The preceding examples have dealt with single-valued dimensions; where more than two Dimension Points are involved, the Dimension is said to be multi-valued. Two classes of multi-valued Dimensions exist, namely chained and parallel. An example of a chained Dimension is shown in Figure 11:5.: Chained Linear Dimension.

Such a dimension (which is still represented by a single LDIM element) is created by repeating the TO part of the FROM . . . TO command line, moving the cursor crosshairs to each Dimension Point in turn. The example shown in Figure 11:4.: Before/After’ Linear Dimensions on a Single Element would have been created by a command sequence such as:

A Dimension Point may be constructed using DRAW’s point construction facilities (refer to Point and Line Construction for further information). For example:

The effect of the INSERT command is to create a new Dimension Point of the appropriate type at the last position in the owning LDIM's member list. INSERT can be used at Dimension Point or LDIM level.

Dimensions will be drawn in the same order as the LDIM’s member list order. If the elements get out of the correct order then the display of the Dimension will become confused. This situation can be corrected by the SORT DIMENSIONPOINTS command (minimum abbreviation SORT DIM), which can be used at Dimension or Dimension Point level. Refer to Figure 11:6.: Use of the SORT DIM Command for further information.

An example of a parallel Dimension is shown in Figure 11:7.: Parallel (or Tail) Linear Dimension.

A parallel Dimension can be produced simply by setting the LCHA attribute of an LDIM as appropriate: