Tool: Scale Bar

Scale Bar draws a horizontal bar to show the length scale of objects in the graphics window. A text label is not included, but can be added with the 2dlabels command. See also: Color Key, making images

The Scale Bar dialog can be opened from the Depiction section of the Tools menu and manipulated like other panels (more...). It is also implemented as the command scalebar.

All settings can be edited interactively:

• Show scalebar – whether to display the scale bar
• Length – scale bar length in physical units of distance (typically Å) based on the pixel-to-length correspondence at the center of rotation. The length in pixels will automatically adjust for changes in zoom. In perspective projection, objects appear progressively larger in the front and smaller in the back; for a constant relationship of pixels to length at all depths, use orthographic projection instead (command camera ortho).
• Color – scale bar color (click the square color well to use the system color editor)
• X and Y – position of the scale bar's lower-left corner expressed in fractional coordinates 0.0-1.0, where 1.0 represents the full width (X) or height (Y) of the graphics window and 1.0,1.0 its top right corner. Alternatively, the scale bar can be repositioned by dragging with the move label mouse mode .
• Thickness (pixels) – scale bar height in pixels

The scale bar is a 2D object (no depth, cannot be moved forward/backward) and is simply drawn on top of the view, like 2D labels. It is created as a 2D labels submodel that can be controlled with the Model Panel and general commands such as close and show/hide.