Measure anything on your plan with the tape measure
A draggable on-canvas tape measure — snapping ends, a square-lock, an Area mode with live square footage, and measurements you can keep on the plan.
Automatic dimensions cover walls and selected furniture — but sometimes you need an arbitrary distance: sofa to TV, bed to door, island to counter. That's the tape measure: drop it anywhere, drag its ends, and read the true distance in your units.
The tape does more than lengths: its ends snap onto wall faces, corners, and the edges of furniture so you can measure a real gap exactly; it locks square (the tape turns green when it's perfectly horizontal or vertical); you can Keep a measurement so it stays on the plan; and an Area mode drags out a rectangle with live square footage — for sizing a rug, a tiled zone, or any part of a room.
Step by step
- 1
Open the tape measure
Click the Tape measure button in the canvas toolbar. A tape drops onto the plan.
Drag either end — the reading updates live in your units. - 2
Drag the ends where you need them
Grab either end and drop it on the exact spot — a furniture corner, a wall face, a doorway. Drag the middle to move the whole tape without changing its length.
- 3
Lock an end for precision
Lock one end in place and swing the other around it to compare several distances from the same reference point.
- 4
Let the ends snap
Drag an end toward a wall, a corner, or the edge of a piece of furniture and it snaps onto it, so sofa-to-wall is measured face to face, not roughly. Keep dragging in a straight line and the tape turns green when it's exactly horizontal or vertical — no accidental angle in the reading.
- 5
Measure while you rearrange
With the tape open you can still grab and move furniture. Pin one end to an object, slide another piece, and watch the distance update live.
- 6
Switch to Area mode
Tap Area on the tape (next to Length). A rectangle with four draggable corners appears; the corners snap to your walls and square up to right angles, and the square footage (or square metres) updates as you shape it — the size of a rug, a tiled zone, a closet floor.
- 7
Keep a measurement
Tap the pin (Keep this measurement) and the length or area stays on the plan after you put the tape away. Kept measurements are saved with your design, can be selected and deleted like anything else, and are shown or hidden from Layers → Show tape measurements — keeping one turns that layer on so it never disappears on you.
- 8
Close it when done
Click the tape-measure button again (or the tape's close control) to put it away. The live tape never prints; kept measurements do, when their layer is on.
Tips
Area mode is a tile and rug calculator
Drag the rectangle over the zone, read the square footage, and buy that much — then plan the exact cuts in the Tile Planner.
Keep the measurements you'll argue about
Sofa-to-TV, island clearance, the hallway width: keep them on the plan so they're in the export you send.
Check walking clearances
Stretch the tape across your main walking path — aim for at least 36 inches (90 cm) — before Smart Flow Check has to warn you.
Start designing your room
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