measuring lenght of line

[Anonymous]

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

[TomWaltz]

(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.

[Steve Jepson]

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.

[Steve Jepson]

Also Tom,

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[TomWaltz]

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.

[Steve Jepson]

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.

[Rakela Raul]

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

[Stress Co_]

If only Element Information gave line bearings / angles.

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

[SeaGeoff]

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.