Using Drawing Measurements

Overview

When viewing any blueprint or other architectural drawing, users can make measurements directly within the drawing using the Drawing Measurements tool.

Screenshot of Drawings

Calibrating Measurements

In order to take accurate measurements, the Drawing Measurements tool must be calibrated to the scale of the drawing. Press the Drawing Measurements icon (Image of drawing measurement icon, ruler) to access the Drawing Measurements toolset at the top of the screen.

Screenshot of Drawings with Scale field

The system will indicate if the scale needs to be set, as shown in the screenshot above. Users may manually enter a scale by pressing the Set Scale icon, as shown above, or use the Calibrate Scale tool (Image of calibrate icon, ruler markings).

Screenshot of Drawings Measurement Toolbar with calibrate icon highlighted.

Press the Calibrate icon (Image of calibrate icon, ruler markings) to activate the Calibrate Scale tool. Draw a line over any known measurement in the drawing. A pop-up window will be displayed which is used to define the measurement settings.

Screenshot of Drawing Measurement calibration pop-up

Edit the Calibrate Length field to calibrate the drawn line to the known distance in your preferred units. Once the length is calibrated, the Scale field will show the scale used by the Drawing Measurements tool.

Using Drawing Measurements

Once the Drawing Measurement tool has been calibrated, measurements can be added to the drawing. There are several measuring tools available in the toolset. To access the complete set of tools, press the Drawing Measurements icon to open the toolset menu at the top of the screen. Select the desired tool from the menu. Each of these measuring tools is described in more detail below.

Users can press the Delete icon (Image of Delete icon, garbage bin) to delete the annotation.

Users also adjust the scale, line color, line opacity, and line thickness of the tool.

Screenshot of Drawings with Drawing Measurements toolset

Line Snapping

Measurement lines placed on a drawing will autosnap to the nearest drawing line to aid in measurements if the 'Snapping' box on the Drawing Measurement toolbar is checked.

Screenshot of Drawings with Snapping box highlighted

Line Measurement

Use the Distance tool (Image of Distance tool, arrows between lines) to place a line anywhere within the drawing to measure the distance.

Screenshot of Drawings with Distance tool toolbar

Elliptical Measurement

Use the Ellipse Area tool (Image of Elipse Area icon, circle) to measure the square footage of any ellipses drawn.

Screenshot of Drawings with Ellipse Area tool

Rectangular Measurement

Use the Rectangle Area tool (Image of Rectangle Area icon, square) to measure the square footage of any rectangle drawn.

Screenshot of Drawings with Rectangle Area tool

Perimeter Measurement

Use the Perimeter tool (Image of Perimeter icon, triangular arrow) to measure the length of the perimeter of any shape on your drawing.

Screenshot of Drawings with Perimeter tool

Polygonal Area Measurement

Use the Polygon Area tool (Image of Pollygon Area icon, polygon) to measure the area of any shape on your drawing.

Screenshot of Drawings with Polygon Area tool

Known Issues

The following known issues are currently being worked on and are expected to be resolved in upcoming releases.

Feature Summary Description
Line Measurement Autosnapping the measurement line, perpendicular to a wall. When adding a new measurements to the drawing, the autosnapping feature will snap to the nearest line, but does not snap perpendicularly to that line.

Calibrate Measurement

 

Editing the value of calibration length.

When editing the calibration length, users will notice a bug with decimal entry, where the decimal will not show up when entered as part of a number. The workaround is to start with the decimal point first, and then type the value around it. Additionally, it is only possible to enter measurements in feet or inches but not both.

Annotations Saving drawing measurements. When leaving a drawing after having made measurements, the measurements are not automatically saved as annotations. Additionally, calibration information is not saved.