How to Change Units and SHOW DIMENSIONS in Blender

In this video, we’re going to talk about how to set up units and show measurements of objects inside of Blender. This will allow you to see both lengths of edges, as well as areas of faces inside your Blender models!

To start off, you can set the units that you’re using inside of your models by going into your scene properties settings, then selecting the units drop down. This will allow you to set different units for rotation, length, mass, and time. Note that you can switch between imperial and metric here as well.

At the moment, the imperial comes in at decimal inches. I don’t believe there’s currently a way to show fractional inches.

Now, let’s talk about a way to actually see the dimensions of your objects on your screen. This can be very helpful if you’re doing any kind of precision modeling.

Under the viewport overlays dropdown, there’s an option for edge length. This option, when enabled, causes Blender to show the length of any edge that’s selected. This works either for length between 2 selected vertices, selected edges, or it will also show the length of all edges on a selected face.

Notice that these will live update if you make a change as well.

There’s also an option to show face area – this option will show the area of any selected face in your model.

At the moment, I haven’t been able to locate a way to change the font/text size of this overlay.

[TheCGEssentials]

Hi everyone! Let me know if you have any questions about this video in the comments below! :)

[geromemariette]

Really helpful it helped me see that since this version of Blender they moved it into another section right next to the Overlays, it's called Mesh edit mode

[hibryd]

IMPORTANT ADDENEM TO GET ACCURATE MEASUREMENTS: IF YOU CHANGE THE DIMENSIONS OF AN OBJECT IN OBJECT MODE, USE OBJECT > APPLY > SCALE (CTRL+A > SCALE) BEFORE MAKING CHANGES IN EDIT MODE. Counterintuitively, changing the dimensions of an object in object mode via the Transform dropdown (TFDD) changes the _scale_ of the object, not the "actual" dimensions that the object appears to be. Here is a quick example:

Set the default units to be inches. Make a plane mesh; the default size should be 24in x 24in.
Use the TFDD to change the X dimension to 60 in. The mesh now looks like it's 60in x 24in.
Go into Edit mode and turn on Measurements > Edge Length. Despite looking like it's 60in x 24in, and the TFDD saying it's 60in x 24in, *each edge of the plane will read 24in.*

If you return to object mode, notice that in the TFDD, the X scale is 2.5. Setting dimensions via the TFDD just changes the scaling to "meet" that dimensional change. If you apply the scale, it "bakes" the scaling into the object so it's now natively at 1.0 again. After you apply the scale, if you return to edit mode, the edge measurements should now read correctly as 60in x 24in. I feel like this is an oversight in design by Blender, and hopefully they'll tweak it; the transform dropdown dimensions read 60in x 24in regardless of whether they've been scaled to that size or whether they're "actually" that size. If they don't want to change that, they should at least factor scaling into the edit mode measurements.

Either way, thank you so much for posting this video. I'm trying to make a scaled model of my house for some projects and was going half-crazy trying to get any kind of meaningful measurement to show up in edit mode...was about to just block everything out in primitives and join them together, lol. Your video on archipack saved me a bunch of legwork for this project, too.

[ph]

in 4.0+ it located under edit on the top bar menu, mesh edit mode overlay, under measurements. highlight your model it will show you each measurements.

[masque]

Ur my freakin hero bud. Just started modeling and videos like this are a godsend man.

[Woodythehobo]

very useful, works in Blender 2.8 thanks man. Select object > TAB to edit mode > Overlays dropdown (two circles icon topright) > Edge length (bottom of dropdown under Measurement).

[roseannarabia]

OMG! Thank you so much!!! This is what has been preventing me from doing any real modeling in Blender. I knew how to change the units, but it wasn't helpful because it wasn't showing me the measurements on screen as I was building so I had given up for the longest time. 10 years of wanting to work in Blender suddenly hitting me in the head like a tsunami of ideas. :D

[raosam]

Hi Justin. Love your tutes. Explain concepts simply clearly, and the best part, don't race through as though the viewer was a super expert (in which case why would one be watching the tute anyway !!!!)

[MikeyAce]

👍Thank you for all the tutorials. Another tip would be to enable the Separate Units option under the Units menu. Now if you set the length to Feet you will get Feet and Inches at the same time when you’re in Imperial mode.

[Wheeelie]

I paused a CG Essentials video (regarding RDBLab 1.3) when I noticed your settings were in Imperial. A quick search yielded this exact video and (of course!) even more useful information that will certainly make my Blender time more enjoyable yet optimized. Thanks!

[gunderalex]

Definitely useful, especially as more people (such as myself) start using Blender for 3D printing. Thanks!

[dadosaocubo]

I haven't used blender for a long time and I still haven't gotten used to the new interface, thank you!

[omjeeo]

Thank you! I'm so used to engineering programs, and it was killing me not being able to design with dimensions.

[HikikomoriDev]

Very powerful. Specially for making furniture for spaces in the Metaverse where you want to make things that don't have akward dimensions.

[jeppeolander]

That was my missing link between fusion 360 and blender I missed. This gives me a constant view of my mechanical models. I believe this is a very beneficial function. Thanks

[geor]

Your tutorials are great, clean and well paced.

I'm using Blender 3.1

When I follow on with you and highlight an object, then go to Viewport Overlay (top right hand corner drop down menu) as described around 1:50 the measurement options simply doesn't exist in version 3.1 or least for my out of the box setup.

To my point, one of the constant problems I encounter with Blender is that it "seems" like the menu items keep getting changed and moved around with the different versions. Maybe its a case of they are there but the context for my setup might be different to yours (?) and Blender changes the menu items available accordingly (?) Just guessing here.

The net effect is, it makes the package so much more difficult to learn.

Keep up the great work - your tutorials are very much appreciated.

[zuntaras]

Thanks. Love the vids. Found out it is really important to apply the scale before you do this. LOL Made a rectangular box and was getting the edge lengths for the original cube I started with. Couple of minutes of me being confused and yelling "That's clearly a rectangle NOT a square Blender!" before I figured it out. My Bad. 😊 Works great now, handy as heck.

[Djantir]

Thank you so much! I wasn't even aware seeing the units live like that was even an option! This is going to be super useful for me, as I've been focusing on building vehicle models, and it's nice to get that accuracy while I'm working on it.

[JonneytheKidd]

Very, very good video. Very helpful. My only problem, is that measurement is not even listed in the viewport overlay panel.

[operagirl]

I find this extreemly useful. Thank you for your many useful tips!