Glyph

Measure and Annotate

A mask review is full of small questions with exact answers: how far apart are these two features, what angle does this corner make, how wide is this gap, what's the radius of that fillet? Glyph's Measure tool answers all four without leaving the canvas, and — the part that makes it more than a ruler — lets you pin any reading as a persistent dimension that stays on the drawing, survives a save, and never once appears in an exported file.

This guide starts by building a tiny scene with the Box and Circle tools, then works through every Measure mode against it: a live distance drag, angle by three clicks, gap and radius by two, then selecting one pinned dimension to delete it and clearing the rest in one step.

Time: ~10 min

You'll need: Glyph open on a blank document. Nothing to download, no file to load.

One orientation note before you start: the tabbed panel with Layers / Cells / Objects / Results sits on the right-hand side of the window, underneath Properties — the Box/Circle tools' size-and-position fields and the Measure tool's mode picker and pinned-dimension list all live in that same Properties area. By the end of step 3 you'll have built the scene every later step measures: two 20×10 µm bars on the default Layer 1, with their facing edges exactly 25 µm apart, and a circle further to the right with a 10 µm radius. Every number below is exact, so you can check Glyph's own readout against it as you go.

  1. Draw the first bar with the Box tool, then dial in its exact size. Press B (or click the Box icon in the toolbar's Draw group) to arm the Box tool, then drag out a rough rectangle anywhere on the canvas — its size and position don't matter yet, because you're about to override both. Glyph selects what you just drew and drops you back to Select, the same one-shot-then-revert behaviour every draw tool has. In the Properties panel, click Center next to Anchor so X/Y address the shape's centre rather than a corner — it stays picked for the rest of this guide. (W and H resize the shape about its centre — the Anchor choice only changes what X and Y mean. With Anchor on Corner, type W and H before X and Y (resizing about the centre moves the corner, so a later size edit would shift the position you just typed); with Anchor on Center, the order doesn't matter, which is why every field below goes in the same X, Y, W, H order.) Each field is labelled in µm but wants only the bare number — type -40, not -40 µm — into X, 0 into Y, 20 into W, and 10 into H, each confirmed with Enter. The bar is now centred at (-40, 0) µm, 20 µm wide and 10 µm tall — its right edge lands at exactly -30 µm.

    Glyph's Properties panel showing one boundary shape selected with Anchor set to Center, X -40.00 micrometres, Y 0.00 micrometres, W 20.00 micrometres and H 10.00 micrometres, with the resulting hatched orange bar visible on the canvas at the left.

  2. Draw the second bar the same way, 25 µm clear of the first. Press B again, drag out another rough box further right, then set X to 5, Y to 0, W to 20, and H to 10. This bar is centred at (5, 0) µm, so its left edge lands at exactly -5 µm — 25 µm from the first bar's right edge, the gap every later step in this guide measures.

    Glyph's Properties panel with the second bar selected, X 5.00 micrometres, Y 0.00 micrometres, W 20.00 micrometres and H 10.00 micrometres, and the canvas now showing two hatched orange bars with a visible gap between them.

  3. Draw the circle with the Circle tool, then set its position and diameter numerically. Press C, then drag from roughly its centre outward to define a rough radius — again, the exact drag doesn't matter. Once it's placed and selected, a circle turns out to expose the same generic fields as any other shape: there's no dedicated radius box. Set X to 60, Y to 0, and both W and H to 20 — a circle's bounding box is its diameter in both axes, so a 20 µm square bbox centred at (60, 0) µm makes a clean 10 µm-radius circle.

    Glyph's Properties panel with the circle selected, X 60.00 micrometres, Y 0.00 micrometres, W 20.00 micrometres and H 20.00 micrometres, and the canvas now showing two bars and a circle, all on Layer 1.

  4. Press M to arm the Measure tool. The Properties panel switches from shape properties to a Measure section: four mode buttons — Distance, Angle, Gap, Radius — with Distance highlighted by default, a one-line hint under them, and a Dimensions in this cell count that starts at 0 with a "None yet" placeholder. In the toolbar's Draw group, the highlighted Measure (ruler) icon is the Measure tool M just armed. The Magnet icon lit up right next to it is unrelated — that's Snap to grid, already on by default — not a second route into Measure; M is the only way in.

    Glyph's Properties panel with the Measure tool armed: Distance mode highlighted in orange, a hint reading Drag between two points, and Dimensions in this cell reading 0 with a None yet placeholder, over a canvas showing two hatched orange bars and a circle on the default Layer 1.

  5. Drag between the two bars for a live readout. Starting on the left bar's right edge, drag to the right bar's left edge. As you drag, an amber line follows the cursor on the canvas and the status bar tracks the distance live, appearing right next to the shape count — not the far-right corner, which holds the ORTHO/POLAR/H badges. Release on the second edge: the status bar reads 25.00 µm, matching the 25 µm gap the scene was built with. (Grid snap is on by default — the magnet icon from the last step — and every coordinate in this scene is a round micrometre value, so a drag anywhere close to the bar's edge rounds to it exactly; you don't need pixel-perfect aim for the readings in this guide to come out exact.) One more thing worth knowing before the next step: a measurement doesn't select anything, so the Properties panel doesn't stay on the Measure section either — it quietly reverts to whatever shape was last selected (here, the circle from step 3, with its own X/Y/W/H fields). Step 6 brings the Measure section back by pressing M again.

    The Glyph canvas after dragging from the left bar's right edge to the right bar's left edge: an amber 25.00 micrometre distance line between the two bars, the toolbar's active-tool label reading Select, and the status bar reading 25.00 micrometres in amber next to the shape count.

  6. Press M again, then Enter, to pin it. Like every other draw tool in Glyph, a completed measure drag drops you back to Select — that's the toolbar's active-tool label you can see change in the previous shot. The reading itself survives the switch, so pressing M re-arms the Measure tool without losing it, and Enter pins the current distance into the document as a persistent dimension. Dimensions in this cell goes from 0 to 1, with a row reading distance 25.00 µm. Pinned dimensions are a draw-only aid: they save with the document and reload with it, but every export format skips them, the same way it skips construction shapes. One quirk to expect on the canvas itself: the amber line and number you were just dragging are still drawn there too — that's the tool's own live readout, a separate, transient thing from the dimension you just pinned, and it stays on screen until you leave the Measure tool entirely (only switching tools clears it — changing mode does not). The next step clears it along the way.

    A crop of Glyph's Properties panel measure section after pressing M and Enter: Distance mode still active, Dimensions in this cell reading 1, and a row reading distance 25.00 micrometres.

  7. Clear the leftover readout, then switch to Angle mode. Press V to switch to Select — this is what actually clears the live readout from step 5, since only a tool switch does that, not Escape — then M to re-arm Measure, and click Angle in the mode picker. Its hint changes to Three clicks: vertex, then each ray — angle measurement is click-based, not a drag, so it never starts a distance rubber-band by accident. The mode you pick here stays until you change it again; earlier versions of this tool reset to Distance after every use, which meant three angles cost three trips back to a menu.

    The Measure mode picker with Angle now highlighted in orange and its hint reading Three clicks: vertex, then each ray, above the Dimensions in this cell list still showing the pinned 25.00 micrometre distance.

  8. Click three points to measure an angle. Click the left bar's bottom-left corner (the vertex), then a point straight up along its left edge, then a point straight right along its bottom edge. The third click pins the dimension immediately — no Enter needed, since a click-collected measurement has nothing left to confirm. Because the two rays run exactly along the bar's own edges, the reading is a clean 90.0°, and Dimensions in this cell reads 2. On the canvas, a short arc appears right at that corner with the 90.0° label offset up and toward the interior of the angle — the rays themselves trace exactly along the bar's own outline, so only the arc and the label stand out from it. At the zoom level this scene is framed at, that arc and label are small — here's the whole scene, then the same corner zoomed in:

    The Glyph canvas showing a pinned 90 degree angle dimension drawn at the left bar's bottom-left corner, with the amber 25.00 micrometre distance line still visible between the two bars and Dimensions in this cell reading 2 in the Properties panel.A zoomed-in view of the left bar's bottom-left corner: a short amber arc between the vertical left edge and the horizontal bottom edge, with a 90.0 degree label beside it, both easy to miss in the wide shot above.

  9. Know the other way in: Verify → Measure angle. You don't have to click through the mode picker at all — this menu command arms the Measure tool and switches straight to Angle mode in one click, which is handy if you're already deep in the Verify menu checking violations. Verify → Clear dimensions, used later in this guide, lives right below it. Press Esc to close this dropdown without picking anything — the next step continues in Gap mode, not through this menu.

    Glyph's Verify menu open, listing Design rules…, Run design-rule check, Violations: none, Next violation, Clear violations, Place alignment marks…, Check mark alignment…, Measure angle (3 clicks) and Clear dimensions.

  10. Switch to Gap mode and click the two facing edges, a little higher up. Gap is a two-click measurement, meant for exactly this: the clearance between two features, read directly off their edges rather than typed in from a ruler. Click a point near the top of the left bar's right edge, then the matching point near the top of the right bar's left edge — deliberately not the same height as your Distance drag in step 5, so this pin's label doesn't land on top of the one already there. The pin appears at once, labelled gap 25.00 µm rather than a plain distance, so a clearance reading is never mistaken for an arbitrary measurement when you're checking it against a DRC minimum spacing. Dimensions in this cell reads 3.

    The Glyph canvas with a Gap dimension now pinned between the two bars' facing edges reading gap 25.00 micrometres, its label sitting on its own line just above the earlier pinned distance dimension's 25.00 micrometre label with clear space between the two, and Dimensions in this cell reading 3.

  11. Switch to Radius mode and click the circle. Radius is also two clicks: the arc's centre first, then any point on the arc itself. The circle's centre sits right on the x-axis, at 60 µm — grid snap lands you on it exactly, so an approximate click near the middle of the circle is enough. Click there, then a point on its rightmost edge. The pin reads R 10.00 µm, matching the circle's actual radius, and Dimensions in this cell reads 4 — all four modes now represented in the list.

    The Glyph canvas with a Radius dimension pinned on the circle reading R 10.00 micrometres, drawn from its centre to a point on its edge, with Dimensions in this cell reading 4 in the Properties panel.

  12. Click a row in the list to select it. Every pinned dimension is listed under Dimensions in this cell with its kind and reading. Click the angle row: it highlights, and a trash icon fades in on that row — hover it and it turns red, confirming which dimension you're about to delete before you click.

    The Dimensions in this cell list in Glyph's Properties panel with the Angle row highlighted after being clicked, showing all four pinned dimensions — Distance 25.00 micrometres, Angle 90.0 degrees, Gap 25.00 micrometres and Radius 10.00 micrometres — and a red delete icon hovered on the selected Angle row.

  13. Click the trash icon to delete it. Only the angle dimension goes; the other three stay put and Dimensions in this cell drops from 4 to 3. This is how you clean up a single stray measurement without disturbing the rest.

    The Dimensions in this cell list after deleting the angle dimension: Dimensions in this cell now reads 3, with rows for Distance 25.00 micrometres, Gap 25.00 micrometres and Radius 10.00 micrometres remaining and no row left in a hovered state.

  14. Verify → Clear dimensions removes everything else in one step. Unlike the trash icon, this clears every dimension left in the active cell as a single undo entry — the fast path once you're done reviewing and don't want to click three separate trash icons. Dimensions in this cell reads 0 again, and the "None yet" placeholder is back.

    The Measure section after Verify → Clear dimensions: Dimensions in this cell reads 0 and the panel shows the None yet — pin one with Enter after a measure drag placeholder again.

What you built

Two 20×10 µm bars 25 µm apart and a 10 µm-radius circle, drawn with the Box and Circle tools and placed exactly with typed Properties-panel fields rather than eyeballed drags — then a working tour of all four Measure modes against that scene: a 25.00 µm distance pinned with a drag and Enter, a 90.0° angle pinned with three clicks (reachable two ways — the mode picker or Verify → Measure angle), a gap 25.00 µm reading between two facing edges, and an R 10.00 µm radius off the circle. You also saw both ends of dimension housekeeping: deleting one from its row, and clearing everything left with Verify → Clear dimensions. Any of these four readings would have exported to nothing — GDS, SVG, every writer in Glyph iterates a cell's shapes, and a Dimension isn't one.

Next steps

Read Measuring for the full reference on all four modes and how pinned dimensions behave across undo, tabs and autosave. If you're chasing a spacing number for fabrication rather than just checking it by eye, Design rule check runs the same kind of measurement automatically across an entire layer. Every shortcut used above — M, B, C and V included — is listed in Keyboard shortcuts. Then open the editor and measure something real.

Updated 2026-08-25

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