Need ruler, protractor or measuring tool

[Brandon]

It would be great to have a ruler to measure out distances. I bought this program to layout my kitchen cabinets & yard projects, and design my woodworking projects. A ruler to measure distances is critical. Also a protractor tool wood be nice to measure angles of lines. 

 

Finally, I read about some folks who make their own rulers with a box, but this if difficult to navigate if I can't locate the angle focal point at the end of the box. It would be nice if we could pivot the angle location at the end of the box rather than the standard location of the middle of the object. That way you could drag the box end point to one side of the measuring point, set the angle pivot point at that corner, then drag and angle the box to the other measuring point. 

 

Thanks for considering and helping! Brandon

[HoJo]

Hehe, I had the same idea. Want to do the same and miss the ruler for the same reason ....

[R C-R]

Finally, I read about some folks who make their own rulers with a box, but this if difficult to navigate if I can't locate the angle focal point at the end of the box. It would be nice if we could pivot the angle location at the end of the box rather than the standard location of the middle of the object. That way you could drag the box end point to one side of the measuring point, set the angle pivot point at that corner, then drag and angle the box to the other measuring point.

With either the Node or Move tool selected, you can click the "Show Rotation Center" button on the Context toolbar (looks like a crosshair target) & drag it to wherever you want. (It will snap to the end points & midpoints if you drag it near one.) Then you can use the rotation handle on the canvas to pivot it around that point.

 

However, note that the angle value in the Transform panel will not use that rotation center (only one of the nine anchor points in the panel) & that you will need to be careful not to resize the rectangle by dragging on any of its control points, which would change the scale of the ruler.

[Gear maker]

Brandon, if you hold down the ctrl key and try pivoting the box from any of the corners, it will pivot around the opposite corner from that being grabbed instead of the center. 

 

I don't know if either of the attached will help you.  They are tools I created to help me do some tasks like you are talking about.  The ruler can be dragged into any drawing but will have to be "calibrated" to match the AD ruler.  As long as you are careful to keep the aspect ratio when resizing you will only need to calibrate it in one dimension.  FYI sometimes I calibrate it so that each inch is a foot or other arbitrary distance.  But the ruler can be moved and rotated at will.

 

Then when you are done you can delete the group from your drawing.

 

Mike

 

Protractor.afdesign

Ruler.afdesign

[gdenby]

Brandon, HoJo,

 

I suspect you are looking for a dimension tool. That is, for a ruler, a click on one node, and then a click on another produces a line w. the dimensions typed in. Or a protractor that can be centered and rotated, producing an arc w. the degree info. 

 

Those don't exist in AD. All the info is there, but no auto display of it

 

Its easy to set up a grid to correspond to a dimension set so that w. snapping, objects can be drawn to standard units. Say, a grid off 144 pt, and switch between subdivisions of 12, 24, 36, 48 for 1", 1/2", 1/3" etc. w.snapping on

 

I suppose a CAD program is more appropriate for your uses.