Measuring Tool

Measurable Entities

The Measuring Tool can be used with these entities:

Zones
Elements
FEM Grids
Points
Surfaces
Brep/Solids
Planes
Curves
CAD Sub-Entities including:
- Vertices, edges, and faces of breps/solids
- Vertices and sub-curves of curves

Note

For Zones and Elements, the distance is measured between centroids of these entities. For Curves, Breps, Surfaces, and Planes, the measurement is made to a point projected onto the surface of this entity.

Some combinations of entities are not compatible with each other due to the undefined nature of distance between two complex entities. Examples include:

Surface to:
- Surface (except where surfaces are flat and parallel)
- Brep/Solid
- Plane
- Curve
Plane to:
- Brep/solid
- Curve
Curve to:
- Curve (However, angles between two straight lines can be measured)

Creating Measurements

Measurements are automatically created when two (or three for certain angles) valid entities have been selected. You can open the Measuring Tool ("Measure" form) by selecting it from the Model tab of the Ribbon.

Selecting Entities to Measure

After opening the Measuring Tool, begin clicking on entities to create Measurements. You can select entities with any of HyperX's selection methods. Entities can be selected from the Trees (FEM, Structure, and/or CAD) or the Viewport.

Note

When selecting from the Viewport, the active selection mode determines which type of entities can be added to the Measuring Tool.

By default, the Measuring Tool is actively listening for any selections made in the Viewport or Trees. This can be turned off by clicking the "Ignore Viewport and Tree Selection" button.

The selected entity is inserted to the Measuring Tool at the highlighted cell. By default, the form advances to the next available cell after an entity is clicked.

This allows for many Measurements to be made in rapid succession just by clicking in the Viewport. Also, any Measurement can be changed at any time by clicking the cell in the form and then clicking a new entity in the Viewport or Tree.

Important

You must select at least two entities to find a Measurement. If any entity you select is not compatible with the first (see "Measurable Entities" above), it will not be added to the Measuring Tool when selected.

Angle Measurements are created similarly. You can either find the angle between three points or between two lines.

Measuring with Sub-Entities

Measurements created with CAD sub-entities (such as edges, vertices, and faces) have different saving behavior because they are not uniquely defined entities in the HyperX interface.

Creating Measurements with these entities is the same as above. However, to save these Measurements after closing the form, reference entities must be created and saved to the Database.

This is done automatically by HyperX when you choose "yes" on the prompt below. The sub-entity will be extracted, added to the CAD Tree, and referenced by the Measuring Tool. Selecting "No" will simply discard the Measurements that reference a sub-entity.

After selecting "Yes" you can see the Measuring Tool and CAD Tree update to show the new reference entity.

Managing Measurements

Measurements are saved to the Database after they are created and will persist after the form is closed.

Once created, Measurements can be selected in either the Viewport or the Measuring Tool. When a Measurement is selected, the entire corresponding row is highlighted, and the Measurement becomes highlighted in the Viewport. By right-clicking on the row in the form, you can select the entities used to make the Measurement or delete the Measurement.