Measure draws dimension lines on your panel, each with its length in inches. It reads your design and changes nothing: the lines are not saved, there is nothing to undo, and they do not appear in an export.
From one item to the panel
- Select one instrument, placard or add-on piece.
- Click Measure in the tool row (the ruler).
A red line runs from each edge of the item to that edge of the panel: left, right, top and bottom. Each number is the clear space between the item and the edge of the panel.
If the template has flange lines and they are showing, lines marked to flange give the closest flange line on each side of the item: to its left, to its right, above and below. Each runs square to the item, never at an angle, at the spot where the flange comes nearest on that side. An item lying across a flange line is marked on the flange line.
With To construction lines checked on the card and the lines showing, green lines marked to line give the distance from the item's edge to the nearest construction line on each side: left, right, above and below. A line that passes through the item is measured from the item's nearer edge. Click a construction line and Measure keeps measuring the same item, so you can drag the line and watch the number. Like the lines to the panel and the flange, these are always from the item's edges.
Between two or more items
- Select the items. Hold Shift and click each one, or use Select several.
- Click Measure.
- Blue lines marked center to center give the distance between centers, across and up and down.
- Red lines marked edge to edge give the space between facing edges. Items that overlap have none.
- With more than two selected, each item is measured to the next one: left to right for the distances across, top to bottom for those up and down.
Groups
A group is measured as one item: the box round all its members, and the center of that box.
While Measure is on
The Measure button stays lit while it is on. If a dimension is in your way, drag its number: the whole dimension line moves out to the side, with a thin line from each end back to the point it measures, as on a drawing. To take a dimension off, click its number and press Delete, or click the small × that appears beside it. It comes back when you turn Measure off and on again. The lines follow you. Move or nudge an item, or select a different one, and they redraw. Turn Measure off by clicking it again or pressing Esc.
Choose what is shown
While Measure is on, a small card lists the kinds of measurement, each with a box: to the panel's edges, to flange lines, to construction lines, center to center, and edge to edge. Uncheck a kind to hide it. Construction lines start unchecked: check the box when you want them. Drag the card by its heading to move it out of your way. Your browser remembers the boxes and where you put the card.
What the edges are
- The panel's edge is its real outline, curves and steps included. Each line runs straight out from the middle of that side of the item to where it first meets the outline. (On the few templates that are still a picture, not a drawing, it runs to the rectangle round the picture.)
- An item's edges are the outer edges of its picture. For a rotated item that is the box round it.
- An add-on panel piece is measured to the center of its body.