Measurement Tool (Bug?)

[Wamma]

When holding the shift key to snap the measurement tool to horizontal and vertical movement, the line will get longer as the cursor moves perpendicularly away from it (this should not happen). The picture shows what is happening, and the expected result is that the length of the measurement bar should not change. This makes it difficult to measure things that are not directly aligned with each other.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I see what is happening. The shift key is used to restrain the dimension line to horizontal, but also to 45° or 90° so when you move the mouse cursor off the horizontal the measurement is showing the diagonal distance of where the line will end up if you release the shift key.

It is not too difficult to measure a horizontal distance between two points on a plan that are not in a horizontal line. In this floor plan, the depth of the bay window is shown.



Draw the dimension line horizontally, aligning approximately by eye and adjust the nodes afterwards for greater precision. The text label, the start and end points, and the dimension line's position (i.e. the length of the extenders) can be adjusted after drawing. Zoom in for greater precision, and watch the mouse cursor change to make sure you don't start drawing a new line instead of resizing the existing line.

By using a large offset in the Dimension Line's properties, and using the dialogue to adjust the extension and leader line length, you can get a better result.

[Wamma]

Obviously you can work around the bug. The point is that the shift key restraining measurement along a certain direction is broken. Acrobat does not behave this way.