Measuring hole centerline distance

[Anonymous]

How do I measure the center of one hole to the center of another hole (on my model)? It lets me measure the diameter but to measure from one hole to another I have to put a work axis in each hole and measure the distance between the work axis. This seems rather cumbersome. Is there an easier way?

[mcgyvr · Accepted solution]

When you use the measure tool and it autoselects the hole diameter. Just right mouse click and choose select other.

[Anonymous]

Whenever I run into these problems I figure there is always an easier way to do what I'm doing. Those are the times I rely on the likes of mcgyvr to help me out. Thanks a lot!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

a trick i use to get it to select the hole center on the first try

after selecting tools measure my first selection is a flat plane or edge in the vicinity of the first hole then when you go to make your
second selection on your first hole it will default to hole center. then just select the second hole where t will also default to hole center

I dislike the select other routine in any way. it should cycle through the selection options just by hovering

[Anonymous]

Try this: instead of picking the circle at the top of the hole, pick the side of the hole, then roll your mouse wheel, this should give you the axis of the hole without having to create a work axis.

[Anonymous]

     Wow, I"m really glad Autodesk put some good thought into this. A simple and typical measure hole ctr to hole ctr. All I keep getting is edge to edge. Like who measures that? It would be nice if Autodesk came up with at least an easy option of switching to center to center, without having to get up and spin 3 times, clap your hands, and say booga booga, then tap on the desk twice, to get autodesk to measure center to center.

             Frustrated

[mdavis22569]

you know this is an 8 year old post ...

anyway ...

Make a screencast of what you're doing to show what you're getting.

I measure edge to edge and center to center no problem ..

[Curtis_Waguespack]

common method:

c.henry's method:

[mcgyvr]

Can't get much easier than it is..

The "trick" is using "select other" functionality properly and having a short enough select other delay so you aren't wasting time waiting for it to toggle..

Mine is set to 1 second for "select other delay" and a simple roll of the mouse wheel and I'm right into selecting centers..

IMO it would be a slight improvement if Autodesk defaulted hole measurements to pick up on the center point first vs diameter.. 

But then those that are measuring for diameter would complain that it defaults to centers first..

[SteveMDennis]

FYI, we are considering just that. Or another option is you pick the circle we show you circle info, you pick the second circle we show you info on both circles AND show you center to center distance and a button to show minimum distance as well.

We are revamping measure as we type.

[SteveMDennis]

For anyone still interested in this thread, go play with the just released alpha build in the beta program.

A lot of our measure improvements are in there.

beta.autodesk.com