A ruler object

Hi all,

Last night I spent several hours creating a drawing to represent the
pool lighting wiring in my back yard. Creating it depended on using
about a dozen measurements from the yard. Most of the measurements were
neither up and down nor sideways, but were instead at undefined angles
(the angles would later be defined by the measurements, if I wanted to
do the trig).

About halfway through the project I created a ruler, representing 8
feet, to measure such things. It worked pretty well. I could rotate it
with the little rotate handles, and could adjust the axis of rotation
with the tiny x that by default is in the middle.

The ruler was constructed from a thick line, with nine thin lines
equally distanced across it: Each end had its line, so that it
represented 8 feet. Up the right side I had small numerals 0 through 8,
while on the left side I had numerals 8 through 0. Like I say, it
worked well.

It would take a lot of work, but the Inkscape developers could make it
much easier by creating a ruler tool. As I envision it, the ruler
tool would have a way to define crosshair/numeral spacing, and would
automatically number both sides as I described. Lengthening the ruler
wouldn't widen the spacing, it would just create more
crosshairs/numerals. It would act kind of like a tape measure. 

Perhaps you can right click somewhere and choose "tape measure", then
left click where you want the other end. You can left click either end
to change its position. You can right click either end and choose
"Leave construction mark", and it will place a thin, eraseable X there.
Right clicking anywhere on the tape measure bestows an additional
choice called "Scale tape measure", which brings up a dialog box
showing how many centimeters, millimeters, inches etc, represents how
many meters, feet, etc, and changes the spacing, which is sticky
with respect to the drawing so you don't have to keep doing it, and if
you alternate between two drawings, you don't have to keep changing it.


-- 
SteveT

Steve Litt
November 2019 featured book: Manager's Guide to Technical
Troubleshooting Second edition
http://www.troubleshooters.com/mgr