Measurement tool should snap to geometry inside blender and measure non-planar dimensions.
This should not be limited to measuring orthographic projections in views.
UPDATE:
The tool should be modified to snap on first click to any vertex instead of having to click anywhere then snap the two ends of the dimension line to the required position.
?
How did you manage to make this work? For some reason when my snaps are turned on (vertex) they do not snap.
Hold Ctrl…
Alright. You have to click then hold Ctrl to adjust both ends. Do you think it could be modified to snap on first click?
I don’t think that’s possible…
Should I adjust the thread’s title to this modification or start a new thread?
Better stick with this thread, I guess…
If I think about it, there’s an inconsistency with the measure tool’s snapping capabilities and the global snapping options. Probably more than an inconsistency:
If you hover over the tool button, you can see a tooltip with all the things the tool can do.
So the goal is to make the measurement tool consistent with the snapping options (if the snaps are activated then the tool snaps automatically to the set up snaps)?
Not sure what’s on their agenda with the measure tool. It would make sense to expand its utility and use an already existing application wide snapping framework. After all, it’s an official tool with its own occupying space in the toolbar. I can think of a few other useful tools to have on the toolbar besides it in its current state.
In general, the measure tool seems very unloved in Blender currently.
Perhaps I also misunderstood some aspects of it, but I posted a thread a while ago with zero response:
someone posted these interesting screenshots on blender artists…
the other day Ton retweeted this dev who developed this measurement addon? which shows how the measuring tool should really work …
Well … I hope it’s inspirational
@mano-wii Please, take into consideration to transform the measurementsin a new type of object, so that they can be switched on and off via the outliner, preferably in objects and sub-objects similar to collection so as to be able to hide some measuring parts, and why not, in some cases it would also be useful to be able to render these measures.
Currently it is a big problem that in order to have the measurements always active you need to have the measurement tool turned on, here’s what happens as soon as we enter edit mode: (blender 2.90 alpha)
My hope is that the measures can be used as snapping points in edit mode and object mode
What you are looking for are guides.
Hello,
I want to second these requests/observations. As I learn and use blender more, I am really surprised at how limited the measuring tool and capabilities of scale are in blender. I do recognize that blender was developed originally for non-architectural/engineering purposes, but even the Blender Guru pointed out how useless it is that he needed to make an object to compare his chair to so that he could properly scale it!
https://youtu.be/W1px5mPdN4s?t=941
Yes, I’d love a sketchup style select an object or range of objects, measure the dimension you like and enter a size kind of tool. But at least something that was both accurate and utilitarian would be great!
Making “measures” into real objects has been a project I’ve been interested in for a while. It would be such an improvement! It would be a large project though…
Hopefully they become objects, it’s the way that makes the most sense to me.
Currently the measuring tool, is only an indicator, it becomes uncomfortable even if we move an object with a simple grab from one point to another, because the measurement symbols disappear during moving steps.
Having control of “measuring” objects with the outliner, especially now that it is becoming very advanced, would be really convenient.
moment of inspiration…