this is very basic but i need to check the scale of my drawing and was wondering how to bring up a tape measure tool to measure lengths of any distance; for example the width of a road in a plan
thanks!

In AutoCAD? Try the DIST command.
For any CAD data (DWF) you can use the measure tool in the free application - Autodesk Design Review. See Download.

HI when i draw a polyline with certain width i cannot see the polyline filled even in print it is comming like a rectangle, i mean no fill is there in print and even while seeing in the drawing please somebody help

 
 Check fill mode and lineweight.