topic Re: measuring lenght of line in Documentation

measuring lenght of line

Anonymous — Tue, 30 May 2023 13:25:04 GMT

Is there a way to select a line segment and see what the lenght of that line is without having to ..

a) set zero to one side and measure the lenght that way
b) use dimension tool ?

Thanks in advance

Josh

Re: measuring lenght of line

TomWaltz — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 18:37:39 GMT

(A) is the preferred method. I always wonder: why do people find this so objectionable? I've never seen a user take more than 1 minute to learn how to do this.

You can use the "Element Information" palette also, found under Window > Palette Display. This palette will show you the length of how ever many elements you have selected.

Re: measuring lenght of line

Steve Jepson — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 18:58:46 GMT

Good observation Tom.

I am very curious about this. What is it, or how are users doing something that makes this important to them. I see this kind of question quite often and I am sure they have a legitimate reason for wanting to have this info quickly available. I just never seem have a similar situation come up. I would like to know specifically what they were drawing and why they needed to know the length of the line. What is the informaion being used for when this need comes up. Are they using it as a measuring stick of some kind ? I would be very interested to know about this.

Re: measuring lenght of line

Steve Jepson — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 19:02:07 GMT

Also Tom,

I like your avatar. You are deffenently an "inlightend guru".

Re: measuring lenght of line

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 20:24:16 GMT

Thanks Tom. That is a great little feature that you just "enlightened me" to.

As far as the other guy's question about why would we need that info...
We are laying out a whole subdivision of non-conforming parcels with incomplete info and we need to identify certian property line legnths....

Now.. we have all learned something today

Josh.

Re: measuring lenght of line

TomWaltz — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 20:36:11 GMT

josh wrote:
Thanks Tom. That is a great little feature that you just "enlightened me" to.

As far as the other guy's question about why would we need that info...
We are laying out a whole subdivision of non-conforming parcels with incomplete info and we need to identify certian property line legnths....

Now.. we have all learned something today

Josh.

In that situation, even I'd go for Element Info, since you can leave the palette open and select/de-select lines as needed.

Re: measuring lenght of line

Steve Jepson — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 20:43:17 GMT

ah..yes. familiar task. You will find the fill tool and magic wand useful too for finding the areas of each lot too. I always like it when I can get all of the site info including topos into ArchiCAD directly from the surveyors digital files. A few clicks from the magic wand with the mesh tool and you have a very nice 3d model of the site to work with.

Now with goggle earth, is is pretty easy to get some nice areal photos of many sites into ArchiCAD to go with that. Very useful for locating all kinds of things like outbuildings, trees, etc... in my area I can get all of the utilities info in an aerial overlay too. Just drop it into ArchiCAD and trace what you need. Very handy.

Re: measuring lenght of line

Rakela Raul — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 02:49:26 GMT

knock, knock
The first time ac was introduced to me, it was my first question, where is the measuring tool! after nothing, i forgot about it.....and you might not need it after all....but, i think it has to do a little bit with a few things, one of them, commodity; it is nice to put your cursor over a line/wall and get length, angle, area, etc in only one location, not even looking down to the screen or using the two hands to get the needed info...., our profession is very much measuring staff, why not carry a nice tool for it....but im talking about a laser kind of measuring tool just in case!!!

i forgot to mention that when the excellent ac salesman showed to me how to do it in several ways, i thought it was too slow.......not now though

Re: measuring lenght of line

Stress Co_ — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 03:01:40 GMT

If only Element Information gave line bearings / angles.

I'd use it creating site plans (on the occasions I have no electronic plat).

Re: measuring lenght of line

SeaGeoff — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:21:44 GMT

Stress wrote:
If only Element Information gave line bearings

Agreed. Element Information should most definitely provide all the info used when creating that element, start and finish X,Y, length (R) angle (A).

Note there is also a rounding bug when using fractions. Beware.

Re: measuring lenght of line

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 18:26:22 GMT

Geoff, is this rounding Bug in the order of 1/32" or can you tell?

Re: measuring lenght of line

SeaGeoff — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 06:15:26 GMT

Jay wrote:
Geoff, is this rounding Bug in the order of 1/32" or can you tell?

Haven't done extensive tests. I was alerted to it by a coworker who thought she was using coordinate input incorrectly because the EI kept reporting a different result than what she keyed in. I don't tend to use fractions or EI, preferring the move-origin method for measuring and decimal inch length units. I know this is unconventional for US users, but computers prefer decimals, and this way I know exactly when things are being rounded. Of course my dimensions are still fractional.

God how I envy the rest of the world their metric system! We are so backwards. If I ran the zoo I'd make everyone switch immediately and within a decade the pain would be over.

BTW, EI reports correctly with length units set to decimal inches or feet. It's not the units, it's the fractions. So maybe I'll use it after all.

Re: measuring lenght of line

tsturm — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:09:30 GMT

I know this is an old post. I just wanted to add a good use of this element information palette would be to measure a length of travel.

When we are busy laying out different options to a floor plan, we often draw a line to measure out the length or travel from the remote corner to an egress door. This way we can quickly check we are meeting code requirements.

Polylines save a lot on doing Math as well.

Cheers

Re: measuring lenght of line

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:54:24 GMT

The info box palette shows heights of walls and such... would be most spiffy if it would also show (and edit?) lengths of lines/walls/etc.

Or, the Selection Settings would be another intuitive place to put this info/edit.

I resent that I must take up screen space to show information that SHOULD be included in one (both?) of the aforementioned palettes on a third palette which is tedious to read and un-editable. <scoff>

Edit, re Terrence: The Measure tool will give you cumulative lengths thru multiple clicks/vertices, and shows x and y dims and length of angled lines if needs be. I find this much more practical than the Element Info palette, personally, tho it does require tracing an existing line...