I have to start preparing drawings joining a number of points with a polyline representing a flexible pipework system joining up a number of heads on a scale drawingI guess SPLINE is the most appropriate way of doing this and seems to work although I have always struggled to draw one that isnt closedWhat I need to do is measure the length of the 'pipework' system or spline lengthLooking at properties it prepares the area under the shape created which I am sure is useful for some thingsAny ideas how I get the length of a spline once drawnThanksPS - any idea when F8 to get ortho on a drawing might come back?

F8=Orthomode hasn't gone anywhere.The length of a spline is returned when you issue the LIST command then select the spline. 
John Connor2018-03-12 12:01:29

For a while if I used F8 the drawing would freeze and I had to select the icon from the menu bar at the bottom of the screen- just tried it and it is backThere was some discussion on here about it at the timeGreat thanks

Are you current with the latest service pack?I have not heard or read anything about the F8 key locking up AutoCAD.

If you want to draw the length at the Spline [or other object(s) with linearity] as a piece of Text, >>here<< is a thread with some routines to do that.  The older ones put the Text at the start of each object; my newer one at Post 26 puts it at the midpoint.
 > "...I have always struggled to draw one that isnt closed." Read about the Spline command in Help.  Are you using the Close option to end the command, thinking that "closing" means completing the command, rather than taking the Spline back to Close to the starting end?  Just hit Enter instead to end the command without Closing back to the start.Kent Cooper2018-03-12 14:59:05