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The Height Gauge is a flat profile with a sloping top edge and a graduated height scale. The top edge rises in a straight line from the lower of the two heights at its left end to the higher one at its right end, and tick marks and number labels along it give the height of the edge at each point. Slide the gauge into a gap until the sloping edge touches, and read the height off the scale.

It appears in the shapes library under Tools and Other Shapes.

Shape and insert point

The insert point is the bottom left corner. The bottom edge runs along +X from it, and the outline is built left to right:

1.up the left end to the lower of the two heights

2.a flat 10 mm step at that height

3.the sloping edge, rising over the Length to the higher of the two heights

4.a flat 20 mm step at the higher height

5.down the right end and back along the bottom edge

The overall length is therefore Length + 30 mm. The 10 mm and 20 mm steps are fixed in millimetres and do not change with Length or with the display units.

The gauge always rises from left to right. If Start Height is greater than End Height the two are swapped when the shape is built, so the low end is still on the left. The Start Height dimension is still drawn at the left end and the End Height dimension at the right, so enter the lower height as Start Height to keep the dimensions matching the part. To make a gauge that rises right to left, use Mirroring X in the Transform group.

The scale

Mark Spacing is a step in height, not a distance along the gauge. The number of steps is the height difference divided by Mark Spacing, rounded to the nearest whole number, and the marks are spaced evenly along the sloping edge. The real step is therefore the height difference divided by that whole number, which can differ slightly from the Mark Spacing entered.

•Every mark is a vertical line from half the lower height up to the sloping edge. There is a mark at each end of the slope.

•Every Text Marks-th mark, starting with the first, is drawn the full height from the bottom edge and has a label: the height of the sloping edge at that mark, in the current display units, with Decimal Places decimals.

•Labels are horizontal text, Font Size high. Each label is placed with its anchor point at the position of its mark, 2 mm above the bottom edge.

Properties

Defaults depend on the default units: the value in brackets is used when the default units are inches. Minimums are fixed in millimetres. The dimensions shown on the shape are Start Height, End Height and Length.

Notes

•Decimal Places defaults to 0 in both unit systems. With the default 1 mm label step in millimetres that reads correctly, but with the inch defaults (labels every 0.1 in) the labels round to whole inches. Set Decimal Places to 1 or 2 when working in inches, or whenever the label step is less than one display unit.

•If the step count rounds to zero – Start Height equal to End Height, or Mark Spacing at least twice the height difference – the mark loop divides by that zero count. The code catches the exception, so the outline is kept, no marks or labels are drawn, and the property page shows the warning "Warning: Cannot build shape from these parameters".

•A small Mark Spacing over a large height difference gives a very large number of marks. Keep the step count sensible for the size of the gauge and the cutting or marking process.

Every 2D shape also has the Transform properties (Base X, Base Y, Rotation, Scale, Mirroring X) and the Polar Array properties, listed after the shape's own properties.