Measure Relative

Imagine you have a garden. On the edge of the grass you want to place rocks. The rocks vary in size. Before making the garden you want to make to draw it. With AutoCAD's measure command you can place blocks on a linear entity with a regular distance between each other. That would be useful if your rocks had the same size. With 'Measure Relative' you can select several blocks and assign a specific distance to that block. The best result is achieved when the block's insertion point is in the centre of the block so the block is symmetrical. The command will ask you to select blocks and to specify a distance for each block. That distance can best be considered as part of the actually used distance. Let's say you have rocks in three different sizes;
- R1 with a radius of 3
- R2 with a radius of 4
- R3 with a radius of 5
By default the command will place the blocks rhythmically in the order you chose them. The distance between the blocks is defined by the distance assigned to those blocks. The distance between blocks R1 and R2 would be 3 + 4 = 7. The distance between blocks R1 and R3 would be 3 + 5 = 8. In other words, the command considers the size of the blocks so every blocks has enough space.
You can also use the random method. In that case the command will use the blocks you selected and will place them in a random order. With the placement option you can decide how the blocks are placed on the linear entities; from the start or around the mid with equal space left at both ends. With the start distance and clear distance options you can determine the starting point or how much space should at least be left at both sides. The blocks are aligned to the linear entity and grouped by default.