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Blender 2.67: 3d Ruler For Precision Modeling With Blender

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Aside from the 3D Printing Toolbox, Blender 2.67 has another cool feature coming up that'll make precision modeling much easier. Check out this video by Blender 3D Architect. I'm getting REALLY excited about this release :)

Alan Britto writes:

A new feature of Blender will probably help architectural visualization artists that want even more control over precision modeling. A 3d ruler and protractor were added to the latest builds of Blender and will most likely be available on the next stable release (2.67). If you want to check this new feature right away, you can download the latest build of Blender from the Blender BuildBot. Just a warning, those are Blender builds that are not considered stable, so be aware of bugs and potential problems. Do not use them for important projects!

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About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

33 Comments

  1. Wow, this means I don't need to calculate slope and convert to degrees anymore? This is a fantastic addon. Will definitely save some time. Thank you!

  2. Awesome! I've been waiting for something like this for ages.
    I would have been happy with just the ruler, but a protractor to boot? Nice.
    Looks simple and user-friendly, just the way I like it. Can't wait for 2.67.
    Great job guys, keep it up!

  3. Michael Glen Montague on

    What a coincidence, just a while ago I was charting out my house in Blender. The whole time I was wishing that features like this were in it.

  4. sojournerman1 on

    a couple of abilities i would like to be added to this would be the ability to select 2 faces and it automatically gives the angle (like i can do in solidworks)the same with edges select edge, measurement of edge pops up. simple??
    also would be cool to be able to use this to change the actual size of said edge or angle on the fly(parametric?)
    awesome stuff

  5. Extremely useful for my day to day work. Great job.

    A couple of sugestions/wishes:

    - Precision: Two decimal places should be enough for most cases. Could this be configured?

    - Dynamic dimensions. Could dimension be linked to their verts so when verts are moved (stretching walls, etc) they show the new messure in real time?

    Blender is getting really exciting.

  6. After my disappointment with Macouno's "Caliper" this is a welcome addition. It's elegant and easy to use while Caliper is terribly clunky. I supported the Caliper crowd-sourcing campaign but have been horribly disappointed with what appears to have turned out to be a half-hearted attempt. The new tool doesn't appear to provide a render-able dimension but that's much less important to me than the measuring abilities. I can make much better looking dimensions than Caliper creates by modeling them myself and filling in the numbers with a simple text object.

  7. Mr. Barton you are the bestest.
    In my opinion the measuring tool is about one of the most important features that the interface lacked so far.
    Using blender for archviz will be much more reliable even if its just checkmeasuing things in 3d in case colleagues ask for distances or overall consistency of exported CAD meshes.
    Best thing since sliced bread for me!
    Happy Easter everyone!!!

  8. cloudform511 on

    Was this done in C or in Python? Is something like this even possible to do in python, or does it require reaching into the guts of blender?

  9. Hi, I think the ruler is a great extension, much nicer and elegant than the caliper... It is dealing with a big lack of Blender's functionality that many users desire.
    I have some suggestions/comments to make it better fulfill its purpose:
    - Snap is not working. There is no way I can get a precise measurement between two objects. Even though I see the circle when I release the ruler end does not adjust its position. It also seems snap is active on the edges, and I think it will be more useful if it worked only with vertexes.
    - Precision. As mentioned in a previous point, precision should be configurable.
    - Lack of editing capability. This is a suggestion to give a workaround to the previous points: the user should be able to "override" the measurement and type the right dimension (when the grid is used for precision work, we know what the right dimension should be). This ideally could be made by double clicking on the measurement line, and make a Ctrl+Click (or another key combination) to transform the ruler to measure angles.
    Thanks!

    • One last suggestion: the text should be above or bellow the measurement line. Right now the line crosses the text and make it harder to read.

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