[solved] Sample a distance, to paste into text field

[DerekGove]

Good Morning,

A feature that I would use regularly if it existed is the ability to 'sample' a measurement from a different part of a drawing and use it as a radius, line length, etc.

I can think of two ways that this might be achieved.

One would be to have the ability to have a 'distance to clipboard' button, where two points could be clicked, and the distance between them is stored to the clipboard, where it could then be pasted into a text field for line length, radius, etc.

Another way might be to have a 'pick' button next to such text fields, where so that while drawing a circle, line of a specific length, etc, you could click on the button, click two points, and the distance is entered into the field.

Think of this as a similar tool as the eyedropper tool in imagine/drawing software to sample a colour value.

I have looked at the Distance Point to Point tool, but it either shows the distance on screen or draws a ruler and adds text to the screen. It doesn't seem to store the value anywhere. Maybe there's a different tool I haven't come across yet.

Cheers,
Derek

[andrew]

You can proceed as follows:

- Start the tool that requires the distance
- In the options toolbar right-click into the field where you want to use the measured value
- Choose Insert Measurement and what you want to measure (e.g. Distance Point to Point)
- Measure the distance as you usually would
- QCAD enters a variable into the field (e.g. d1). This variable holds the measured value.

You can also enter multiple measured values and calculate the desired value with them, for example (d1+d2)/2, etc.

Here, we are using a measured distance for the distance of the parallel tool:

insert_measurement.png (102.1 KiB) Viewed 2517 times

[DerekGove]

Thanks Andrew, that's great.
Pretty much exactly what I was hoping for. It never occurred to me to right click in the field box.

One other thing.. I'm also often drawing an arc from a specific point, with a specific radius.
The 'Center, Radius' (CR) tool does this for circles, but I can't see an equivalent for arcs.

The Center, Point, Angles (AR) tool lets me pick the centre, which is perfect, but I cannot enter a radius.
The 2 Points and Radius tool lets me enter a radius, but only select the end points, not the centre.

Is this maybe another tool I'm overlooking, or something worth adding?

Regards.

[andrew]

You can enter the radius in the command line at the bottom when it asks you for "Point on arc or Radius".
Please post new, unrelated questions to a new forum topic, thanks.