Help Line

A help line is a drawing aid that can be used to create intersections in the drawing area or coordinate grid.

Example: You want to draw a help line from the mid-point of an existing wall. Follow these steps:

1. Select the Help line tool under Drawing Aids on the Tools component tab.
2. Move the cursor to the middle of the wall (it will automatically find the mid-point) and click.
3. In the properties box that appears, enter the desired length and angle of the line.
   
   Press one of your arrow keys to lock the line into a 0, 90, 180, or 270 degree angle.
4. Press Enter on your keyboard or left-click to complete placing the Help line.
5. Once you are finished, hit Esc on your keyboard, or move your cursor outside of the drawing area to escape the command.

Help Point

By placing a help point in the drawing area, you can set a point that other components attach to.

Example: You want to place a help point on a wall, 40″ from one end. Follow these steps:

1. Select the Help point tool under Drawing Aids on the Tools component tab.
2. Move the cursor to the end of the wall (it will automatically find the end point) and click.
3. In the properties box that appears, enter the desired length and angle of the line.
   
   Press one of your arrow keys to lock the line into a 0, 90, 180, or 270 degree angle.
4. Press Enter on your keyboard or left-click to complete placing the Help line.
5. Once you are finished, press Esc on your keyboard, or move your cursor outside of the drawing area to escape the command.
6. You can now attach another wall to this point.

Ruler

The Ruler tool is used as an aid for measuring distances between objects in the drawing area. This tool is an animation that gives you an instant measurement and does not leave any traces in the drawing. If you want to add measurements to your drawing that will show in printouts, use the Dimension tool instead.

To measure the distance between two objects in the drawing area, follow these steps:

1. Select the Ruler tool from the 2D View or 3D View toolbar, or press Ctrl + M on your keyboard.
2. Move the cursor to one of the two points in the drawing area. A blue frame is shown around the object:
   
3. Click and release to set the start point you want to measure from.
4. Move the cursor to the other object. A blue arrow is now attached to the cursor and displays the distance between the first point you placed and the cursor:
   
   Hover over the end you are measuring to and read the distance.
5. Click once to release the arrow from the cursor. Should you wish to continue measuring distances in the drawing area, simply repeat the procedure.
6. Once you are finished, press Esc on your keyboard, or move your cursor outside of the drawing area to escape the command.