Alvin -- I was just testing you!
I misspoke.
I had laid in the object
by dragging to the size I wanted. I clicked to start the rectangle, then dragged the other vertex of the rectangle till it "got" to 7 5/8 x 15 5/8. How did I "know: it was the right size? Well, I looked at inspector bar as I was dragging and that it the value shown in that inspector bar.
MY BAD for misstating what I did
, and double MY BAD
for using the "drag to size" for laying in objects.
Here is my write up that I made as you were making your post ....
****************
OK, after further investigations I see that using the drag to size technique is a really really bad idea.
Why? Because what the inspector bar is saying about the "size" of you object as you are laying it in is not really the size of the object.
Try this.
Set up and show a grid with 1/2" spacing of the gridlines. Set the precision to "0" and the units to fractional, then drag, starting at a grid intersection, to make a box or a line. You will see that after you drag to your desired size, you can still drag the object size, and the inspector number will not change until you exceed a value based on the precision setting. You can dink around with moving the cursor and the number stays the same.
A precision of 0 is to the nearest 1/2 inch, which in practice means that if you start a line and start dragging, the inspector value will stay at 0 ..... until you cursor past a length of 1/2", and then, it will jump to saying "1" even though the cursor is actually at 1/2 or 5/8 or 3/4 etc. Check it out .... you can drag that endpoint of your line anywhere in between the "0" gridline and the next gridline (1/2") and that inspector value will not change.
So... if you have your precision set too low and you DRAG to 7 5/8 and then hit enter, although you may think you have just laid in a line 7 5/8" line, you may or may NOT be getting that.Indeed, you likely are NOT getting that length.
The same works for the measurement feature, so if you are measuring something in fractional units then the value that is displayed only is accurate to what your precision setting is set to.
Try it . Set up a grid where the lines are at 1/2" apart. Now, measure the distance between 2 adjacent gridlines and see what it says the distance is. You will find that it "says" the distance is 1......" but you just did a gridpoint to gridpoint of 2 gridlines that are only 1/2" apart.
Bottom line -- ALWAYS type in the value you want. Don't rely on the "Drag to Size" feature ... even if your precision is set to some high value. The only way to lay in a line and have it be the dimension you want, is to type in the value of the length.
That being said, we also have to be careful of using the drag to place method of laying in construction lines parallel to existing lines, because the inspector bar will not show the true position of the new line either. If you want a construction line laid in a 1" offset from an existing line, then type in the distance, do not use the inspector bar value displayed to lay it in.
Addendum: Don't rely on the inspector to give you the true size of a selected object either... unless you are SURE you created the object by typing in the dimensions/sizes, or unless you are sure it was created off of objects created in an exact manner and created by using parallel construction lines that were NOT laid in by dragging.
