How to Measure With the Tape Measure

The Tape Measure tool is the fastest way to record a distance on the plan. It has four modes, so you can pick the one that matches what you actually need — a quick reference mark, two marks that stay as snap targets, an "end of the run" mark, or a permanent dimension line with a label.

Compared to the Dimension tool, the Tape Measure is broader-purpose: it owns both the temporary marks (the small diamonds used as snap targets) AND the permanent tape dim line. Reach for it when you're sizing up a layout. Reach for the Dimension tool when you're committing to a callout on the printed sheet.

Open the tool

• Desktop: click the Tape Measure icon in the left toolbar (D-shape tape icon), or press M or T.
• Mobile: tap the same icon in the toolbar. The precision pad opens at the bottom of the canvas.

The default mode is Dimension line — the most-used variant. Switch modes from the Tape Measure defaults panel (see "Picking a mode" below).

The four modes

Mode	What a click does	What it leaves behind
Single mark	One click drops one diamond at the cursor.	A measurement mark — a small diamond that other tools can snap to. No pair, no line.
Mark pair	Two clicks drop a diamond at each.	Two measurement marks linked by their order. No line drawn.
End mark only	Two clicks; only the second drops a diamond.	One measurement mark at the end click. Useful when the starting point is implicit.
Dimension line	Two clicks place start and end of a permanent dimension.	A Tape Dim entity — line + distance label — that prints, saves, syncs, and undoes.

Measurement marks (the diamonds) are not dimensions — they don't carry a label, they don't print as callouts, and they don't show on a takeoff. They're snap nodes. Use them to record reference points while you're roughing in a layout.

A Tape Dim (from Dimension line mode) is the persistent one. It's drawn on the canvas, it prints with the floor plan, and you can right-click or long-press it later to duplicate or delete it.

Picking a mode

The mode picker lives in the Tape Measure — Defaults panel on the right rail (desktop) or in the bottom sheet (mobile). The panel shows up while the Tape Measure tool is active and nothing is selected.

The four mode chips at the top of the panel are: Single mark, Mark pair, End mark only, Dimension line. Click one to switch. A short explainer line underneath restates what the active mode does, so you can verify before you click on the canvas.

When Dimension line is the active mode, the panel also exposes line color, label color, label size, end style (architectural ticks or engineering arrows), and a Show label toggle. Those defaults apply to every new tape dim you place; they don't retroactively change ones already on the canvas. (You can edit a placed tape dim's style from its entity panel after selecting it.)

Placing a tape dim (Dimension line mode)

This is the workflow most people land on, so it gets its own walkthrough.

1. Activate the Tape Measure tool (M or T, or the toolbar icon).
2. Confirm the mode chip says Dimension line.
3. Click the start point on the canvas. The endpoint snaps to nearby wall corners, fixture corners, tape dim endpoints, measurement marks, or guides — see Endpoint snapping and hover for the snap rules.
4. Move the cursor toward the end point. While you're between clicks, the second endpoint snaps to horizontal or vertical within roughly seven degrees of the start, so casual horizontal / vertical dims lock cleanly. Hold Ctrl to override the H/V snap.
5. Click the end point. The dim commits — a line is drawn between the two points with a distance label centred on the line, and the new tape dim becomes the selection (so you can immediately tune its style or delete it).

The line color, label color, and end style use whatever's set in the defaults panel at the time of the click. If you change them afterward, only new tape dims get the new defaults.

Dropping measurement marks (the diamond modes)

1. Activate the Tape Measure tool.
2. Switch the mode chip to Single mark, Mark pair, or End mark only.
3. Click on the canvas. Each click follows the mode's rule from the table above.
4. The diamonds appear and immediately become snap targets for the wall tool, the tape measure tool itself, and other measured drawing.

Measurement marks live in their own layer — the Measurement Marks layer toggle in the entity panel hides or shows every mark in the room at once. They're also part of the snap target list under Settings → Snapping ("Measurement marks" target).

Cancel mid-placement

• Desktop: press Esc to cancel an in-progress click pair before the second click.
• Mobile: the Tape Measure precision pad has its own Cancel control.

Switching tools mid-placement also cancels the pending pair — nothing commits without the second click.

When to use which tool

Job	Tool to reach for
Quick "how far is this?" on the canvas	Tape Measure, Single mark or Dimension line depending on whether you want a callout
Snap-node reference for a tricky alignment	Tape Measure, Single mark or Mark pair
Permanent dim that goes on the printed sheet	Tape Measure, Dimension line mode (the most common case)
Callout with a lock-value behaviour	Dimension tool

Tips

• The default mode is Dimension line — keep it there if your usage is mostly permanent dims, and the tool acts the way most users expect.
• Marks dropped by Mark pair are linked by their order (the second one's origin points back to the first). Other features that consume marks can use the link, but visually the marks look identical to lone marks.
• Tape dims and measurement marks both feed inference — when you draw a wall later, your cursor will snap onto alignments through them. See Inference and alignment.
• Tape dims are theme-aware: the default purple line color reads well in both light and dark mode, and you can override per-instance from the entity panel.