Measuring Thick Trees Just Got Easy — the New Digital Tape Measure in Arboreal Tree

Diameter, circumference, and cross-sectional area on the biggest trunks — straight from your phone. We're adding a digital tape measure to Arboreal Tree, built specifically for the trees that have always been the hardest to measure.

The thick tree has always been the hard one

Ask any arborist to point out the most awkward tree to measure, and the answer is usually the same: the really thick one. The old giants in the park, the limes along the avenue, the oak in the courtyard that's stood there for a century. The very trees that often matter most — for safety, for care, for heritage — have also been the most time-consuming to get accurate measurements from.

A physical tape barely reaches around the trunk and usually takes two people. And digital measuring has historically worked best on slimmer stems, while the very thickest trees were harder to capture with precision.

That changes now.

A digital tape measure built for big trunks

We're adding a digital tape measure to Arboreal Tree. You wrap the tape around the trunk right in the app and get three values at once:

• Diameter
• Circumference
• Cross-sectional area

Walk around the tree and the digital tape wraps the trunk — the app counts you up to a full 360°.

The feature is built specifically for thick trees — exactly the trunks that were hardest to measure digitally before. The result is faster measurements, more consistent quality, and values you can document and trust, even on the most impressive trees.

It works even without LiDAR

You don't need the latest Pro model to get reliable results. We've built the digital tape measure to work well even on phones without a LiDAR sensor, so the feature is in reach for far more people. Newer hardware does give you an edge — the more recent the phone, the better the results — but you can get going with the phone already in your pocket.

Why it matters in the field

Everything happens with the phone you already carry. No extra equipment, no physical tape, no second person holding the other end. Every measurement is saved, automatically geotagged, and ready to export into your own systems and reports.

For anyone working with trees in urban environments, that means:

• Faster inventories of park, street, and courtyard trees
• Better data for risk assessment, pruning plans, and documentation
• Repeatable, documented values — so the next measurement can be compared with this one

Getting started

The digital tape measure is available in the latest version of Arboreal Tree. Update the app, walk up to a tree — ideally the thickest one you've got — and wrap the tape around the trunk. Diameter, circumference, and cross-sectional area appear right on screen.

Thick trees have always been the hard ones. Now they're easy.

Update Arboreal Tree →