Drawing Measurement Tool

A comprehensive floor plan analysis tool for measuring distances, placing AV equipment objects, and visualizing layouts with elevation views. Upload images, calibrate scale, and plan your AV installations with precision.

The Workspace

The tool is laid out in five bands, top to bottom. Everything you need sits in one of them, and nothing floats over the drawing except the zoom controls.

• Title bar — file commands on the left (Open, Save, Load, Export), then a breadcrumb reading customer / project / floorplan for the drawing you have open. The last slot names the room instead when no floorplan is active, and any part the drawing is not linked to is left out. After the breadcrumb come the drawing scale, once calibrated, and whether your work is saved. Remove image sits on the right.
• Ribbon — five groups: TOOLS (Select, Pan, Scale, Measure, Draw, Sizer), ANNOTATE (Text, Multileader, Dimension), OBJECTS (the Objects and Custom menus, and Copy Equip), MODIFY (Move, Align V, Align H, Center Z, Align Plans, Clear All), and the two mode switches — VIEW (Plan or Sheets) and PLAN (Floor or Ceiling). Whichever half of a switch is on is filled white, so you can see where you are from across the room. PLAN dims and stops responding in Sheets view, because floor and ceiling are plan views — it keeps showing the plan you will come back to.
• EQUIPMENT dock (left) — the room-by-room equipment list, with a filter box, an Unplaced only checkbox, and a progress bar showing how much of the estimate is on a plan.
• PANELS dock (right) — four palettes stacked in one rail, each folding on its own: PROPERTIES (the selected object's properties, plus Duplicate, Delete and Deselect), MEASUREMENTS, SHEET, and LAYERS on the bottom edge. Click a palette's header to fold it — the header stays, with its summary: what is selected, and how many layers are shown. Properties takes the leftover height and scrolls; the other three stay the size of their contents, so nothing moves when you click a different device. Every property is one row: name on the left, value on the right, slider beneath where one applies. Fields run in the same order in every panel — identity, then width, depth and height, then height off the floor, then eye height, then rotation — so the same measurement is always in the same place. Typing in a value or dragging a slider updates the drawing as you go and records a single undo step when you release.
• Status bar — what the current tool expects you to do next, the live cursor position on the plan, and progress while a PDF renders.

Either dock folds away with the arrow in its header, and the tool remembers which docks you left closed the next time you open a drawing.

Overview

The Drawing Measurement Tool provides:

• Upload floor plan images (PNG, JPG)
• Scale calibration with Shift snap to 45° angles
• Measure distances in inches/feet with running totals
• Place displays and cameras with configurable properties
• 360° rotation control via slider and direct input
• Multi-select, copy/paste, and duplicate objects
• Elevation preview with orthographic projection
• Session persistence for work-in-progress

Getting Started

Navigate to Drawing Measure from the main menu. There are two ways to start:

Upload a New Floor Plan

1. Open — Click to upload a floor plan image (PNG or JPG) from your computer
2. The image loads into the canvas viewer with automatic fit-to-view

Load from an Existing Project

1. Load — Click to open a previously saved drawing from a project
2. Select a Project from the left column (only projects with saved drawings are shown)
3. Select a Room from the right column
4. Click Load — the floor plan, calibration, objects, and measurements are all restored

Saving Your Work

• Save — Quick-save to the currently linked project and room
• Save As — Save to a different project and room, or create a new link

Exporting

• Export — Export the floor plan or elevation as PNG or PDF
• The dropdown includes: Floor Plan (PNG/PDF), Elevation (PNG/PDF), Multi-View Sheet, and Title Block settings

Calibration

Before measuring or placing objects, calibrate the scale using a known dimension:

1. Click Scale in the ribbon's TOOLS group
2. Click the first point of a known distance (e.g., door width)
3. Click the second point - hold Shift to snap to 45° angles
4. Enter the actual dimension in inches in the popup
5. Click Apply to calibrate

Measuring Distances

Once calibrated, measure any distance on the floor plan:

1. Click Measure in the ribbon's TOOLS group
2. Click the start point
3. Click the end point (Shift snaps to 45° angles)
4. Measurement appears on canvas and in the MEASUREMENTS palette of the right dock

On the plan, a measurement is a green line with a dot at each end. Its length sits in a green box at the middle of the line, written in decimal inches, such as 63.20". The Floor Plan (PNG) and Floor Plan (PDF) exports and the sheets print it exactly the same way. They used to print it differently, as a blue line labelled in feet and inches, so a printed measurement now reads the same as the one on screen.

The MEASUREMENTS palette displays:

• Individual measurements in inches and feet/inches
• Running total of all measurements
• Remove individual measurements with the X button

Navigation Controls

• Pan - Drag to move the view, or use the Pan tool button
• Zoom - Scroll wheel to zoom in/out
• Fit - Click Fit in the zoom controls floating over the canvas to centre and scale the image
• Cursor position - The status bar shows where the cursor is on the plan, in feet and inches, once calibrated
• Image dimensions - Shown on the Underlay B&W row of LAYERS

Layers

The LAYERS palette of the right dock controls what the canvas draws. Each row is a click to turn on or off, and the eye icon shows its current state; most rows also show a count of what they affect.

• Canvas labels - Show or hide object labels on the plan. This is a screen setting only — each object's own label checkbox decides what prints in exports
• Annotations - Show or hide the text notes, leaders and dimensions on this plan. While hidden they cannot be selected. This hides them in Plan view only — a viewport already on a sheet keeps its own Annotations chip, and the Floor Plan exports always show them. A viewport framed while this row is off starts with its chip off, and a sheet viewport's own Annotations chip hides them from that viewport (see Annotations)
• Electrical - Switch between the AV and electrical views
• AV devices - Hide the AV devices on screen while electrical, custom objects and drawn geometry stay. Exports always draw the devices, whatever this is set to
• Underlay - Fades the layer you're not currently viewing so you can still see it underneath: equipment objects fade when you switch to the Electrical layer, and electrical objects fade when you switch back
• Underlay B&W - Convert the background image to grayscale, reducing colour distractions. This row also shows the image's pixel dimensions
• Fade - The slider beneath the Underlay B&W row (0-80%) applies a white overlay to dim the background image
• Floor/Ceiling Underlay - Ghosts the other plan's objects in grey with no labels; ghosts can't be dragged, deleted, or edited. The one exception is Shift-click, which arms a ghost as an alignment reference (see Aligning Floor and Ceiling Plans below). Each plan remembers its own setting, and the row stays disabled until this plan is calibrated and the other plan has an image, with the tooltip naming whichever is missing
• Ghost strength - The slider beneath the Floor/Ceiling Underlay row (10-80%, default 35%) sets how strongly BOTH underlays draw — the Underlay row's faded layer and the Floor/Ceiling ghosts. It enables while either underlay is on, and exports draw ghosts at the same strength the canvas shows
• Annotation defaults - The section at the foot of the palette, below the Grid row. It is not a layer you show or hide. It holds two lists that set how big the writing on this drawing is. Both are printed sizes: the height of the letters on paper when the plan prints at 1/4" = 1'-0", a quarter inch of paper for each foot of the room. Text size is the size new text notes, leaders and dimensions start at (3/32" to start with). Label size is the height of every label, the short text an object shows beside itself such as a device's name, on devices, arcs, rectangles and measurements (1/8" to start with). Each list offers 3/32", 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4". A new Label size redraws every label at once, on screen, on sheets and in exports. A new Text size leaves the notes, leaders and dimensions already placed as they are. Both are saved with the floor plan when you click Save, and the Floor and Ceiling plans share one setting. If you change Size in a note's, leader's or dimension's own panel, the next one of that kind uses that size instead, until you reload the page (see Annotations)

Aligning Floor and Ceiling Plans

Align Plans is in the ribbon's MODIFY group, not in Layers — it moves one plan's ghosts to match the other rather than turning a layer on or off.

If the floor and ceiling images were cropped differently, ghosts can land in the wrong spot. Click Align Plans, click a reference point on the Floor plan, then click that same point on the Ceiling plan — the tool switches plans for you between the two clicks. Press Esc at any point to cancel. Once aligned, a Clear button appears next to it to reset the offset. Replacing either plan's image clears the alignment automatically.

Aligning Objects Across Plans

To line one plan's object up with an object on the other plan: turn the Floor/Ceiling Underlay on, then Shift-click the ghost you want to align to — it takes the same REF diamond a first-selected object does. With one or more of this plan's objects selected, Align V and Align H in the ribbon's MODIFY group move them to the ghost's line. The ghost — the other plan's real object — never moves. Shift-clicking the same ghost again, clicking anywhere without Shift, switching plans, or turning the underlay off all drop the reference.

Not sure which way something will move? Hover either align button first: a dashed guide line, a faded copy of each object at its destination, and a direction arrow preview the move — for same-plan alignments too. The preview clears when the mouse leaves the button.

2' × 2' Grid Overlay

After calibration, a repositionable grid overlay helps align equipment placement:

1. Click the Grid row in LAYERS to show the 2-foot grid overlay
2. Hold Alt and drag anywhere to reposition the grid
3. Align the grid origin (blue crosshair) with a known corner or wall
4. Click the padlock on the Grid row to prevent accidental movement

Grid Controls — all on the Grid row, which appears once the plan is calibrated:

• Grid row - Toggle grid visibility on/off; the row shows the spacing
• Padlock - Lock or unlock the grid position
• Reset - Return the grid to its origin (only shown when unlocked)

Next Steps

Once your floor plan is loaded and calibrated, explore these features:

• Placing Objects - Add displays, cameras, speakers, and data ports
• Draw Tools - Draw arcs and rectangles for annotations
• Import DXF/DWG Objects — Import custom CAD objects from DXF or DWG files
• Display Sizer - Calculate optimal screen sizes based on viewer positions
• Object Management - Select, move, align, and duplicate objects
• Elevations on Sheets - Heights and leaders, edited in place
• Reference - Keyboard shortcuts and best practices