Home Page > KernelCAD Models > Scene Items > Measurements > Measurements

Measurements

See also: Demo,  Direct User Access demo

Measurement mode of KernelCAD views allows adding items, which display distances between points, coordinates of a selected point and angles. A measurement can also be modified programmatically to display a single line of text so that it will act as a text label attached to the specified surface.

To enter the measurement mode make sure the view has focus (click into the window) and press 'm' key. The measurement mode has several sub modes and a "delete all" command. The component exits the measurement mode automatically when the current operation is either completed or interrupted.

The Advanced > Measurements > Add context menu (right mouse click) options offer a user interface for entering the mode.

KernelCAD componets have two styles of measurements: Persistent measurements and Transient (default) measurements

Transient measurements disappear once the measurement mode is exited.They can be used to quickly check distances and avoid adding extra items obscuring the scene

Transient measurements style (default) can be re-activated programmatically by setting the MeasurementsStyle property of KernelCAD Context to 1.

Persistent measurements are part of the model. Once added to the scene they persist during viewing manipulations: rotations etc

To switch between the modes at runtime got to Advanced > Measurements > Style in context menu (right mouse click)

Persistent measurements style can also be activated programmatically by setting the MeasurementsStyle property of KernelCAD Context to 0.

See Persistent Measurements topic for more details

When MeasurementsShowOnMouseMove property of KernelCAD Context is set to true (false is the default) the component displays distance between the first point of the measurement and the current position of the mouse during movement from the first to the second point. The distance is measured along plane parallel to plane of the screen and recalculated precisely after the second point has been selected.

Point selection for large surfaces can be slow. Setting the SelectionGeometric context property to false improves performance but reduces precison, particularily around edges of objects

Angle Measurements

To measure angle in the screen plane between a line and horizontal direction select Advanced > Measurements > Add > Angle in the context menu and click two points on the screen to define a line.

To measure angle in the screen plane with arbitrary direction hold Control key while clicking Advanced > Measurements > Add > Angle option in the menu. This action will open Angle Measurement Options dialog. Make sure the "View Plane" option is selected and clear the "Horizontal" check box. The software will use the next two clicks to define the direction. The third click will show the angle.

To measure angle on a surface hold Control key while clicking Advanced > Measurements > Add > Angle option in context menu. In the Angle Measurement Options dialog select "Surface" option and click OK. The next two clicks will define a line between two points on surface of object(s). The third click will show angle between the line and line between first and third points. During mouse movement the operation displays angle in screen plane. The final angle shown after the third click is calculated for the points picked on surface. When the mouse is clicked outside any object the result should be considered unreliable.

To make the above options programmatically query context of angle measurements via: KernelCAD > GetView() > IKCContext > GetParam(0) > object (or IUnknown) > IKCContext. Properties of the returned context are:

When ShowDialog is set to false the dialog will not be displayed. If the property is true, other properties will be displayed in the dialog for modification.