Measuring app?

[juan45215]

Does anyone know of an android app that can measure signs? I want to be able to measure pole and wall signs without climbing a ladder. Does not have to be a perfect measurement, just close enough to proved a quote.

 

[Dale D]

Theres nothing automatic. You could try a laser distance tape but that may not work all the time. Depending on the situation, you have to bounce the laser off an object to get a good measurement.

Measure ground up to bottom of sign for a measurement. Bring image into pc, scale it to match the height. As long as fish eye isnt too bad, it should be close dimensions on sign.
I use Photo Measures app on the playstore.

Sometimes its better to spend the few extra minutes to get the exact measurements the first time. If you get the job, you wont have to go back out a second time which I did before while replacing acrylic faces.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Phones are horrible at measuring.. like the Spike tool. Measure from the pole to the bottom edge of the cabinet on the ground, looking up and stopping right when you see the edge of the cabinet. Times that by two and there is your width. Take a straight on photo and scale it on the computer to get height.

 

[gnubler]

I bought one of those laser distance measuring tools. It was worthless, I returned it within a week.

Like the others said, take one measurement of something - distance between poles, window dimensions, even ridge to ridge on a corrugated building, etc - then take a straight-on shot and scale it in your software.

 

[bob]

Place an object of known dimensions, like a rectangle of plywood or foam core, or whatever, the larger the better, standing up against the pole or wall. Take a picture of the sign, the wall or pole,and your reference rectangle. Try to shoot the picture as straight on as possible as well as from the ground to the top of the sign. Import the picture into whatever whatever you're using [Flexi, Adobe, Corel, whatever]. Outline the reference object as accurately as you can. Map the photo into the outline object you drew. Manipulate the outline object into a rectangle of exactly the size of the reference object. Unmap the photo and you will have a full-scale picture of the sign and wall/pole. Take your measurements from that.

 

[netsol]

the bosch isn't worthless. it does a great job of calculating height & distance
it can't have enough information to calculate much of anything else

 

[Bobby H]

Depending on the project, like if you're replacing the faces in an existing sign cabinet, there is no substitute for actually measuring the sign cabinet (along with measuring the retainers, seeing what type of retainers are used, types of lamps and power supplies inside the cabinet, etc). We have a Spike tool hooked up to an iPad. It works okay for getting rough measurements of something like the side of a building or getting ballpark measurements of a tall existing sign. The results are never spot-on compared to an actual measurement of the same object. The Spike tool is good enough for putting together a quick bid on something. It shouldn't be used for situations where exact measurements are critical.

 

[balstestrat]

I bought one of those laser distance measuring tools. It was worthless, I returned it within a week.

Like the others said, take one measurement of something - distance between poles, window dimensions, even ridge to ridge on a corrugated building, etc - then take a straight-on shot and scale it in your software.

What the heck did you buy? It's a really great tool.

 

[Dasdesignguy]

You could use a banana for scale.

 

[AndersHerp]

If you have a straight on view of the sign in a picture, and at least one actual measurement, you can scale signs pretty close to accurate. At minimum, I've always gone with the rule of thumb that an average doorway is 7ft tall. These are never final measurements that I get, just something to use for estimates, sizing in artwork, or measurements you need for permitting. We always survey a location for exact measurements for production, the majority of the time I am within a foot.

 

[brdesign]

I use an android app called ImageMeter Pro. You can use it to draw your actual measurements over a photo or can enter a couple of actual measurements and it can estimate the rest. I wouldn't rely on the estimate to produce a sign, but it's usually good enough to make an estimate. Best of all it's only like 5 or 10 dollars, and there is a free version to test it out.