Solved: How do you change the units the Distance tool measures by?

Anonymous · ‎08-30-2018

I was wondering if anyone can help me find the settings for units for the distance tool. I want to change the amount of units/steps it measures by. I know about changing the settings of the "working units" from centimeters to inches to feet etc. In Windows > Settings/Preferences > Preferences > Settings > Working Units but, the distance tool doesn't seem to change its units after changing "working units" settings. For instance, I change "working units" to feet and then measure out 1 foot with the distance tool (no problem) but, now if you start shrinking that distance you can see that its measuring 10 units to equal 1 ft. I would like to change it to measure by 12 units to equal 1 ft. Maybe I'm crazy but I swear I found it once but, now for the life of me, I cant find it again. If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. Thank you in advance.

sean.heasley · ‎08-31-2018

Hi @Anonymous

What I would do is set the units to inches not feet.

Then from there, go to Display->Grid and select the option box. You can then change the grid units to 100, 12, 1. This will mean each square is 12 inches long and the 1 will divide them up that way. You could also change it from 12 to 6 then each square would be 6 inches long.

Please let me know if this helps or if you need any more assistance!

All the best,

Sean Heasley
Technical Support Specialist

Anonymous · ‎08-31-2018

Thank you Sean for the reply. I have actually tried that. The problem I'm having is really trying to use the Distance tool as a ruler and having it measure in a 12 unit measurement. It seems to only measure by 10 units to equal 1 of what ever the grid measurement is set to. The weird thing is I swear I found a setting somewhere that allowed me to change the units the distance tool used to equal the 1. Its really weird because when I found it I thought "oh there it is, in the settings for the distance tool. That should be easy to find again" but, now the next day I spent literally 2 hours or more looking for it. Trying to select one locator or the other on the tool, the actual measurement and then checking combinations along with every tab and setting, in the channel box, modeling tool kit, and attribute editor to no avail and the actual Distance tool doesn't seem to have any settings it self. Maybe this is the twilight zone. What I am trying to do is model a piece of furniture and use the distance tools units as inches or portion there of for exacting measurements. If I use the grid layout for inches, then I'm left to eyeing it or if I shrink the grid layout to portions of an inch am left to counting thousands of grid lines to measure everything out. Very tedious and or inaccurate. Again thank you for your help.

Anonymous · ‎08-31-2018

I found this hope it helps

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya-lt/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/MayaL...

Anonymous · ‎08-31-2018

Thank you arlouzada for your response. Unfortunately its proving to be a little more complicated then that but, thank you though!

Anonymous · ‎08-31-2018

Hi Sean! I thought to ask, Is there a setting like that you may know of or am I crazy? If there isn't, would you have any other ideas for a way to measure on the fly to get exact inches or fractions of inches, like a ruler, with the distance tool or other?

mspeer · ‎08-31-2018

Hi!

The Distance Tool displays values based on the working units,

so with units set to mm it displays a value 1000 times larger than with units set to meter.

(You might need to click inside Viewport to force an update of the view.)

You can calculate any other units based on this value, you also can use Utility nodes to do this.

Not sure what you mean with "exact", but you can set Precisision at distanceDimensionShape:

Extra Attributes > Precisision

sean.heasley · ‎09-04-2018

Hi @Anonymous

@mspeer has the right idea and should have pointed you in the right direction.

Also did my suggestion not work the same for you? When I had my set up that I mentioned above, each square was 6 inches so 2 squares was 1 ft which should be a pretty easy way to work with your set up. That said you could also easily change it so that 1 square is 1 ft if that is what you want to work with.

All the best,

Sean Heasley
Technical Support Specialist

Anonymous · ‎09-04-2018

Thank you for the response mspeer. Maybe something is getting lost between the lines (no pun intended)but, I do understand how the Distance Tool works with values based on the working units in measurements of the scene and grid but (and this is the problem)only in a scale from 1-10 (unless there is a setting to change that which Is exactly what I want to find and thought I had at one point). What my hope was to be able to use the Distance Tool as a form of real world ruler or measuring tape. A much more useful tool, in my opinion, then whatever its intended purpose is now.

I for instance have set my scene to use feet and my grid to display a grid line every 1 unit, with subdivisions of 12, so equaling 1 measurement of foot broken down to 12 inches to form a foot. I want to create a board for my bookshelf in my scene that measures 7ft and 8 and 3/4 inches or 92 and 3/4 inches. With a useful Distance Tool or the ability to change the units that the Distance tool works or measures by to units of 12, I would then quickly and easily be able to measure out 92.75 but, with using the Distance Tool measuring units by 10 only, is much harder math. Keeping my scene in milometers or centimeters both makes it even more complicated, more math and much larger numbers needed to be measured by, not to mentioning having to struggle with the metric conversion. What if I want to measure a building and we are talking feet and meters and then inches and fraction of inches?

So a setting for the Distance Tool and its location if I'm not crazy and there is actually one would be what I would love. Or if there is some other form of ruler/ measuring tool that you know of that would work more in that way would be equally as useful. Thank you again for your help and thank you in advance for any further info.

Anonymous · ‎09-04-2018

HI Sean. Sorry in advance, I wasn't sure how to respond to both you and mspeer without doing some repeating. Unfortunately as per your question about both yours and mspeers responses I think something maybe going missing in my description so hopefully what I wrote to him may clarify it a bit more.

What I responded to him:

"Maybe something is getting lost between the lines (no pun intended)but, I do understand how the Distance Tool works with values based on the working units in measurements of the scene and grid but (and this is the problem)only in a scale from 1-10 (unless there is a setting to change that which Is exactly what I want to find and thought I had at one point). What my hope was to be able to use the Distance Tool as a form of real world ruler or measuring tape. A much more useful tool, in my opinion, then whatever its intended purpose is now.

I for instance have set my scene to use feet and my grid to display a grid line every 1 unit, with subdivisions of 12, so equaling 1 measurement of foot broken down to 12 inches to form a foot. I want to create a board for my bookshelf in my scene that measures 7ft and 8 and 3/4 inches or 92 and 3/4 inches. With a useful Distance Tool or the ability to change the units that the Distance tool works or measures by to units of 12, I would then quickly and easily be able to measure out 92.75 but, with using the Distance Tool measuring units by 10 only, is much harder math. Keeping my scene in milometers or centimeters both makes it even more complicated, more math and much larger numbers needed to be measured by, not to mentioning having to struggle with the metric conversion. What if I want to measure a building and we are talking feet and meters and then inches and fraction of inches?

So a setting for the Distance Tool and its location if I'm not crazy and there is actually one would be what I would love. Or if there is some other form of ruler/ measuring tool that you know of that would work more in that way would be equally as useful. Thank you again for your help and thank you in advance for any further info."

Does that help better describe the issue I'm having?

Again Thank you all around for your help.

sean.heasley · ‎09-04-2018

Hi @jojothemonkeyboy

Hmm ok.

I made a quick video of my set up and how I would do this so please let me know if it helps you out!

All the best,

Sean Heasley
Technical Support Specialist

Anonymous · ‎09-04-2018

Lol! Wow! Thank you so much for making a video for me! You managed to have exactly what I want and am trying to do but you have it already set up in the video. Lol. The part I cant get is how do you get it to display 12 as your 1 unit? I have everything else set up the same as far as the grid and Working units in the settings. I did notice you click on "End point" in the "Distance Dimension Shape Attributes" but you didn't seem to change anything and when I tried changing some of those settings it doesn't seem to result in anything helpful. So how did you do it?

My pictures attached show my settings and how my Distance tool is measuring.

sean.heasley · ‎09-05-2018

Hi @Anonymous

No problem! Change your subdivisions to 1. This will have every square as 1ft, if you have 12 subdivisions then every square is going to be 1 inch.

As for the End Point, I did click on it but you can't actually edit the attributes I was merely pointing out that you can't make those changes.

Once you make the subdivision change you should have an identical set up to my own and be good to go!

Please let me know if anything changes!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

All the best,

Sean Heasley
Technical Support Specialist

Anonymous · ‎09-05-2018

Oh my god! I, by accident, realized your video had sound. Really strangely your video sound wont come through my headphones like everything else including other webpages but it came out of my monitor, which my sound defaulted to because I hadn't turned on my headphones yet. The weirdest thing I have ever seen.

Anyway I rewatched and listened and then something occurred to me so, I went back to check and noticed you had set the **"Grid lines"** to 12. (sorry for the Bold and Underline and stars. I thought to make it stand out for anyone falling on this board looking for an answer) That is the key and the way to really control what the Distance tool measures by and probably why originally when I fell on it, I thought it was so simple and didn't commit it to memory. For getting the Distance tool to work in real world ways of measuring like a ruler/ measuring tape nothing else matters because the number you put in there is the number of units it measures by. The "Subdivisions" helps to layout a count or break up of whatever unit you want the Distance to measure by but that's all and I kept changing it, thinking that was going to change how the Distance tool measured. Scene settings for measurement doesn't really matter till the end or at least in trying to get the Distance tool to work as an actual ruler so whatever to that. "Grid Settings", I have like you did (which I didn't understand initially why you had so many units for the "Length and width"but, now do) the "Length and width" set to 1000 units but, now "Grid lines" set to every 12 units and then for "Subdivisions" set to 12 also. So now whats displayed is a Grid line every 12 units =12 inches or a foot (which is what the Distance tool measures) and then (as a secondary level of importance) 12 subdivisions to count out the actual 12 inches.

So stupidly simple but yet so complicatedly backwards and then twisted inside out of an idea. lol The really simple ones can be the hardest to get onse head around. Anyway thank you so much for all your help and the video. I really appreciate it.

sean.heasley · ‎09-05-2018

Hi @Anonymous

Yeah haha took a little longer that we needed to get to the answer but it happens

Glad this worked for you and you're back up and running!

All the best,

Sean Heasley
Technical Support Specialist