Learn/Mill/Picking & measuring
Quick Measure
Updated v2.4.3At a glance
- With no operation open, click the model to measure—the same Quick Measure as Drafting
- Length, radius and diameter, area, min distance and ΔX/ΔY/ΔZ between two picks, angles
- Point mode: click points on toolpaths or the model for coordinates, distances, chains and perimeters
- Coordinates read in the active setup's zero—the same numbers your G-code uses
- A hover popover shows every value in both inches and millimetres, click to copy
- Values appear instantly, then refine to fully exact precision a moment later
Quick Measure lets you check the part without leaving Mill or opening an operation. With no operation active, the viewport behaves just like Drafting's: hover highlights edges and faces, and clicking selects them — whole chains, single edges with Shift, faces, or several at once.
Instant readout
Selected geometry shows measurement chips right in the View HUD — length, radius and diameter, area, minimum distance and ΔX/ΔY/ΔZ between two selections, and angles. A hover popover breaks out every value in both inches and millimetres, with click-to-copy.
Point mode — measure the toolpath itself
The point button on the View HUD switches on point mode, and then clicking anywhere in the scene drops a measuring point. One point reads out its coordinate, two give the distance and the ΔX/ΔY/ΔZ offsets, and three or more give a chain length and a closed perimeter with every segment broken out in the hover popover.
The useful part in Mill is that points snap onto generated toolpaths, not just the model. So questions you'd otherwise have to post the file to answer become a couple of clicks:
- what's the real stepover between these two adjacent passes?
- how tight is the tool actually turning in that corner?
- how far does the cut sit off the wall with this stock-to-leave?
Points also snap to model vertices, edge endpoints and midpoints, and arc and circle centers, with a marker showing where the point will land before you click. Hold ⌘/Ctrl for a free point anywhere on a surface. Clicking bare surface still selects the face, so a point and a face can be measured against each other in one selection.
Points are numbered P1, P2, P3…; click one to remove it, Backspace removes the last, Esc clears them, and a second Esc switches the mode off.
Coordinates match your G-code
Every coordinate in the readout — clicked points, vertices, face and arc centers — is reported relative to the active setup's zero, so what you read is what your program will call that position. Document coordinates are shown alongside in the hover popover, so there's never any ambiguity about which frame a number is in.
Exact numbers
Values appear instantly from the on-screen geometry so there's never a wait, then refine to fully exact measurements a moment later — the same precision Drafting's Quick Measure gives, so you can trust a diameter or a wall thickness before you program the cut.
Clicked points measure from the on-screen geometry, which is accurate to the display tolerance — plenty for stepover and clearance checks, and exact for point-to-point distances.