The Ruler tool is a distance measuring tool that enables you to measure and display the distance between two objects or elements in the scene.
The Ruler tool ( 
) is located at the top right of the Viewer window, alongside the Camera View Display toolbar options.
When you click the Ruler tool ( 
) or use the Ruler keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-R, the cursor changes to a 2D cursor ( 
).
When you click the Ruler tool ( ) and hover over an object or element in the scene, the object is highlighted in yellow by default and the name of the object
is displayed at the bottom right of the Viewer window, as shown in the following figure.
If you are working on a large scene, the highlighting of objects enables you to quickly identify and select in the scene the objects whose distance you want to measure.
When you click the Ruler tool ( ), hover over an object in the scene and click-hold the object, the cursor changes from a 2D cursor ( ) to a 3D cursor ( 
) enabling you to snap to the surface of the object. Snapping a Ruler to the surface of an object gives you a visual feedback
on where you are snapping the object.
When you click the Ruler tool ( ), hover over an element such as a light in the scene and click the light, the cursor changes from a 2D cursor ( ) to a 3D cursor ( ) enabling you to snap to the centre of the element. Unlike other elements, if you choose to snap a Ruler to a camera, the
Ruler snaps automatically to the camera film back—the camera's default rotation pivot.
When you measure the distance between two objects or elements in the scene, the measured distance is displayed by default by a yellow line with arrows at the start and end points and the measurement units above the line. This measured distance is a system Ruler "object".
Ruler "object" displayed in the scene
The distance measurement units always face the current camera view, enabling you to see the measured distance irregardless of the camera view.
Measured distance facing the Orthographic Producer Bottom view
The distance measurement units are set by default in Architectural units to match the AutoCAD default measurement units. You can change the default Ruler settings via the Ruler preference settings.
See Ruler preference settings.
The system Ruler "object" is displayed in green when selected and the Viewer window indicates it is selected by displaying __MOBU_SYS_RULER_PATH__ at the bottom right, as shown in the following figure.
Ruler "object" shown selected
The system Ruler "object" is a system Ruler path. It is not an asset nor a model object. It has no properties and therefore is not available in the Asset browser, the Navigator Scene browser, and nor in the Schematic view.
You can toggle on or off the display of the system Ruler "object" in the scene by clicking the Ruler tool ( ). Depending on what the system Ruler "object" is snapped to, it is visible in Normal, X-Ray, Models Only and Models Display Wireframe display modes.
Although you cannot save the system Ruler "object" with the scene, you can save the measured distance between two objects or elements by converting the system Ruler "object" into a Dimension object.
See Saving the measured distance between two objects in the scene..
You cannot undo an action when using the Ruler tool. You can however update the distance between two objects or elements by dragging either of the objects or elements. Standard path HUD elements are not displayed in the Viewer window when you are using the Ruler "object".
The Ruler preference settings enable you to change the default Ruler measurement units and display the settings.
You can measure the distance between two objects in the scene using the Ruler tool. When a measured distance is displayed, it is always displayed at the current camera view, enabling you to see the measured distance when working in Orthographic view (Producer Front, Producer Back, Producer Top, Producer Right, Producer Left, Producer Top, or Producer Bottom).
You can delete the Ruler via the Ruler tool ( ) arrow (context menu) or via the Ruler context menu in the scene. You can replace the Ruler via the Ruler tool context menu or by using the keyboard shortcut.
You can save with the scene the distance measured between two objects by converting the system Ruler "object" into a Dimension object.
You can change the settings of the Ruler in the Ruler preferences via the Settings Preferences menu, via the Ruler tool context menu, or via the Ruler context menu in the scene.
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