Drawboard Projects: Measurements

Available on: Web app, Windows app, iOS app

Use the measurement tools to get accurate length and area measurements from your drawings, calibrating these to a specific scale if required.

In this Article

1. Using Scales in Drawboard Projects
2. Using Common Scales
3. Creating Custom Scales
4. Calibrating Measurement Scales from a Drawing
5. Re-using Already Created Custom Scales
6. Editing Custom Scales
7. Taking Linear Measurements
8. Taking Area Measurements
9. Adding Measurement Tools to the Favorites Bar

Using Scales in Drawboard Projects

Drawboard Projects is used by customers to review everything from A4-sized sheets all the way up to huge 6' x 12' engineering drawings.

The measuring tools in Projects need to be able to display accurate measurements for any drawing size, so we've made it easy to use, create and calibrate scales to match drawing dimensions to real-world dimensions. Some of our customers use metric scales and others use fractional imperial scales, so we provide support for both.

Until you select (or create) a different scale, all measurements taken on a drawing will use a default scale of 1:1 (i.e. 1mm on the drawing represents 1mm in the real world).

Using Common Scales

Many drawings in the architecture, construction and engineering industries are drawn to scales that are relatively common to practitioners in those industries. In Projects, it's quick and easy to take measurements using these common scales, so you shouldn't need to create custom scales for most drawings.

Taking a measurement using a common scale

The common scales listed below are available for all measurement tools, and can be selected within the tool panel.

Common Imperial Scales

Common Metric Scales

Tip: If you want to take measurements at any of these scales with a different display unit or precision, create a custom scale with the settings that you want

Creating Custom Scales

If your drawing doesn't use a common scale, or you want to use a different display unit or precision, you can easily create a custom scale that will be available to all users viewing this drawing.

To create a custom scale:

1. Select a measurement tool (Linear, Rect Area or Poly Area, from the Measure tab of the tool drawer)
2. In the Scale section of the tool panel, click or tap the Add/Calibrate button
3. Select the Display Unit you wish to use when measurements are taken using this scale
   (e.g. selecting "Fractional feet and inches" will display any measurement taken on the drawing with this scale in a 1'-4" format)
4. Set the Scale

   Tip: In the iOS app, you'll need to click Scale to enter another dialogue before following the steps below

   1. Enter the Drawing measurement value and select the appropriate unit
      (e.g. type 1 and select "in" for a Drawing measurement of 1")
   2. Enter the corresponding Physical distance value and select the appropriate unit
      (e.g. type 20 and select 'ft' for a Physical distance value of 20')
5. Select the Precision you wish to take measurements with using this scale
   (e.g. if you wish to be able to take a metric measurement like 8.75m, select 0.01. If you wish to be able to take an imperial measurement like 30' 9 3⁄4", select 1⁄4")
6. Change the scale Title if you wish to make it more meaningful, or leave the default (which includes the scale values and the name of the team member who created the scale)
7. Click or tap Save to save this scale and begin taking measurements using the measurement tool
8. Once your scale has been created, it will then be available in the Scale list for that drawing, for everyone on the project to use for any measurement annotations (so make sure it is calibrated correctly and labelled well!)

Creating a custom scale

Calibrating Measurement Scales from a Drawing

If the scale of the drawing is not listed in the title block, a scale can be created using Projects' Calibrate tool, so that scaled measurements can be taken accurately. This tool lets you use a section of the drawing with a known measurement to create a scale.

To calibrate a measurement scale from a drawing, follow the steps above in Creating Custom Scales, but instead of typing a value into the Drawing measurement field, click the Calibrate button.

To complete the calibration, pan to a section of the drawing with a known measurement (e.g. a 300mm or 15' length measurement already shown on the drawing) and zoom in. Then, click or tap and drag on the canvas to trace the known measurement.

Re-using Already Created Custom Scales

In Projects, custom scales are linked to drawings or documents, and a drawing or document only needs to be calibrated one time by one team member. As long as they save the scale, it will be available to all other team members who view or mark up this drawing.

Editing Custom Scales

Any team member who is a Collaborator is able to edit custom scales. Editing a custom scale will update any measurements that have been taken on the document using that scale to reflect the new values.

Only custom scales can be edited (common scales cannot be edited), and currently custom scales cannot be deleted.

Tip: Editing a custom scale changes this scale for all team members taking measurements on this drawing, so be careful!

Taking Linear Measurements

To take a linear measurement:

1. Select the Linear tool (from the Measure tab of the tool drawer)
2. Select the appropriate scale for this measurement from the Scale section of the tool panel
3. Click or tap and drag on the canvas to take the measurement (holding the shift key down while drawing to constrain movement may make this easier)

The color, opacity and width of a measurement line can be changed, and the font size will change to match the width.

Tip: When a measurement is selected, the scale used to take it will be shown underneath.

Taking Area Measurements

Projects can measure rectangle areas using the Rect Area tool, and more complex polygonal areas using the Poly Area tool.

To take an rectangle area measurement:

1. Select the Rect Area tool (from the Measure tab of the tool drawer)
2. Select the appropriate scale for this measurement from the Scale section of the tool panel
3. Click or tap and drag on the canvas to take the measurement (holding the shift key down while drawing to constrain movement may make this easier)

To take a polygonal area measurement:

1. Select the Poly Area tool (from the Measure tab of the tool drawer)
2. Select the appropriate scale for this measurement from the Scale section of the tool panel
3. Click or tap on the canvas to start the measurement
4. Click or tap on the canvas to add more points to the polygon (holding the shift key down while drawing to constrain movement may make this easier)
5. Click or tap on the origin point to complete the measurement

The color, opacity and width of a measurement outline can be changed, as can the fill color and opacity, and the font size will change to match the width.

Adding Measurement Tools to the Favorites Bar

Measurement tools, like any other tool, can be added to the favorites bar so they are easily accessible. We recommend only favoriting measurement tools that use common scales, as these will work on any drawing. Since scales are stored per drawing, a favorited measurement tool using a custom scale will only work correctly and take correctly scaled measurements on the original drawing on which it was created.