How to measure heights in 3D

Measuring heights in 3D can be used to determine the heights of your 3D features such as buildings. Also, vertical height measurements can be extremely useful for performing simple analysis above and below the surface, such as measuring the vertical distance between two points in 3D.

To measure heights, you can use the Measure Height tool on the Measure dialog box. Measuring heights in 3D can be thought of as measuring using an upright ruler where you can drag the measure in a positive or negative direction.

Steps:

1. Click the Measure button on the Tools toolbar.
2. Click the Measure Height button .
3. Click at the location where you want to measure height in 3D.
4. Move the pointer up or down to measure height (or depth) in 3D.
Moving the pointer sideways widens the reference circle at the end of the line to assist identifying the top of the 3D height measurement.
The height is displayed on the Measure window.
5. Double-click to finish the sketch.
6. Optionally, while measuring, if you want to navigate around to see the measurement from a different perspective view, you can either:
   • Press the ESC key once. This pauses the measure sketch. You can then press and hold SPACE to navigate in the globe. This can be useful after you are done measuring and want to define the view differently—for example, taking a screen capture. If you are in the middle of your sketch, press TAB to resume the measure from where you left off.
   • Press and hold SPACE without pausing the graphic and dynamically begin to navigate and modify the view's perspective. You can zoom in/out, pan, and tilt as you would with the Navigate tool. When you release SPACE your sketch will resume wherever your pointer is, so your results may not be as expected or as controlled as if you had paused the sketch first.