The x and y measurements displayed in Silhouette Studio represent the size of the bounding box rather than the size of the element. When an element is exactly horizontal or vertical, there is no difference. But if a line is at an angle, you must work a bit harder to measure it.

Sometimes you don’t really need the measurement. You can just copy a line, rotate it as needed, and incorporate it into your design. But if you really need a measurement of a sloped line, here is one method:

1. Draw a temporary line (purple) over the line to be measured (blue).
2. Move that line away and use the rotate handle to make it exactly horizontal or vertical.
3. Draw another line (green) just beside that line, exactly matching the length. This second line will have a straight bounding box, so that measurement will be the true one.

The bounding box measurement of the sloped (purple) line is 0.505 inch, but the measurement of the vertical (green) line is 0.611 inch. Delete these temporary lines from your design as soon as you are finished with them. They tend to accumulate and clutter the design area.