Using Chief for a yardstick

[Rich_Winsor]

So you’re measuring an as built for an addition and there is a large feature

(tree, structure, utility pole etc.) on the lot and you would like to get a good

quesstimate of its size. Here is a quick and easy way using only a stick or

pole of known length and your cell phone:

 

Measure the length of the pole and then stand it up beside the feature you

want to measure.

 

Back up a ways to reduce distortion and take a photo.

 

Import your photo into a Chief plan and measure the length of the pole in the

plan. If the pole is the correct length (run out and buy a Lotto ticket because

it’s your lucky day) but it most likely will measure shorter than its actual length.

Divide the known length of the pole by the measured length in the plan. This

will give you the resize factor you will need to enlarge the photo.

 

Select the photo in the plan and use the Transform/Replicate to enlarge the

photo by the resize factor you calculated.

 

The photo is now to scale and you can pull any dimensions you may want

from the plan.

 

 

In this example we wanted to get a good ballpark figure for the height of some

redwood trees on the property. I had a 17 foot piece of pvc pipe which we stood

up for the photo.

 

[SHCanada2]

if you have some of the more advanced, cheaper, laser measurer, you can stand 20' away, take a horizontal measurement, and point to the top of the tree and take that measurement, and then the device will calculate it for you.

 

...but the above method usually only works at night/dusk when you can see the laser