Measuring Angled Lines

[stillblue]

If I have angled lines in Illustrator CS2, how do I accurately measure the length of these lines? Using the measurement tool isn't accurate enough (I'm looking at 12+ inch lines and need to be accurate down to the 1/1000 of an inch). Thanks!

 

[kim00]

Stillblue - I'm not sure if this is a ridiculous idea but I remember learning that to find the length of the hypotenuse (or the angle in your case) you use the formula a-squared plus b-squared = c-squared. If you open the Info box in Illustrator and click on your angle you'll get the dimensions for a and b. If you square them each and add them together that will give you c-squared. You then take the square root of that and it will give you the precise length of your angle.

...kim

 

[dmacster]

Or copy and paste them into a blank document and rotate to horizontal and see the measurment from the info box - no affectation of the original then.

 

[itchybug]

In CS2, Window>Document Info>Objects will give you path length.

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[itchybug]

In addition, I posted a longer but kinda cool way in the wrong thread (the one about white space around momma).

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[phoeniceus]

Stillblue, are you sure the measure tool won't cut it? I've created triangles, measured individual line segments from point to point, then copied the individual segments and rotated them to perfectly straight, either vertical or horizontal, and the difference between the info box measurement on the individual lines and the numbers off the measure tool is never more than 1/1000 of a point out.

 

[stillblue]

I've decided to try out CADtools to see if that might be the appropriate solution. Having to create triangles to check angled lines would be too time-consuming (it's a repetitive process I have to do). And, unfortunately, rotating them perfectly horizontally or vertically won't work, as I have not created the files, so I don't know what angles they were rotated to. Otherwise those all would be great suggestions. Thanks a lot for the help!

 

[itchybug]

Stillblue:

Did you try the Window>Document Info>Objects operation? It works perfectly...

Bert

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[phoeniceus]

Sorry, Stillblue, I didn't explain well. I didn't mean it only works on closed paths, simply that I test-measured individual line segments on triangular closed paths because that would be a stiffer challenge, and rotating the copied individual line segments and rotating them to perfectly vertical or horizontal was simply to check my original measure on the closed path segment. Once you have the straight vertical or horizontal line, the info window gives you a very accurate measure of the line's length and, as I indicated, I've never seen the measure tool on an angled line be out by more than 1/1000 of a point from the info window's measurement of the same line rotated to square. I like it because I hate creating needless work for myself.