can i measure distance between arbitrary points without creating a sketch element?

paul_1

sometimes i'l looking at a drawing and am interested in the distance between two points either or both of which might not be part of a defined feature.

is it possible (keyboard shortcut of some sort?) to get the distance between a selected point and the mouse cursor?  this would take care of what i want most of the time.  the distance between two non-feature points would be harder, obviously.

fastwayjim

Not that I know of, since measurements are only (automatically) shown once something is selected.

Can you share a screenshot? Maybe there is another way to get what you need quickly...

paul_1

okay, thanks.  i don't have a particular screenshot, because i don't have a particular example.  it's just a general wish.  if you were holding a part in your hand, you might pick up a ruler to see roughly how big some feature was.  ("what if i wanted to cover a third of this face -- about how thick would the frobnitz need to be?")  clearly i can do the same by adding and then deleting a point, but i was hoping to just pick dimensions off the screen without doing that.  no big deal.

paul_1

why is this marked "answered"?  "not that i know of" is not an answer.   "no" would be an answer.