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Help Center/Layers and tools/Apply layers/Measure distances between layers

Measure distances between layers

You can measure the distance between two objects on the canvas. The objects that can be measured include:

'measure distances 1.png'

Note: You cannot measure the distance between two guides. If you need to measure the distance between two guides, you can click on the first guide and hover the cursor over the second guide. At this point, Motiff will display the positions of the two guides on the coordinate axis and you can calculate the distance between the guides.

Measure distance

  1. 1.Select an object on the canvas.
  2. 2.Hold down the modifier key ⌥ Option / Alt .
  3. 3.Hover the cursor over another object.
  4. 4.Motiff will display the horizontal and vertical distance measurements between the two objects on the canvas.

Measure the distance between nested layers

  1. 1.Select an object on the canvas.
  2. 2.Hold down the modifier keys ⌥ Option + ⌘ Command / Alt + Ctrl .
  3. 3.Hover the cursor over another object within a frame or group.
  4. 4.Motiff will display the horizontal and vertical distance measurements between the two objects on the canvas.

Note: Currently, Motiff does not support changing the weight or color of the measuring lines. If you are using similar or low-contrast colors and want to view the measuring lines, you can temporarily adjust the layer's fill color.

Measure layer boundaries

Motiff can measure the distance between boundaries (i.e., the bounding boxes around layers) of different objects.

You may not be able to measure what you want, such as:

  • Stroke: When you add a stroke to a layer, Motiff will still measure the distance between the layer bounding boxes, not the actual rendered area of the stroke.

Tip: If you want to measure the real boundaries of a layer with an outside or center stroke, you can use the Outline stroke feature. Right-click on the layer and select Outline stroke, or use the shortcuts:

  • macOS: ⇧ Shift + ⌘ Command + O
  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + E
  • Text layer: Motiff can measure the distance between an object and the bounding box of a text layer. If you want to measure the distance from an object to the baseline of the text, you need to adjust the size of the text layer so that its bounding box coincides with the baseline.
  • Polygon and star: If the shape has an odd number of sides, the bounding box of the shape may exceed the actual size of the shape itself.

Tip: If you want to measure the real boundaries of a shape, you can use the Flatten feature. Right-click on the layer and select Flatten or use the shortcuts:

  • macOS: ⌘ Command + E
  • Windows: Ctrl + E

Measure overlapping layers

If you cannot measure certain layers, you can check the layers panel for overlapping layers, such as masks, locked layers, or layers with low-opacity fills.

You can measure hidden layers in the following ways:

  • Hide overlapping layers using the shortcuts:
    • macOS: ⌘ Command + ⇧ Shift + H
    • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + H
  • Hide the fill of overlapping layers.
  • Reorder layers so that they are below the layer you want to measure.