3D Measure & Dimensions

There's no measure tool to activate. Click any edge, face, or corner point of a solid and its measurement appears in the bar at the bottom of the view:

• a straight edge shows its length (a plain click grabs the whole connected chain and totals it; shift-click picks a single edge)
• an arc or circle shows radius, diameter, and arc length
• a face shows its area and surface type — cylindrical and spherical faces include their radius and diameter
• a corner point shows its exact X/Y/Z position

Shift-click a second entity for the minimum distance between them and the X/Y/Z offsets — plus the angle when both have a direction (two flat faces, two straight edges). Two holes also report their center-to-center distance. Keep shift-clicking for running totals: combined edge length, summed face areas, and a selection count. Click empty space (or press Esc) to clear.

Hover the readout for the full detail card: every value in both inches and millimeters, endpoints, centers, sweep angles, and perimeters, with a per-selection breakdown. Click any value — in the bar or the card — to copy it to the clipboard. The numbers start instantly and are refined by the same exact geometry engine that builds your parts; the card marks when they're exact.

Clicking a body in the browser tree reads out its exact volume, surface area, and bounding box.

The Dimension tool (toolbar → Inspect group) places permanent dimensions in 3D and works exactly like the sketch Dimension tool: what you click decides what you get, the dimension previews immediately, and a click on empty space places it. The payoff is assemblies: dimension the gap between two parts and watch it track as things move.

• a straight edge → its length, drawn as a proper dimension with witness lines; move the mouse to set the offset
• a circle → ⌀ diameter; an arc → R radius — the label rides around the rim as you move (one click in the panel switches radius↔diameter)
• a corner point → an X, Y, Z coordinate callout on a leader
• while placing, click more geometry to change the dimension: two straight edges or flat faces give the angle between them (or the distance — your choice); anything else gives the minimum distance; two corner points measure exactly point-to-point

Click empty space to place; Esc cancels; the tool stays active for the next dimension. Text always faces you and keeps its size at any zoom; values follow your Settings → Preferred Units.

Dimensions attach to the geometry itself — resize the part, move a hole, rework a feature, and every dimension re-measures and re-anchors automatically. If something a dimension referenced disappears entirely, the dimension turns amber and keeps its last-known value instead of vanishing; a Fix button in the browser (or the right-click → Re-pick References menu) walks you through picking a replacement.

Placed dimensions appear in a Dimensions section under their component:

• an eye per dimension, plus a master eye on the section to hide them all for a clean screenshot
• rename, delete, or re-pick from the right-click menu
• drag the text in the 3D view to reposition it; double-click it to edit the dimension

These 3D dimensions are annotations — they report the model, they never drive it. For dimensions that drive sketch geometry, see Dimensions.