OK, 1. Workaround will work. I see now the line length is the first number, but what is the second number? (3.123 X 2.165)
2. Zooming in and out to be able to fine tune a measurement is not easy sometimes when snap is on.
@ehendrix I believe those two numbers are actually the x distance and the y distance of the line that he drew (aka the slope between the two endpoints). so I think you would have to do some Pythagorean theorem or distance formula if you wanted to know the actual distance.
But I could also be wrong about what those numbers mean so definitely wait for Will to respond.
I have the info box in CC lite, and it shows the size of a bounding box as @mhotchin suggested.
I selected several objects & it shows the extents of all objects selected.
A nice feature as it shows the minimum stock size you will need to create the part if all vectors are selected.
So to find the length of a line that is not parallel to the X or Y axis, use:
sqrt(X² + Y²)
The suggestion, and a valid one, would be to do the calculation in the software & display it along with the bounding box size.
As for moving, you can type a value in the X or Y field & move the object that distance.
And the status bar at the bottom does show the current position.
So, here’s the deal. I was raised in the military and in the infinite wisdom of our education, with our moving around, I never even took algebra. EVER!
If you would be so kind as to be taking your “sqrt” and actually use real numbers in the formula to show me it’s use, I’d be more apt to using it. (Maybe?)
My tape measure isn’t that accurate on the computer screen.
It’s not just straight lines folks…what about the length of a curve? There is an existing request to have a measurement tool that will give you the length of a line segment…curved or straight.
@ehendrix technically that would be geometry class haha jk, but here is an example though. I’ll use a Pythagorean triple so that it’s a nice number but the process is the same for any x and y dimensions (assuming it is a straight line).
lets say the x dimension was 3 and y dimension was 4 (the bounding box) and you want the length of the line which would be the hypotenuse we will call it h.
you would end up with this equation 3² + 4² = h²
since 3² = 9 , 4² = 16 → so really we have 9 + 16 = h² which we can then add to get 25 = h²
since we want a value for just h instead of h² you would square root both sides to find the answer
√25 = √h² → the square root of 25 is 5 (technically ±5 but that’s a convo for a different time)
so h=5 which is the length of your line.
To make it easy though you can do it all as one step as @Tod1d mentioned. so for the line will drew it would look like this in the calculator.
√(3.543² + 2.165²) = distance of the line between the two points which is 4.152.
I am a geometry teacher so i spend a ton of time trying to explain this exact concept. If you have questions seriously don’t hesitate to ask. you will most likely want to use a calculator as most squareroots are irrational numbers which mean they will be “not nice” decimals that go on forever. if you turn your phone calculator sideways you should have a square root symbol on there. Alternatively most calculators have it as a second function of the squared button so you will have to find the “2nd” “shift” or “alt” button on your calc to select a square root.
I’d venture to guess you are a very good teacher as well.
I followed your instructions on my calculator and came up with the correct answer as you stated.
Wow! I did geometry. You have no idea how excited I am right now. You just taught an old dog a new trick.
I am going to cut and paste this post into a document I can refer to later. My memory is not the greatest these days.
Thank you very much!
We still need this added to CC so others do not have to add time to their projects trying to figure this out.
Until we get this added to CC I took what I learned today and created a spreadsheet to make it easy on folks that do not have the math prowess as I. (Trying to be funny)