Using the Measurement Tool

The measurement tool computes geometric quantities for selected entities in the 3D-CAD model. For example, it lets you compute the distance between two entities, the volume of a solid body, the area of a face or a body, the radius of an arc, and other quantities.

To use the measurement tool:
  1. In the Visibility toolbar at the top of the 3D-CAD View scene, click the arrow next to the right-most icon and select (Show Measurement Table).
    The Measurement panel appears on the left of the graphics window.

  2. In the Measurement panel, select a measurement option:
    • (Distance)
    • (Length)
    • (Angle)
    • (Radius)
    • (Area)
    • (Volume)
    • (Center)
    • (Moment)
    Instructions appear that tell you which entities you must choose in the 3D-CAD View scene for that measurement.
  3. In the 3D-CAD View scene, select the entities specified by the measurement instruction.
  4. Click Measure or press the spacebar.
    To change the number of digits displayed for a measurement, select Tools > Options > Environment > Decimal Display Format. For more information on customizing the decimal display format, seeChanging the Appearance of Decimals

    .

    The values of the calculations appears in both the 3D-CAD View scene and the Measurement panel. When a measurement item is selected in the table, it is highlighted in red in the 3D-CAD View scene.



    If a measurement cannot be performed, an error message appears in red in the Measurement panel as shown in the image below.

    The measurement result is also printed in the Output window.

  5. In the 3D-CAD View scene, click and drag the caption that contains the values of the measurement to reposition it.
  6. The vertex coordinates corresponding to the points selected for distance measurement are displayed in the Output panel.
  7. If you want to remove a measurement from the table, right-click the result in the list and select Remove. To remove all the measurement results from the scene and table, click Clear or press CTRL + SHIFT + Spacebar.
  8. To view a particular measurement result on its own in the 3D-CAD View scene, select the measurement in the table and then click (Isolate the selected result).
    When selecting a distance measurement that has a minimum, maximum, and centroid distance, the locations corresponding to the selected distance measurement are connected by a line. It may be necessary to set transparency to see the line.

  9. For cases where you have a large collection of results, click to expand or collapse all the results in the table.
  10. To reposition the view for a result without needing to zoom or pan the view, select a measurement in the table and click (Set focus on the selected result).
  11. To copy the value of a measurement result, right-click on a measurement value in the table and select Copy Value.
    You can paste the value to a feature input field using CTRL + V.
  12. To exit the measurement tool panel, click Close.
    Once you exit the Measurement panel, all the measurement values are erased.