Measuring distance between two objects

Former Member over 10 years ago

Is there any way to measure edge-to-edge/center-to-center distance between two arbitrary objects? (like DesignSparkPCB)

0 Joop14 over 10 years ago

Use the mark command.
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0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Joop14

Measuring with MARK command requires very fine grid, right?
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0 shabaz over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

Normally parts have some datum, and edge or center is slightly meaningless - usually the part should be created with the datum at the most relevant place, because an outline often does not reflect the physical part in dimensions (and then an edge or center measurement will be in error).
If the locations are needed for such edge-to-edge calculations, the datum should already be on the grid, so the MARK to snap to the grid is highly important for accurate measurements - otherwise if you have a need, you can go to a fine grid as you say, or you can press the Info button to get the exact location. Then you can refer to the part datasheet to identify where the edge of the component (to a tolerance) is with reference to the datum - this method would be more precise.
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0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to shabaz

For example, I just want to measure distance between these two traces (a or b) "instantly".
These are snapped to 0.1mm grid, but their edge is not on the grid.
How can you do this?
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0 shabaz over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

For the top example, it is a math addition/subtraction. For the lower, I've never seen a need to do this for a PCB, but perhaps you do have a need. If it is a part, usually I would rotate the entire part (i.e. after it was created normally) - in that case, I would have checked the width if needed to, similar to the top example.
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0 autodeskguest over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

On 2014-11-19 13:53:05 +0000, Naoya Yamada said:

For example, I just want to measure distance between these two traces (a
or b) "instantly".
These are snapped to 0.1mm grid, but their edge is not on the grid.
How can you do this?

Most of my measurement needs between traces involve "how much space is
between them?" so I flip to a 1mil grid and literally count squares.
The dimension/measure command is often too clunky because it's obsessed
with snapping to some unknown point rather than using some simpler
heuristic like "right here where I click, see that edge, that one!"

-A.
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0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to shabaz

OK, I understood that it is not possible to measure instantly...

According to your answer,
* Measuring "a" requires some steps: First check the width of each traces, then calc.
This Calculation is easy, but when there are many similar traces on the PCB, I will be very tired.

* Measuring "b" is much more complex.
This style of traces are commonly used to remove 90deg corners.
Rotate entire them? It seems to be bad way.

We have already bought the professional license, but the user interface is crazy for me now. Hmm...
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