Linear Symmetric Dimension Type

Posted on August 29, 2018 by Synergis Helpdesk Technician Mark Lancaster
The other day I received a call from a customer looking to dimension a detail view per the image below.

Within a couple of days of providing the solution to the customer, this same question appeared on the Autodesk Inventor Forum. Perhaps it’s time to bring this workflow back to life.
Assuming your detail drawing view is in place, your first step is to generate the (main) centerline of axis of your part. To do this, right click on the drawing detail view and select, “Automate Centerline” from the contextual menu.

Depending on how your part features was accomplished, select the related “Apply To” and “Objects in View” and axis is parallel option (red arrow) option.


Once the centerline is applied, the next step is creating the required annotation. Although the order is not important (blue/red arrows), select the entities to create the linear dimension.

Before placing the location of the dimension, right click, select “Dimension Type” and “Linear Symmetric.”


Once you placed the dimension, add the diameter symbol (while editing dimension).

It is assumed the option, “Edit dimension on creation” is checked.

Repeat the steps as needed.

In the end, there are numerous Inventor workflows that we may use here and there. Sometimes it may be difficult to remember the steps if we haven’t used it recently. I believe this workflow is one of them.