Slant Left, Slant
Right, Diamonds.

Multi-level folders for Dimension Groups

Dimension Group names will still need to be unique, but by including a backslash character (\) in the folder
name, folders can be displayed as subfolders. The folder field has also been increased to 250 characters.

The ability to create Dimension Groups as multi-level is controlled by a new option under DimensionX
Options - > Drawings called “Multi-level Folders”. It will be ticked by default but if it is un-ticked, then only
one level of folders will be shown regardless of any backslash characters (\) contained in the folder name.

Dimension Groups Naming

It is now possible to use the single quote ( ‘ ) and double quote (“ ) characters in Dimension Groups, often
used to signify feet and inches. The limit for Dimension Group names has also been increased to 250
characters to allow longer descriptions to uniquely identify Dimension Groups, particularly useful when
working with BIM models.

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 DimensionX 4.1 Release Notes

Multi-select on the dimensions list and Copy / Delete etc.

Using Ctrl and Shift keys, multiple dimensions can be selected in the dimensions list, and the selected
dimensions can now be copied, deleted, have their zone or height changed, or be isolated on BIM drawings.

Separate Measurement Mode and Display Type for Dimension Groups

Dimension Group Properties now include a Default Display setting which determines which value is
displayed, independent of the measurement type. For example, if a Default Height is used when measuring
from a 2D drawing, a wall area value could be displayed for dimensions measured as lengths, and a volume
value displayed for dimensions measured as areas. All Dimension Group types are supported as a display
type including Weight and Custom Dimension Groups when working in BIM.

As part of the change to displaying additional Dimension Group types, new icons for Dimension Groups
have been introduced.

Zones now support 100 characters

The character limit of a Zone name has been increased from 20 to 100 characters.

Rebar Improvements
Rebar dimensions now return the count of the number of bars in the measurement (previously returned as
a count of 1).

If the Properties Hint option is turned on, when the cursor is placed over a rebar dimension, additional
information is now shown including the distance across which the bars are placed (span), bar length, no. of
bars, spacing, extra distance per bar.

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Overlaps Improvements
If the Properties Hint option is turned on, DimensionX now shows the names of the dimensions involved in
the overlap in a hint box, grouped by their folder and dimension group.

Overlaps now obey the Positive/Negative/Both buttons on the ribbon so it is possible to independently
check overlaps for negative dimensions or positive dimensions only in addition to checking overlaps for
both.

Pressing the Space bar while the cursor is over an overlap will now display an outline of the original
dimensions involved in the overlap.

4. System
64bit Support
All DimensionX programs are now available in both 64-bit. 64-bit programs can access much more memory
and therefore support loading much larger 3D models. All DimensionX client-side programs are still also
available in 32-bit. Dimtronix Server is now 64-bit only.

Unicode support
Support for International characters. Allows a mixture of languages to be used at the same time, and allows
the Windows® regional settings to be different between users. DimensionX now runs on different Windows
Language versions. The interface (i.e. menus, dialogs, buttons etc.) is still in English but users can enter text
from any language throughout the program (e.g. Dimension Groups etc.).

Support for Windows 8.1

Convert Excel Exports to XSLX

The following Excel exports can now create files in XLSX format which will allow more data to be exported
in a single export. The XLSX format supports 1 million rows.

 The Export button on the Dimensions Ribbon

 The Export Workbook to Excel option under the Export button on the Workbooks Ribbon.

Upgraded Database Version

For improved performance in network installations, especially over slow connections.

Speed Improvements
Speed improvements throughout, especially in loading dimensions, and working in system administration.

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