Scaling and measurements?

[Planeschemer]

Hey there, New member here coming from the forum trolling shadows. I am looking to scale documents and insert measurements like the attached photo. Is Photoshop capable of making measurement insertion like this easy? I am semi familiar with the measuring tool and scaling. Any help or direction to a program to make this happen would be much appreciated!

 

[dv8_fx]

Yes, it is possible with the line and text tools. At first it may seem awkward but once you get used to the tools and get a work flow habit going , it would be easy.

One trick I'd use is to prepare a variety of measurement lines (ie. horizontal, vertical, long, short) complete with arrow pointers and section lines in another document. And simply drag what line set I may need into work file. You may have to cut to shorten or copy to lengthen lines as needed or rotate the lines to the angle of the objects.

 

[Tom Mann]

Is there a reason to do this in PS, vs importing your image into some engineering drawing program that is has dimensioning as one of its basic functions?

For something this simple, almost any such program would work. It could range from simple / free ones through software like Google Sketchup, all the way up to AutoCAD, ProE, etc.

T

 

[ALB68]

Corel Draw has this feature FYI, plus it is very accurate as it uses mathematics to calculate the distances. No way to be this accurate using Photoshop. PS is the wrong application for what your wanting to do.

 

[Planeschemer]

Thanks guys that is pretty much what I was looking for. I will look into Corel Draw.

 

[Planeschemer]

Corel Draw has this feature FYI, plus it is very accurate as it uses mathematics to calculate the distances. No way to be this accurate using Photoshop. PS is the wrong application for what your wanting to do.

The reason is because I know PS better than any other program. Being self taught I haven't explored quite as many programs as I would like but you've got to start somewhere. I will be installing a trial of Corel Draw and Corel CAD. Which of these programs has the most intuitive measurement features?

 

[ALB68]

The reason is because I know PS better than any other program. Being self taught I haven't explored quite as many programs as I would like but you've got to start somewhere. I will be installing a trial of Corel Draw and Corel CAD. Which of these programs has the most intuitive measurement features?

I can't give an accurate answer as I have never used Corel CAD. It also depends on what your overall goal is as far as which to get. If your just planning on doing general graphics I would say the Draw suite. It is rather pricey for the new X6 boxed retail product, but if your not looking have the latest and greatest,,look around for a older version, say X4 or X5. You can find them on Ebay but be careful and don't let someone palm off an academic version on you. I bought a fully licensed suite for less than a $100 off Ebay but is was X4 and this has been a year or two ago. Works fine and I use it almost every day. I have Adobe Illustrator also but Corel works better for me. I have used Corel and Photoshop for a long time and just recently acquired AI.

 

[dv8_fx]

Both will do. This will take a bit of adjustment in the Drawing Scale configuration. Depending on the version you're installing, in the Ruler Options.



Take note - your drawings or images should be "to scale" or adjusted in size to the appropriate scale ( eg 1"=1") . If not, the CorelDraw scale will be inaccurate.

Without knowing what your image/drawing sizes are, I can only guess..... you may have to do a trial and error in the scale adjustments as well as resizing the images in the corel document to get what you need.

 

[Planeschemer]

It is unfortunate that with all of the Adobe programs available they don't have anything to make this feature easy... Looks like I will be spending a little time trying to beat the learning curve of CorelDraw.