What you describe is closer to how the rulers work in autodesk sketch, what I want is how the rulers are selectable and can interact with the objects in the artboard, like it happens with Illustrator (and in some level inDesign too). Literally 'using rulers like objects' sounds like something I could do by actually drawing a set of rulers to accurate scale, storing them as Symbols, positioning, aligning, locking them on the page, and snapping to the nodes of their increments. (The closest software approximation I've seen to that is Lazy Nezumi Pro.)īut I'm not quite sure how to envision what you're describing. In my case, I'm comparing to the freely moveable, rotatable 'track drafters' attached to drawing boards commonly found in engineering departments. I've long argued that rulers are one area in which 2D drawing software in general does a very poor job of matching the simple utility and efficiency of the pre-computer physical tools they metaphorically emulate.

Can you show a screenshot or two of what you're describing, and the names of the software?