Dimension Question

I probably should know this... but it's been awhile since I've had to deal with any mechanical / GD&T drafting.... got given a drawing today - something that had ben saved out of Inventor to a DWG file (a piece of sheet aluminum shaped into a cover panel). Two of the dimensions were inside an "oval" (actually two half circles with connecting lines..). It's an associative dimension - measuring the distance between two holes and of a cutout....
My question is - what sort of dimension is this? What does the oval represent? Looked on the web today - but couldn't find any reference to a dimensioning standard of that sort....
Martin

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Ovals are generally flat ellipses so the dimensions most likely are the foci of the ellipse. Regards, Charles Shade

cshadedesign.com wrote:
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(knew I shouldn't use the word 'oval'...)
This isn't really an "oval" - that is just what I called it. Imagine a circle split down the center vertically, the two halves separated and the ends connected together with two parallel lines.... basically its something like the rectangular box that you put a geometric tolerance value in - but with rounded ends... and there are no ovals on the piece - it's a piece of flat stock that has been die cut and bent into a shell for a electronics panel. The measurement is the distance between the center points of two screw holes...
I've dug through a bunch of my textbooks and reference books and still can't find what this is suppose to represent.... guess I'm going to have to find the person that originally did the drawings in Inventor and ask....
Martin

wrote:
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sounds like a slot. which is actually oval in shape. How is dimensioned depends on what is important.
Bob

snipped-for-privacy@att.net wrote:
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No.. I figured it out while at work today (got on to someone's computer that had Inventor..) - it's something called a "Inspection Dimension", something apparently used in manufacturing. I'd never seen it used before myself. Seems that regular AutoCAD has it too (leastwise 2008+ - it's under the Dimension drop-down menu.
Mystery solved...
Martin

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Well I never.
That's a lozenge BTW

strawberry wrote:
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Well, now I've learned two things....
But I thought that a "lozenge" was more of a rhombus - with triangular ends.. (which apparently is one of the styles for this Inspection Dimension feature, but I didn't know that at the time). The dimension I was looking at was the other style with the round ends - is that also called a "lozenge" too?
Martin

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Well I've learned something too. At school (a long, long time ago) I was taught that the capsule shape was a lozenge but mathematics reserves that word for a rhomboid. "Slot" (or possibly "allantoid") seems like a better name after all. How about "cartouche", as in the shape that encloses the pharaoh's name on the Rosetta Stone?

strawberry wrote:
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I like "cartouche" - but capsule would probably work too...
Martin

The shape you described is often referred to as an 'Obround' i.e. an oblong with rounded ends, or, as has been mentioned, a slot (but with rounded ends.
Brian.
(Rowley) wrote:
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