Measure toolbar

We have so far been only modeling parts without taking into consideration like how much does the part weigh? Also, while designing parts, you may need to immediately know (without going into drafting workbench) what's the angle between two faces etc. You can do all of it using Measure toolbar.

Measure toolbar

Measure toolbar has three tools

• Measure Between
• Measure Item
• Measure Inertia

Measure Between and Measure Item

The tools, Measure Between and Measure Item can be accessed from within each other's dialogue box, since both of these options include each other as suboptions and are actually grouped if you see below. The dialogue box below opens up and it has all the tool available for measurement.

Tools that can be accessed using Measure Between and Measure Item

Measure between - Measure between can be use to measure between any two points, lines, two surfaces, or even between any entity of your choice. You can change the selection mode to avoid picking any entity by mistake. Suppose if you wish to measure between two points, you can select mode as 'Point only' instead of 'Any geometry'.

Measure between - Chain mode

Measure between (chain mode) - The mode is used to measure multiple distances at once. The measure mode is such that the next entity you select is measured from the last entity you selected. Above you can see how successive measurements are done.

Measure between - Fan mode

Measure between (fan mode) - The fan mode of measure between can be used for registering multiple measurements simultaneously. In this mode all measurements are done from the first entity that you select. Above you can see that all measurements are from the first edge on the left.

Volume shown of the Part Body

Measure Item - The Measure Item option can be used to find the coordinates of a point, length of line, surface area of surface, angle by three points, volume of the complete part etc. You can use the option by hovering over a plane, line etc. and choose the appropriate mode of selection and find most of the require information. However, to measure the volume, you would need to select the part using Part body in the specification tree and it will show the volume and other specifications.

Measure Thickness - Showing preview of thickness and updating as you hover

Measure Thickness - You can either change the Selection 1 mode within the Measure Item option or select the option explicitly to change the mode to measure thickness. So, measure thickness is just an option within Measure Thickness. The measure thickness also gives a preview of the thickness value and the thickness that its measuring. If you select, the thickness value will be shown in green highlight box. 

Options

The Keep Measure option will apply the measurement and it will shown even after you exit the measure tool by pressing OK. The measurement will also be shown in the Specification tree if you use this option and you can update the measurement by double clicking and pressing OK from the dialogue box again. This is a safety measure and prevents the measurement from updating inadvertently.

For automatic update of measurements

However, if you wish that applied measurements shall be updated automatically, you can turn it on using Tool > Options > General > Parameters and Measure > Measure Tools tab > Automatic update (part / product).

The calculation mode can be chosen as Exact, Exact else approximate or Approximate. The exact measurement may not be available, so depending upon this, you can change the measurement mode. 

Option Other axis can be exercised in case there are multiple axis system utilised (axis system will be discussed ahead in advanced topics), the option will help make measurements in local axis system and can prove to be useful in part design as well as assembly modeling.

Measure between customization

The Customize option available is somewhat different for the different measurement options. You can select / unselect based on measurement preferences. 

Measure item customization

Measure Inertia

Moment of Inertia of 2D surface and 3D bodies can be found using Measure Inertia tool. Options are available to choose Surface or Body.

Measure Inertia

Just like the Measure between and Measure Item, there are customization options available for both. So that you can selectively see measurements that you prefer.