Caliper – Measure and Report for Fusion 360 — User Guide

Platform: Windows and macOS.

Caliper measures points, edges, faces, holes and bodies in Autodesk Fusion and writes the values on the design in clear labels that never hide behind the parts or cover each other. Save any value to a table with one click: the table stays the same in every design and after Fusion restarts, and exports to CSV or PDF. Everything happens in one dialog.

Open Caliper · What it measures · On the design · Options · The saved table · Export · Good to know

Open Caliper

In the Design workspace, click Inspect > Caliper, next to Fusion's own Measure. Then click what you want to measure in the design. Click a picked item again to drop it, or click Clear picks to start over. Close ends the command and clears its graphics from the screen; the saved table stays.

Click any number in the dialog to copy it: the number alone, in the unit shown, ready to paste into a spreadsheet, an email or a Fusion dimension.

What it measures

You pick	Caliper shows
A vertex, sketch point or construction point	X, Y and Z
A straight edge or sketch line	Length, with its X, Y and Z parts
A circle	Diameter, radius, circumference and the centre
An arc or fillet edge	Radius, diameter, arc length, angle and the centre
A flat face	Area and perimeter (holes included)
A hole	Diameter, radius, depth and area
A shaft, boss or fillet face	Diameter, radius, length and area
A cone, sphere or torus face	Its angle or radii, and the area
A body (pick mode Bodies)	Volume, area, mass, the size along X, Y and Z, and its stock size: the smallest box it fits in, whatever angle it sits at (length, width, height, longest first). When the body sits at an angle, that box is drawn on the design.
A spot on a face or an edge (pick mode Points)	X, Y and Z of the exact spot you clicked. A second spot gives the distance between them with its X/Y/Z parts; the next click starts again. Both spots may be on the same face. A click on a vertex or a sketch point takes that point.
Two items	The minimum distance, the angle when they have directions, and the X/Y/Z parts. With a hole, circle, arc or sphere: the centre distance and the edge-to-edge minimum and maximum. Two parallel faces: the distance between them, square to both.
Three or more items	The total length of edges, the total area of faces, or the total volume and mass of bodies with the overall size they take up together, with the count

The panel shows every value; the main one is large and highlighted.

On the design

• The current measurement is drawn in teal with its value in bold; its X, Y and Z parts in red, green and blue, as on Fusion's axes.
• Labels keep their size and face you as you orbit, and the parts never hide them. While the view moves they ride along with the model; when it stops they are laid out again.
• When labels would cover each other or a measured point, one moves aside and a thin leader points back to its place.
• A saved measurement stays off the design until you click its eye in the table; then it is drawn in grey with its name, so you can compare it with what you measure now.

Options

Option	What it does
Units, Decimals	mm, cm, m, in or ft, with 0 to 6 decimals. Areas and volumes use the square and the cube of the unit; angles are in degrees; mass is in kg, or lb with in and ft. The first time, Caliper takes the design's own unit. Changing them changes the saved table too.
+ unit	Shows every length, area, volume and mass in a second unit too, under the first one (for example mm and in), with the decimals that keep the same precision. + none turns it off. The labels on the design and the exports keep the first unit.
Holes: Centre, Min, Max	Which distance is the main value when a hole, circle or arc is measured to something: centre to centre, or the nearest or farthest edges.
Pick: Geometry / Bodies / Points	What a click in the design picks: faces, edges, points, sketches and construction geometry; whole bodies; or the exact spot you click on a face or an edge. Changing it clears the picks.
X, Y, Z parts	Draws the X, Y and Z parts of a distance and the size of a body on the design. The panel always lists them.

Caliper remembers these choices.

The saved table

• Save to table adds the current measurement as M1, M2 and so on. The picks and the measurement stay on the design; the button reads Saved as M1 until you pick something else, so nothing is saved twice. Click a name to rename it (Enter to keep, Esc to cancel).
• The eye button shows a saved measurement on the design, or hides it again; saved measurements start hidden. The eye is there for measurements of the open design; a measurement of another design shows that design's name.
• This design / All designs picks the rows the table shows, exports and clears. The table opens on This design.
• Clear table asks before it deletes the rows shown. An empty table starts again at M1.
• The table is one file in your user folder, the same for every design: %APPDATA%\VanThanBK\CaliperMeasureAndReport\measurements.json on Windows and ~/Library/Application Support/VanThanBK/CaliperMeasureAndReport/measurements.json on macOS. Each change is written at once.

A saved measurement keeps its values and its place: it is a record of the design when you saved it and does not follow later changes to the model. Measure again after a change.

Export

• CSV writes one row per measurement: number, name, measurement, value, unit, the other values, what was picked, the design and when it was saved. It opens in Excel with the ², ³ and ° signs intact.
• PDF writes an A4 landscape report of the same rows, with the units and the date, ready to print or send.
• Both export the rows the table shows (This design or All designs), in the units chosen. After an export, Open and Show in folder take you to the file.

Good to know

• Distances and angles between two items come from Fusion's own measuring; Caliper adds the centre, edge-to-edge and X/Y/Z values from the exact geometry.
• A body's mass uses the density of its material.
• Inside an activated component, picks are measured where the component sits in the assembly.
• Caliper never changes the design: it adds nothing to the timeline.
• Caliper is free and has no license. Like the VanThanBK add-ins you pay for, it tells us who uses it: when you open it, at most once a day, it sends your Autodesk user ID and account email to VanThanBK, and nothing else. The answer tells Caliper about a newer version, which the dialog then offers to download. Your designs, picks and measurements are never sent. See the privacy policy.