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). Smooth chains follow across face boundaries — clicking the lower edge of a modeled chamfer band reads the full ring's length even though every segment belongs to a different face
• 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.

Clicking geometry answers questions about things. Point mode answers questions about places. Switch it on with the point button on the view bar, then click anywhere in the scene:

• one point → its exact coordinate
• two points → the distance between them plus the X/Y/Z offsets
• three or more → a running chain length and a closed perimeter, with every individual segment listed in the hover card

Points snap to what you'd actually want to measure to: sketch points — line endpoints and midpoints, arc and circle centers, arc endpoints, polyline vertices, and standalone points — plus model vertices, edge endpoints and midpoints, and arc centers. A marker follows the cursor showing exactly where the point will land and whether it's snapping, so you're never guessing. Hold ⌘/Ctrl to drop a free point anywhere on a surface instead.

Sketch points were never selectable for measurement before — only body edges and their corners were. So the natural move now works: hide the body and measure the sketch underneath it.

Clicking bare surface still selects the face as usual, which means points and geometry mix in one selection — click a point, then click a face, and you get the distance between them.

Points are numbered P1, P2, P3… in the view so the segment list reads clearly. Click a placed point to remove it, Backspace removes the most recent, Esc clears them all, and a second Esc switches point mode back off. Everything else about the readout is unchanged: dual units, click-to-copy, and the full breakdown on hover.

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.