How to measure dimensions of plots

Ok, I'm probably missing something really basic here. I'm trying to update a map on graph paper (very primitive, I know!). So I'm trying to get the plot dimensions, not just square meters of total area, but how many meters long by how many meters wide, etc. And of course, most plots are not perfectly square or rectangle, so I have to account for that too, and be able to measure it.

The only way I have come up with to do this is to select "edit land", and drag that darned yellow square box around. And it is really easy to make a mistake, and have to start over.

Please tell me there is another way? I hate that yellow box! Is there some setting that would put a 16sqm grid over the land?

Thanks,

Princess Ivory

Hmm.. you could create a grid via prims. I know one that comes as a 10m2, which is a freebie. I've used it when making things like my shop.

I made myself a nice standard size 512m2 'plot' out of prims so I'd know what size to build a house to fit that size lot. Double it up to get a standard 1024. I used 8m2 sized prims (2 across, 4 down) rather than 4m (the size of the yellow selected squares) to save prims, but you could always make one of alternating color (white/black, yellow/blue) 4m2 prims to lay out and use that to measure the lots with. Make them 10-50% transparent and you'll be able to see the property lines right through them for odd sized lots or non-squared areas (like along a road).

Char

I've done this before many times and it's not difficult.
Here's how:
~Make Land boundries Visible.
~Create a white Rod, Dimensions X=.1 Y=.1 Z=10
~Place the First Rod The corner of your Plot with the Smallest X, and y Coordinate numbers.
~Copy the Rod, and move it along either Land Boundry until you reach the next Corner.
~As you Place each Rod record the exact X, and Y coordinates
~repeat until there is a Rod at every corner of your plot.
~Now all you need do is measure the distance between the Rods by Subtracting the lower Coordinate Number on one rod from the higher Number on the next, that gives you Lengths per side.
~Now all you need to do is Transfer the dimensions to a sheet of graph paper and you have your finished map.

If you want more complete instructions for land surveying, contact me in world.

Angel

Or, if you don't want to (or can't) rez a prim, you can just walk the perimeter of the property (Viewing Land Boundaries), noting where you are at each corner, based on the blue text at the top of the screen. The actual position of any corner is always an integer multiple of 4 both in X and Y, so you can readily correct for imprecise walking. Now, with the position of each corner, it's trivial to draw a little map and calculate lengths, areas, etc.

Just call me lazy “lazy” but Ive been in the same situation and just cant believe that there is not an easier way.
Like a measuring tool. Point and click.
21st century UI please!

DK

It would really be helpful if we could toggle a visible grid within our plots, huh? Wouldn't have to be too complex and it'd be a great boon to builders. (Especially us lazy ones!!!)

Rez a prim on all the corner and simply subtract X2 from X1 and/or Y2 from Y1 depending on which axis you're trying to measure against.
If your land has an irregular shape, take one prim as the reference and compute the offset of other prims and you'll have numbers you can just draw against on paper.

Or use the land selection tool with the smallest possible strip in one dimension and divide by 4. If you measure and find that the area along X is 128m² then divide by 4 and you know that that side is 32m long/wide.

(Remember that the smallest strip of land in SL is 4x4 so any dimension of your land will always be a multiple of 4)

a 512 plot is 16 meters by 32 meters. easy to graph on paper 16 little squares by 32 little squares


1023 plot is 32 meter by 32 meters

2048 64x32

4096 64x64


etc etc

i use graphe paper and pad to design all kinds of things that i never build in SL

its pretty easy to measure your land, there are free 'tape' measures at 'tom cat's texture shop' store in the sim Rizzo, kinda near the center of the sim, its in the corner in the builders tool section of the store. its free

I couldn't find that store. Not in the search, and not flying around the sim.

And the plots are not nice neat little plots, they indent in 16 sqm in one spot, stick out 16 sqm somewhere else - and are basically nonstandard sized lots.

All of the solutions offered (thank you everyone!) seem just as complicated or more so, as just using that stupid edit land box and dragging it around.

Wouldn't it be great if, just like toggling off volume (buildings), we could toggle ON a grid overlay on the land. It seems like that is something pretty basic, and i am surprised it is not available. I was really hoping one of you was going to say, "hey, dummy, toggle on your grid!) but no such luck.

Thanks everyone.

Princess Ivory

The whole world is in 4x4 m squares.
Move your camera view via alt cam and look down on the plot.
Go to edit terrain and draw squares, you can count them as you go one way then the other.
Usually a 512 is 8 x 4 (32x16m).
This is the easiest method.

I may be wrong (not unknown) but i was led to belive that if you look at the boundary markings there are indents at regular intervals. If you count these you can find the ratio of lenght to breadth and so work out the dimentions.

4 along one side X 8 along the other + 32. 512 /32 + 16 metres per segment.

i take your point, but rezzing yardsticks is hardly complicated. switch on the property lines and build a footprint out of flat square prims between them. it's a simple, straightforward building exercise. then add up the measurements between your chosen set of coordinates.

when i first joined SL in the spring of 2006, i made a footprint on my irregularly shaped first land and rezzed it in a prefab store to make sure the house I wanted would fit. Typically the prefab creator suddenly appeared and despite my explanation and apology she thought it was a great idea.

Never one to disappoint a princess .... hey, dummy, toggle on your grid!

Seriously though, doesn't wire frame mode show a grid? Not in-world to check it .. and for the life of me can't remember the key combination either!

This maybe a 'dumbed down' way, but simply rez a cube in each corner, note the x,y coordinates of each object, deduct the x coordinates from the highest value, the lowest value, to give you the distance in between on the x plane, do the same on the y plane, move the extreme (highest value boxes) to make the width and length of the plot you want, you can do it manually (bit of a guessing game) or by entering in the values based on your calculation of x+value required in width, and y+value required in depth.

These are all methods that work in theory. But I am trying to map an entire sim, and don't have easy access to some people's property to rezz measuring cubes, sticks, etc.

So I just turn on property lines, and view owners, in the view menu, hover in the sky, and drag those stupid 16sqm edit boxes around. Some of it is obvious, and very easy, but some of those plots.... I have no idea why someone would break them up the way they did!

Thanks for you help, everyone.

Princess Ivory

go to each corner, and record your coordinates (screen, top middle).

also, on the big map, you can click on a point and it will tell you where you clicked.

I offer this up for anyone reading this topic with a similar need to measure stuff:

For each rectangular piece, rez a cube in one corner, snug up to the lines, and another in the opposite corner of the plot/rectangle.

fly up and look down (or use your cam-fu) to get a view of the whole plot.
Edit one cube.
Shift Select the other cube.
Hold CTRL-SHIFT (stretch/scale mode I think, I can never remember which keys I press, just where my fingers go! ) and the "selected group size" will be displayed at teh top of the screen as if it were all one big object. That size X,Y will match the land size.

I've seen neighbors (land rental bot types) using laser measures and such so there are objects in world for doing these things that people have made.

It would be trivial to create a simple script for 'surveying' where you could drop several instances of an object then have them report back the differences in their coords. If this continues to be a hassle feel free to IM me in world and I'll whip something up. Should be able to do something that works like the following veryyy simply.

1. drop instance of object at one corner, rename it "Corner 1", drop instance of object at another corner, rename it "Corner 2,.. ditto 3, 4.

2. tell them all to report via a shout on a given channel

3. they would then all message you with messages like:
>Corner 1: 50 meters away from Corner 2 in X
>Corner 1: 50 meters away from Corner 2 in Y

Does that sound useful?

I have developed my own tools for this work Princess, simply because i could not find them.

If you would like to use them, and if you need any parcelling advice at all, just give me an IM in world. There are lots of little tricks to surveying/parcelling.

Rock

Coincidentally, there's been related discussion recently in the Scripting Tips forum about how a script might reliably detect and move around the boundaries of a parcel. It seems that there's not enough information available to scripts to automatically do this reliably for every condition (neighboring parcels that are identically-sized, -owned, -named, -described, -prim-populated,...), and certain hostile parcel settings (e.g., no-object-entry, no-script) further reduce the information available to in-world scripts. To solve the problem completely would appear to require something a bit like the dreaded landbots.